When everyone in your sport flies down the field at top-flight speed, it’s likely players will registers some hardcore checks and collisions. To say lacrosse is a physical sport, is an understatement. Football is a physical sport, soccer is a physical sport; lacrosse is a high-octane, thrill ride where you take the physicality of most contact sports and pit highly-tuned athletes against each other…and give them weapons.
That being said, in order to continue lacrosse’s exponential growth in popularity, the game needs to take care of its players. It’s awful hard to grow a sport where guys are killing each other game in and game out. Protective lacrosse equipment is critical to the game. If highly engineered athletes are going hard at each other, they need to be protected by highly engineered equipment.
Lacrosse pads from top to bottom are critical to players of all shapes, sizes and experience levels.
Shoulder Pads
Lacrosse shoulder pads are probably the most important piece of protective gear for many lacrosse players. Offensive players, attackmen and midfielders get checked the most, and shoulder pads help protect some of your most vitals organs and the muscular-skeletal around them. Dislocated shoulders and broken ribs are not fun and they keep you out of the game for some time. Defenders want to protect themselves, but do most of the checking and would prefer pads that are lightweight and unobtrusive.
Shoulder Pad Liner
While they don’t offer the same protection as full shoulder pads, some players prefer to play or practice with shoulder pad liner. This allows them to move quickly, without the weight of pads on their shoulders. Shoulder pad liners are especially popular when practicing in high heat, as they let air move freely, without trapping your body heat under your gear.
Rib Pads
On the contrary, rib pads are for they players that want more protection than provided by shoulder pads alone. Rib pads serve the aggressive players that don’t shy from contact, protecting the area below shoulder pads. Depending on how they’re constructed, rib pads wrap around your lower torso to protect areas around your kidneys, lower ribs, hips, and side.
