What is lacrosse?

In one of my previous articles Imentioned a sport called lacrosse (lax, 長曲棍球). It is a sport mainly played in the girl'sboarding school community (also in the USand some European countries). It is,otherwise, a rather alien sport to theoutside world. My first exposure to it wasat my school interview, where I had to playlax without even knowing its existence.

As I practised the sport in absolutebafflement ( 困惑), I began to see the funand excitement of it. To give you an idea,lax involves a team of 12, with a wooden(now more commonly plastic) stick,attached to a net on the end for catchingand releasing a hard rubber ball. "Triplethreat" is a technique where the stick isheld over our shoulders and twistedquickly enough to keep the ball in motionwhile we raced down the large field,aiming to shoot it into a small goal. Itbecomes a very vicious ( 劇烈的) sport,always causing injuries, from broken limbsand bruised eyes to torn ligaments ( 韌帶)and concussions (腦震盪). In mixed lacrosseteams at some UK universities, men geteven more competitive and ruthless, makingthis a deadly game.

However, as second House LaxCaptain, and perhaps one of the smallestgoalies in history, I have appreciated thecompetitiveness as well as theheartwarming team spirit brought togetherin matches. We train to win (it doesn'tmatter how talented we really are). Housefinals are full of determined chants andferociousness ( 兇猛)-imagine thescale of tri-wizard tournaments in HarryPotter.

Lax is thrilling, energetic and superblyenjoyable, especially when the team isgeared to the challenge. Not so much,however, when the bright yellow ball hitsme at 200 mph. (D0902)

by Amanda Yu