Lacrosse Field Setup Guide

Lacrosse is a popular sport, and it keeps gaining new participants every year. If you're in charge of a high school team or youth league, getting the proper lacrosse field setup is an important part of playing games throughout the season. While most lacrosse field dimensions are uniform above a certain age level, when it comes to youth leagues, there are some important changes to the size of the lacrosse pitch to consider.

In our setup guide, we will teach you the dimensions for both men's and women's lacrosse fields, the differences for various age groups and the best equipment to use for your lacrosse field setup.

The Basics of Lacrosse Field Dimensions

Before we get into the different variations of a lacrosse pitch that exist for different levels and categories of the sport, let's go over what the unified lacrosse field dimensions are. In short, the "unified" rules govern a standard lacrosse field size used across both men's and women's lacrosse, as well as youth leagues that use standard team sizes (10 vs. 10) or smaller team variants (7 vs. 7). This was an effort by US Lacrosse and the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) to codify its rules and regulations regarding lacrosse field dimensions across all levels and categories of play. The unified rules for a lacrosse pitch are as follows:

While the width of a lacrosse field is not currently fixed, fields are required to be no less than 53 ⅓ yards wide (used mostly for youth leagues) and no more than 60 yards wide.

What Changes Are Made for Youth Lacrosse Field Dimensions?

While most youth lacrosse leagues will use the unified field version, it is important to note that there are adjustments made for 10u and younger leagues as well as 7-on-7 leagues. These leagues utilize cross-field dimensions that generally allow for multiple lacrosse pitches to exist on one regulation lacrosse field.

Instead of the width being set to 60 yards, the youth lacrosse field is 60 yards long and only 35 yards wide. The goals are placed 40 yards from each other and 10 yards from the end line, with the standard nine-foot radius for the crease. The centerline divides each half of the lacrosse pitch between the goal lines. The goal size can also change depending on the age level: For 10u and younger leagues, the goal is 4' x 4'. For 12y and older, a standard 6' x 6' goal is used.

How Are Women's Lacrosse Field Sizes Different?

Women's lacrosse fields have historically been bigger with a wider range of flexibility than men's lacrosse fields. While men's lacrosse utilizes a lot of safety equipment and contact is part of the sport, women's lacrosse has less safety equipment and larger fields to promote more spacing and less contact between players. Women's lacrosse field dimensions can be either 60 yards or 70 yards wide and the length of their lacrosse field can extend anywhere from 110 yards up to 140 yards with as much as 25 yards of space behind each goal. While most women's lacrosse fields use the unified dimensions these days, larger fields are still common.

Another difference for women's lacrosse fields is that the crease is replaced by a 12-meter fan that extends as a semi-circle from the center of the goal. That semi-circle includes an 8-meter arc inside of it. Inside of that arc is the crease, the goal circle where only the goalie is permitted. The goal circle for a women's lacrosse field has a radius of 8' 6".

Adjustments For The Men's Lacrosse Field

For a men's lacrosse field, there are designated wing areas where midfielders line up during face-offs. There are additional lines on either side of the lacrosse pitch to designate each team's defensive area 10 yards inside the outer boundaries extending from the end line. These boxes also serve as the base area of cross-field dimensions for 10u lacrosse. Other than those minor adjustments, men's lacrosse field dimensions most closely resemble the unified field rules.

What Equipment Do You Need To Line Your Lacrosse Field?

While properly lining a lacrosse pitch can feel intimidating at first, the job becomes much simpler when you use the proper tools. In all, you will need the following field lining equipment to paint your lacrosse field:

Using a ProLine Lacrosse Field Layout System will give you everything you need to outline your lacrosse field dimensions. After your initial layout, all you need to do is stripe the field following the guidelines set by the system. Using an athletic field striper can make the work fast and easy when utilizing the right field marking paint. Other than that, all you really need is a tape measure and a set of lacrosse goals.

Some fields require pegs to denote the corners of the outer boundaries, but these are not always necessary. Colorful cones or brightly colored dowels can be used in place of poles or other permanent markers.