Exact Answer: 60 Minutes

Sports are one of the best activities, that can be practiced professionally, and also played for leisure and hobbies. Sports bring discipline, maintain the body’s muscle and core strength. While some games are well known and played all over the world, some are not that popular yet played in their native countries. Sports applies to all genders and ages, both abled and differently-abled. While some people play them to pass time, some play games as exercise.

Some, on the other hand, practice sports with perseverance and they even get into the Olympics and win medals for their country. One of the games that are popularly played in America is Lacrosse, which is one of the oldest sports in North America. The game goes back to the 1400s and in the olden days, the game was called “baggataway”. Just like every other sport and game in the world, lacrosse also has its rules.

The total number of players in the game is split into 2 teams. The total duration of the game is an hour, and the match is split up into parts of quarters and halftime.

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How Long Is A Lacrosse Game?

StagesTime
The total duration of the game60 minutes
Quarters15 minutes
Halftime15 minutes

Lacrosse was initially played in North America, where it originated first. A surprising fact is that the game was played by hundreds, even thousands of players, and women and men played the games in the same team together. The goals were miles apart, the rules were different then and these large games will last about two to three days at a time. In the 1800s, the French adopted the game and made a few changes.

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The game of lacrosse is a combination of hockey, soccer, and basketball. The rules remain the same till now, as the french altered. After the 1900s, the popularity of the lacrosse game started growing in modern America. Now, over 25,000 men at more than 400 universities and colleges play lacrosse every year. These programs have received sanctions from the athletic and sports department.

Every year, over a hundred teams are participating in NCAA Division 1, 2, and 3 colleges and universities, who compete for the national championships, all over the world every year. Lacrosse can be played by both men and women, yet women’s lacrosse has some different rules, and the equipment is also different.

Why Is A Lacrosse Game That Long?

Based on the rules, the time for the men’s game is an hour, which is divided into four quarters, and every quarter is 15 minutes. At times when there is a tie at the end of the game, the teams must have a sudden victory to win the game. The teams will play periods of four minutes until the winning goal is scored. In lacrosse, the faceoffs will begin at each period, where the ball is present in the field’s center. When a team commits a penalty even before the faceoff begins, or after the faceoff begins, the ball will be given to the opposite team.

The ball is put in the center of the field, over two sticks, where the sticks are laid as a line in the center and the ball doesn’t touch the ground. After the official blows their whistle, the players move their stick and try to gain the ball’s control. Every team has ten players, which includes a goalie, three defense players, three mid-fielders, and 3 attack players.

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The team must position at least four players, including the goalie in the defensive half. Three players will be positioned in the offensive zone and three mid-fielders will be allowed to roam the field.

Conclusion

The main objective of the game is just like football. The ball must be advanced and moved into the opposing team’s territory, crossing all the opponent team players, and get the ball into the opposite team’s goal post. Just like every other game, the team that scores the highest goals at the end of the game wins.

Teams change ends between the four quarters, and there is also halftime. While youth games are normally 30 to 32 minutes long, with eight minutes quarters, high school lacrosse games are about 40 to 48 minutes, with 10 to 12 minute quarters. Yet, collegiate games are hour-long, with 15-minute halftime and quarters of 15 minutes.

References

  1. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0363546513476265
  2. https://journals.lww.com/acsm-csmr/fulltext/2014/09000/sports_specific_issues_in_men_s_and_women_s.13.aspx