This document provides detailed officiating guidelines for women's lacrosse, covering essential procedures such as draws, out of bounds, and restarting play after fouls. It includes specific signals for various scenarios, foul implications, and timeout procedures. A focus is placed on maintaining proper positioning and ensuring quick, safe restarts during gameplay.

1. video
Play of the Game
Basic Positioning
Basic Procedures
In this presentation:
• Draws
• Out of bounds
• Restarting play after a foul
• Calling a time out
• Restraining line / off-sides
• Goals
Women's Lacrosse Basic Officiating
BASICS

2. video
Play of the Game
Basic Positioning
Basic Procedures
Draw
• Draw to start play after a goal or at the beginning of most quarters
• Draws have to be quick
• Officials have to be quick to start
• Players too
• Maximum time between goal and Draw is 30 seconds
• Penalize a team taking too long to set up
• Delay of game, minor foul, other team gets the ball
Women's Lacrosse Basic Officiating
BASICS

3. video
Play of the Game
Basic Positioning
Basic Procedures
Draw set up
• One player of each team
• Toeing the center line with one foot
• The hands only touch the shaft (not the head)
• The backsides of the head are put together, with the ‘open side’
towards the player’s defending goal
• Sticks are parrallel to the middle line
• The end of the stick may be lower than the head (max 30 degrees)
There are many more details, read up on rule 13
Women's Lacrosse Basic Officiating
BASICS

4. video
Play of the Game
Basic Positioning
Basic Procedures
Draw procedure
• The official places the ball between the sticks at the center of the
field
• The ‘open side’ of the head will face the player’s defending goal
• The official checks with the other officials if they’re ready
• A and B confirm to be ready via a nod or show an open hand
at hip height
• Official says “ready”
• Players taking the draw cannot move any part of their body, except
their heads
• Official will move backwards
• Official blows whistle
• Players must draw their sticks up and away from one another
• The flight of the ball must go higher than the heads of both players
Women's Lacrosse Basic Officiating
BASICS

5. video
Play of the Game
Basic Positioning
Basic Procedures
Illegal actions
• Players not setting up correctly: minor foul
• Moving after “ready”: minor foul
• Not drawing the stick away in an up and away motion: minor foul
• Repeated fouls on the draw can lead to a major foul
• When the ball’s flight is not over both player’s heads, but it could
not be determined who’s fault it was, a redraw will be done
• Picture shows the redraw signal
Women's Lacrosse Basic Officiating
BASICS

6. Play of the Game
Basic Positioning
Basic Procedures
Draw summary
• Umpire positioning summary:
• Before the draw: stands at center waiting for players to set up
their draw position
• Checks in with other umpires
• Steps in to place the ball between the widest part of the
sticks: one hand still touches the bottom of the sticks
• See red circle in picture
• Checks if sticks are held correctly
• Lets go of sticks
• Says (does not yell) “ready”, puts whistle in mouth
• Backpaddles out of circle
• Blows the whistle
Women's Lacrosse Basic Officiating
BASICS

7. Play of the Game
Basic Positioning
Basic Procedures
Draw
• Procedure after draw whistle:
• If a player gains possession of the ball, all on field umpires
signal and call release
• Signal:
• Straight arm one rotation
• If the ball crosses the restraining line before any player gains
posession, signal and call release
• If the ball crosses a boundary line before any player touches
the ball, a throw is set up by the nearest umpire
Women's Lacrosse Basic Officiating
BASICS

8. video
Play of the Game
Basic Positioning
Basic Procedures
Out of bounds
• Two different out of bounds situations:
• Normal out of bounds
• Ball touching the line or anything outside of the field is
out of bounds
• Player in possession touching the line or anything
outside of the field is out of bounds
• Team that did not touch the ball last is awarded the ball
• Shot going out of bounds
• Team that is closest to the ball when the ball goes out of
bounds gets the ball
• With restart, no player may be within 1 meter of the ball carrier
Women's Lacrosse Basic Officiating
BASICS

9. video
Play of the Game
Basic Positioning
Basic Procedures
Out of bounds
• Normal out of bounds procedure:
• Blow the whistle to stop play when the ball goes out of
bounds (this is important: dead ball vs live ball)
• Award the ball to the opposing team: “red ball!”
• Signal direction of play by pointing one arm in the direction of
play (towards the offensive end line)
• The ball carrier needs to step on the field before the self start
Women's Lacrosse Basic Officiating
BASICS

10. video
Play of the Game
Basic Positioning
Basic Procedures
Out of bounds
• Out of bounds on a shot procedure:
• At the time of shooting, lead umpire yells “shot!”
• A bad / failed shot is still a shot, intention matters
• A deflected shot is still a shot
• If shot goes in: goal procedure
• If shot misses: out of bounds
• A looks for where and when the ball went out of bounds
• Blow the whistle to stop play
• Award the ball to the team closest to the ball when the ball
went out of bounds
• Signal direction of play, players may self-start
Women's Lacrosse Basic Officiating
BASICS

11. video
Play of the Game
Basic Positioning
Basic Procedures
Restarting play after a foul
• The ball is restarted in the same relative position as where the ball
was when the whistle to stop play was blown
• All restarts need to be at least 15 meters away from goal
• This goes for restarts behind the goal as well
• All restarts need to be at least 2 m away from end and side lines
• Restarts need to be as quick a possible, but safe for all involved
• More on specific restarts around the AFA will be gone over in the
following chapter.
Women's Lacrosse Basic Officiating
BASICS

12. video
Play of the Game
Basic Positioning
Basic Procedures
Restarting play after a foul
• Quick restarts:
• No player may be within 4 meter of the ball carrier at the
time of the restart
• If a player is within 4 m at the time of restart when the
ball carrier self starts, they are allowed to immediately
defend to ball
• Restarts should always be fair and safe; quick but not hasty
Women's Lacrosse Basic Officiating
BASICS

13. video
Play of the Game
Basic Positioning
Basic Procedures
Calling a time out
• Two kinds of time outs:
• Team time out:
• By coach, captain or player in possession
• Can be requested following a dead ball, when their team
is entitled to possession, this can be anywhere on the
field outside of the AFA
• Duration is 90 seconds
• Officials’ time out:
• By any official, for safety and fair play reasons
• Can be called at any time
• Duration is not set, as long as needed
Women's Lacrosse Basic Officiating
BASICS

14. video
Play of the Game
Basic Positioning
Basic Procedures
Calling a time out
• Team time out:
• Signals:
• If legal request, blow whistle to stop play
• Wave arms above head
• Point both arms towards teams’ bench side of the field
• Call “time out, blue [team color]!”
• Time out time starts after whistle is blown to stop play
• 30 Seconds before the end of the time out, off-field official
will indicate this by blowing the whistle and calling “30
seconds!”
• Restart is never a self-start
Women's Lacrosse Basic Officiating
BASICS

15. video
Play of the Game
Basic Positioning
Basic Procedures
Calling a time out
• Officials’ time out:
• Signals:
• Wave arms above head
• Point both arms towards own chest
• Call “stop clock, time out, my time!”
• Examples:
• Time needed to fix goal netting or goal position
• Player severely injured
• Lost ball
• Restart is never a self-start
Women's Lacrosse Basic Officiating
BASICS

16. Play of the Game
Basic Positioning
Basic Procedures
Off-sides
• When a team enters the attack goal area (crosses the offensive
restraining line) only 6 attack player and 7 defensive players (goalie
included) are allowed
• If there are more players than allowed, the B official will call an
restraining line violation (off-side)
• Arm straight up with open hand or closed fist
Women's Lacrosse Basic Officiating
BASICS
video

17. video
Play of the Game
Basic Positioning
Basic Procedures
Goals
• When is a shot at goal a scored goal?
• Ball must cross the plane of the goal entirely
• No fouls from the offensive team may occur
• Example: crease violation, off-side, dangerous follow-
through
Women's Lacrosse Basic Officiating
BASICS

18. Play of the Game
Basic Positioning
Basic Procedures
Goals
• When is a shot at goal not a scored goal?
• Period ended (even if not yet whistled for)
• Umpire blew whistle (Exception: Shooting Space)
• Offensive team commits a foul (any foul)
• Offensive team is offside
• Shooters’ stick touches the ground within the crease after
ending the shot
• Stick is declared illegal before the next live ball
• The ball comes off the body of an attacking player
• Signal:
• Wave arms below the hips
• Call “no goal!”
• Restart:
• Same as restart after a penalty
Women's Lacrosse Basic Officiating
BASICS
video

19. Play of the Game
Basic Positioning
Basic Procedures
Goals
• Goal call procedure:
• At the time of shooting, lead umpire calls “shot!”
• B and C look for fouls during shot, also off-ball
• A checks with B and C if the goal was legal
• B and C can confirm the goal with a nod of showing open
hands at hip hight
• A makes goal signal while blowing goal call
• “Tweet, tweet, twee-eet”
• A signals number of the scorer and assists to B
• B relays signal to off-field official
• Signals for numbers:
Women's Lacrosse Basic Officiating
BASICS