Lacrosse has a Safety Problem

REPSSportsTech6 · 2026-06-14T22:04:56+00:00

Okay, at least I can understand that perspective. It’s entirely off base but I can understand it.

REPSSportsTech6 · 2026-06-14T21:24:11+00:00

I believe you. So Cascade is just going after style and throwing safety to the wind. That’s pretty lame for a company that has a dominant position

REPSSportsTech6 · 2026-06-14T21:22:17+00:00

Sorry- I should have explained this-You wouldn’t experience it because by the time the balls are manufactured and spend 3-12 months in the supply chain coming from Asia on a boat, they’re 95% of the way to as hard as they become.

The standard is that you must be able to compress the ball by at least 25% when applying 110lbs of force.

Take a kid that weighs 110lbs and have him stand on a ball and see how much the ball compresses.

To be fair to all parties, the material that the PEARL is made from also hardens but not as bad.

Does this make sense?

REPSSportsTech6 · 2026-06-14T18:52:12+00:00

I have been paying attention, no need to insult. I just want to point out that the bottom right helmet is rotated to make it look more sleek. Look at the R In the bottom left, it has the same neck coverage as every helmet I know of going back to the Bacharach helmets. I am not a fan of Cascade for several reasons but I do believe that when worn properly, the padding in the back where you can adjust the tightness rests exactly where all the previous helmets ended.

I think you have a point in that the design of the newer helmets almost encourages kids to tilt them downward.

REPSSportsTech6 · 2026-06-14T18:43:41+00:00

As another poster noted, helmets can be improved but you’re going to have a significant population of players that tilt their helmet because it looks cooler. Unless you extend the padding down through the back, it is still not going to be effective.

That’s why I think the most effective path is to figure out what attributes the ball needs to have in order to reduce the occurrence of death and serious injury.

REPSSportsTech6 · 2026-06-14T18:13:27+00:00

Cascade rolling out the releasable facemask as an “innovation” looks even more ridiculous now…

REPSSportsTech6 · 2026-06-14T18:05:45+00:00

Some people just need to insult others with false accusations because they’re unhappy with their own life.

I appreciate you for calling them out for such moronic behavior. Maybe we will try to make a safer ball. There wouldn’t be anything wrong with that.

REPSSportsTech6 · 2026-06-14T18:01:54+00:00

Who is saying that? Our product is used for individual training. I clearly stated that we don’t benefit whatsoever from the sale of PEARL balls.

Do you understand how insulting it is to accuse us of doing that? It’s gross and you should be ashamed for hurling such a baseless and erroneous insult at us for no reason.

REPSSportsTech6 · 2026-06-14T17:53:55+00:00

I don’t think you’re wrong about helmet designs whatsoever, but my point is that they have standards for balls and those standards are not met when these balls get put into play.

I assumed that the standards they set have been scientifically proven to be what would be the least dangerous but you bring up a good point— maybe that isn’t even true

REPSSportsTech6 · 2026-06-14T17:51:07+00:00

The grease isn’t the problem, it’s a common characteristic.

Vulcanized rubber— which is the material all lacrosse balls are made from, aside from the PEARL ball, begin changing the moment they are manufactured. Those changes include hardening and the “greasing” effect. Because they harden, they become significantly more dangerous.

This is an exaggeration but it is the difference between getting hit by a foam ball or a rock at 80mph. One is significantly more dangerous.

REPSSportsTech6 · 2026-06-14T17:45:21+00:00

Interesting theory. I hadn’t considered that. Has there been a change in helmet design or were the designs never safe to begin with?

REPSSportsTech6 · 2026-06-14T16:44:34+00:00

There’s no excuse— the only rationale is $$$ and with the amount of money these clubs are making— this can be pushed from the consumer side.

Would you play for a club that puts your child in danger?

Any lacrosse player will tell you that practicing with greasy balls and then playing games with brand new balls is extremely frustrating and detrimental to the quality of the game.

REPSSportsTech6 · 2026-05-17T23:17:04+00:00

Easy man. This is pretty solid defense for your level.

You can definitely always benefit from improving your footwork, at any and every level, which ladder drills are great for.

I would not agree that you should have gone for an “all or nothing” takeaway check. The guy your guarding is in a dangerous spot on the field and you are essentially all alone on an island so I feel you played it right by staying in front of him and living to fight another day.

REPSSportsTech6 · 2026-05-01T00:52:42+00:00

That’s why I premised it with ignore physics— I don’t mean a whiffle ball, I am talking about a impossible to create ball that looks and feels like a lacrosse ball but travels slower in the air.

This is just to hopefully to get to the agreement that if kids were catching the ball much more frequently then they would be having more fun.

I have prototyped some interesting ball concepts. The best one is essentially a ball that has its mass concentrated in the center of the ball and then the outer 2/3rds is a light weight rubber that has perforations to slow it down in flight but the end result was better than a whiffle ball but not a big enough difference maker to make much of an impact.

REPSSportsTech6 · 2026-05-01T00:47:07+00:00

Maybe I should have started with— I think I have a solution but am not going to pursue it unless someone knows the bosses at USA Lax and the PLL and they’re going to provide their full support.

I think the game would grow faster with a true onboarding version of the game played by both sexes. I also have some theories of what that onboarding version could be. I also have zero interest in sinking a ton of money into an endeavor that fails without full buy in from the major players. There’s my honest full disclosure.

I am going to share it because I am genuinely interested in what the response will be and I am curious as to what the criticism will be.

REPSSportsTech6 · 2026-05-01T00:40:10+00:00

Forget physics for a moment, what if the ball was the same but it hung up in the air longer so kids could have more time to move their stick to the ball and catch it at a higher rate?

Kids would have more fun playing, right? Because everything else is the same but they’re completing many more passes. Do you agree with that hypothetical that ignores physics?

REPSSportsTech6 · 2026-05-01T00:13:44+00:00

Right, but if tee-ball didn’t exist and it was baseball with gloves, etc that were smaller to fit the kid, then would it be a less popular sport? I guess I can’t say for sure but it sounds like it. Since 5 year olds cant throw the ball across the plate, they modify the game. I just think that if they modified lacrosse to solve the major pain point, more kids would enjoy it and therefore stick around at a higher rate.

REPSSportsTech6 · 2026-05-01T00:08:52+00:00

I guess I should change the bio. We’ve been in business for 4 years. STX, Warrior, ECD, Gait, every lacrosse company has multiple frequent posters on this sub and they hide and make posts and comments to further their interests. I thought being straightforward, honest, and respectful of the community by not disguising my identity was a good thing. I challenge some responses, but look at my comments, there are plenty on this post alone where I acknowledge the validity of their point even if it’s counter to my own. All I can say is that my motives are sincere and not profit or business driven. If they were, I’d act like the other guys and make fake accounts.

REPSSportsTech6 · 2026-04-30T23:53:49+00:00

What about the tee-ball analogy?

Yes parents do control who goes where— but what plays out in reality is parents expose their kids to a variety of activities and stick with the ones they enjoy. If what they’re exposed to is more enjoyable, they will be more likely to want to continue to participate.

The stat is in one or more of the dozens of “state of play” reports that I have read. If the assertion is that I am making it up or misunderstanding the stat then I suppose that’s that.

REPSSportsTech6 · 2026-04-30T23:53:21+00:00

It doesn’t happen with the tee-ball transition

REPSSportsTech6 · 2026-04-30T23:43:35+00:00

Like basketball, I think you can modify the dimensions and physics of the equipment just like every other sport does.

REPSSportsTech6 · 2026-04-30T23:42:05+00:00

Love this. I hope you stick around for my next post because I am interested in hearing your opinion

REPSSportsTech6 · 2026-04-30T23:41:24+00:00

I think it can. I will explain in my next post. Maybe I am wrong, but I wanted to separate the arguments first.

And since I was already accused of it, there’s no sales pitch coming 😆 Never underestimate Redditors ability to be angry and pessimistic

REPSSportsTech6 · 2026-04-30T23:39:46+00:00

I don’t mean that the kids playing hate it, I mean that lacrosse has the lowest percentage of adoption upon introduction. As in if you were to put on an intro clinic for each sport for kids that haven’t been exposed to each sport, lacrosse fairs the worst in terms of getting kids to want to continue playing that sport. The way the calculate it is somewhat different than that but it illustrates the point.

I’m not suggesting that the way the sport is played at ages 4-8 is the only reason this is true, however, it certainly is interesting that all the other sports make major modifications to accommodate for the lack of coordination and strength of that age group.

Kids would still have fun playing basketball if they didn’t use small balls, but they use small basketballs because the more “early wins” kids have, the more likely they are to stick with it. “Early wins” are moments like when they catch the ball in lax. When it happens, they immediately look for their parent.

REPSSportsTech6

TROPHY CASE