Sixes Lacrosse is Not a Good Product

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    There's a common theme in lacrosse media where a majority of writers and commenters seem to actively stray from negative commentary or criticism of any kind. The closest we've come to it is people being rubbed the wrong way at the announcing of the Sixes format that will come to the Olympics in a few years. It wasn't greeted well at first, but with the World Games wrapping up in Birmingham, my timeline was littered with nothing but the best kind of commentary for things; so I thought I'd check it out and see what the deal was before making my own opinion.

    I was sorely disappointed in what I watched.

    Let's think about the good, first, I got to see this play from Jeff Teat:


    On the surface, this play is incredible. The flexibility, dexterity, creativity, any other -ity you can come up with is off the charts. But what takes away from the play is what makes it possible in the first place.

    With no set defense, or rules like those in hockey that make it possible for a defense to get back and set up, the Sixes format is incredibly chaotic and heavily favored for the offense. The dimensions of the field allow offensive players to stretch defenses to their absolute limits, allowing wide open cutting lanes with minimal resistance. With a standard field lacrosse goal, this gives guys like Jeff Teat, who are used to playing in extremely tight quarters in the NLL, the ability to feel as if they can do whatever they please without a care in the world.

    You can make arguments about whether box or field lacrosse is the better option, I'm not here to start that debate. What I am here to do is recognize two things. First, field and box lacrosse both have structures that can do a decent job of leveling the playing field for defenders. Second, Sixes appears to (at least so far) do everything they can do take away defensive incentives.

     Watch last night's game again and tell me how many plays you saw that were either a glorified shooting drill, or a 1-on-0 breakaway without a single soul trying to get back defensively. Yes, offense is fun and exciting, but only when it's presented as a challenge. When I see guys treating their shots as forgone conclusions, I get rubbed the wrong way. It's no knock on the players, they're doing what makes sense based on the rules given to them.

    So yes, that play by Jeff Teat was incredible, but I have concerns about the structures that allowed him to do it in the first place. It's easy to confuse high pace-of-play as a high quality product. I hope the lacrosse community is able to avoid making that mistake.

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