Floor Lacrosse

The games

Floor Lacrosse is an exciting game involving co-operative running, passing and manipulative challenges. The game is suitable for all ages including those individuals with special needs and was designed for groups of:

mainstream youngsters
youngsters with a range of special needs
inclusive initiatives.

It was developed via action research methods with the involvement and co-operation of the pupils and staff from the Nethergate School, Clifton, Nottinghamshire, in 2001.

The first phase

The evolution of Floor Lacrosse began in the 1980s with a group of pupils with severe learning disabilities from The Shepherd Special School, Nottinghamshire. They were experiencing difficulties in playing hockey based activities because the ball was always ‘running away’ out of their control.

A DIY attempt was then made to develop a piece of equipment which would be halfway between a hockey stick and a lacrosse stick in function. The result consisted of five/eighths of a toilet ball cock attached to a piece of over flow pipe. This became ‘Capball’. The field testing proved to fairly successful.

The youngsters really enjoyed running around with the ball under the cap, letting it go and then chasing it again.
The game initially failed due to problems associated with short-term memory: when one team member ‘capped’ the ball and moved off with it, the others, both opposition and those on the same side, all forgot where the ball was.
As there were no transparent ball cocks to use we trialled caps from cut down plastic transparent Coca Cola bottles - this improved the awareness about the location of the ball and basic games were more possible.

For some twelve years Capball stayed in this format and was used in a number of Nottinghamshire special schools and day centres.

The second phase

After the success of the Youth Sport Trust’s SportSability 1 new activities and equipment were being considered for SportSability 2 and Sportime, Atalanta USA, decided to consider developing the Capball stick further:

it was then produced in a plastic and light metal format with the adjustable shaft
the ball could now be seen through gaps in the cap
field work was carried out with The Nethergate School for SportSability 2 and at the DSE Mini Games in 2003.

The game format was then developed on the basis of a basketball court and the rules evolved. With the goals at the top of the basketball key way, it also allowed for play around the back of them somewhat in parallel to the real game.

To date the game remains mainly under developed with most teachers finding that the pupils - either physical or intellectually impaired - enjoy just running or wheeling around with a ball under the cage. For further information see Floor Lacrosse field trials.

Further information on the rules and resources of Floor Lacrosse.