# Lacrosse: The National Game of Canada/Chapter 9

CHAPTER IX.
CATCHING, AND CARRYING THE BALL.
Catching.—You may be the best catch of a cricketing eleven, or a base ball nine, but to catch a ball on a crosse is quite a different art. I never yet saw it done in the easiest way, by men who handle a crosse for the first time, though every day you may hear theorists talk of its simplicity. It is easy enough to hold your crosse so that a ball thrown to you may fall on the netting, but the difficulty consists in keeping it, especially if your netting conforms to the regulations. It is an antithesis of catching, that nothing is harder at first, and nothing easier when learned.
To catch with a bagged crosse is no art whatever; to catch and play with the netting flat is the perfection of catching, because it makes your play scientific. It was not unusual before laws were ​made, to find the best catchers those who had bagged netting, and there were passable players who could not play at all when obliged to use the netting flat. When you find you must resort to bagging, to make you equal with others, you may be convinced you have yet to learn the very elements of good and scientific play. The Indians are celebrated for catching, and yet, observe the paltry net work of their sticks, as a rule, and without the least bag. We remember that at the match before H. R. H. the Prince of Wales, of twenty-five Indians, only one carried a stick which would not have passed the inspection of the Umpires, and yet one special feature of that match was their magnificent catching. Catching, however, has always been their hereditary acomplishment. When the original stick was used they played for hours without missing a catch; Lanman says, "it is sometimes kept from touching the ground for a whole afternoon." Sandford, in his History of the United States, also says, "the ball seldom touches the ground." If you look at the size and shape of the original stick, you will understand the difficulty of such play, and may feel that catching in our game, ​with our larger netting, is far from practised to the perfection it might be.
Old custom, and the first laws, allowed touching the ball with the hand, to block or pat it on to the crosse, but in the excitement of the game it degenerated into deliberate catching. The result was that the new laws prohibited any touching of the ball with the hand during play, except when by goal-keeper inside the goal crease, or when it was taken out of a hole to face. The Indians, from the earliest times, were prohibited touching the ball with the hand; and in the village games at Caughnawaga and St. Regis, it is still considered unfair to touch it in any way, and a penalty of "facing" from the spot where the ball was touched is strictly enforced. That permission to touch with the hand developed some beautiful play cannot be doubted, but its tendency was to extremes, and to cause disputes, and its abolition became a necessity. Since the interdiction, catchers have paid more attention to real expertness in handling the crosse, and the art has become more finished.
We take it for granted that you repudiate a ​bagged netting; but avoid dry, hard cat-gut, as it not only cracks on bending, but renders your catching unnecessarily difficult. Soft cat-gut deadens the bounce, and enables you to manœuvre the ball with more grace and promptness, than when it is hard.
The simplicity of catching is to catch slow balls thrown from a short distance; the high art is to catch long or short swift balls, especially when you run out to meet them, whether thrown to you or to an opponent: also the variety of quick catches occurring in close quarter play. Preliminary practice is of the greatest importance, and the best and surest way of learning the rudiments, as well as the high art in catching, is to practise quietly with some one or two players, or even alone. Your very first lesson must be learned alone, and I would suggest the following series:
First—The perpendicular throw and catch; beginning at a low altitude, and increasing as you find you perfect yourself in each successive height. Next throw the ball from different distances and to different points of a high wall or fence, catching as it rebounds. Next, stand alone, and throw upwards ​and outwards, so that you will have to make short dashes to catch; next upwards and backwards, so that you will have to turn around and run backwards to catch. Then hold your crosse out at arms' length, right and left alternately, and practise a semi-circular throw, and catch from one side to the other; first, from right, over head to left, and vice versa. After you have learned the art alone, and can catch and keep balls, practise in the ring, as described on page 109.
There are many variations of catching, but master the following and any others will naturally be easy:
1. Descending Balls.—If you catch a descending ball before it touches the ground you gain an advantage. In a game where every movement of play you make with the ball is liable to check, success often depends upon the advantages gained in seconds.
If the ball is descending from a high perpendicular throw, as if thrown straight up, or if descending in a curve, hold your crosse to the front, right hand at the butt, left above the collar, and when the ball is about two or three feet above the level of your head, make a thrust upwards to meet it,—something ​similar to the "high thrust" in the bayonet exercise; and when it is within a few inches let your crosse sink before it, imperceptibly slackening, until the ball rests as it were, upon the netting. As soon as this is clone continue a slight depression of your crosse to steady the ball, and bring it up in another and successive movement to the usual level at which you carry. The softer the ball drops on the netting, without noise or jar, the more scientific is the catch. To accomplish this is no easy matter.
The fault of many players in catching descending balls, is in holding the crosse too stiff as the ball is near the netting, and meeting it half way the result of which is to cause it to bounce. Another fault is letting the ball touch the netting at too high an altitude, which often prevents the safe completion of the catch. The correct method in the former case is to retreat the netting of your crosse from the ball, as if you did not want, and yet would like to catch it. A good player at any hand-ball catching, never catches a ball flat; his hands move towards it, and retreat just when it is at his linger ends. The same rule applies to catching on a crosse. ​The netting should be presented to the ball, as seen in illustration 3, not batted against it, and should receive it on the head or centre surface; never on the lower angle. If a checker is near, let your catch terminate by a curve or sweep of the Crosse from his direction, whether he is on your right or left. If in proximity to more than one, make a little leap upwards, and strike the ball away to one of your side, or to a point you can reach before any of your antagonists; or, if possible, frisk it in the air to one side and catch it. You may frisk with the head surface of the netting, at full length of your crosse, sweeping the ball over your head to one side without letting it fall to the ground, and terminating by a sinking and sweeping dodge to secure it. This is one of the prettiest feats of play. Your entire body, from head to toe, must give special action, as well as your crosse, to complete any catch among opponents, so as to evade a check. The mere catch is insufficent without an accompanying agility, which gives grace to your feat and guards your subsequent movements. You may be a master of every point and guard of fencing, but without the proper use of your legs, an agile ​amateur might run you through, or escape your deadliest thrust. The rule holds good for effect in Lacrosse.
After the ball strikes the ground.—This is a very simple catch, and is used when you have not confidence for, or miss the preceding, and is sometimes a matter of choice, but often of necessity. Any ball, but a grounder, may be struck to the ground at your front and caught on the rebound. The easiest catch is made on the head surface of the netting, and with one hand grasping the butt. A slight twist from right to left insures the security of the ball. If one or more opponents are near and attempt to catch, you may strike away their sticks before you touch the ball. This applies to all catching.
Grounders.—This is more a combination of picking up and blocking, as in goal, than catching proper, but nearly all grounders rise after blocking and require catching. Block with the head surface of the netting, and as the ball slides up, depress the handle of your stick, and scoop it up by a thrust forward and upward. If the ball is very swift, keep the handle of your crosse well advanced ​until you block, then depress it and catch. When running to meet a grounder, guard against it slipping after caught. Whether you should catch at arms' length, or at closer distance, must depend upon your position at the time.
Hoppers.—In the case of hoppers you may either catch immediately, or block first and then catch. If the hop is very swift ur sudden, the latter is the safest resort. Especially guard against slipping.
Straight balls—The most difficult to master of all catches, requiring a great deal of confidence and practice, especially if the ball is thrown with any extra velocity. If it comes above the level of your chin, you had better not attempt to catch; if below, you may do it by quickly drawing up your crosse, to a position something similar to the "low point" in bayonet exercise; the side of the netting with which you play receiving the ball; knuckles of left hand which grasps above the collar, uppermost. As the ball strikes the netting give your crosse a slight motion forward to deaden the shot, and a quick curve upwards to secure the ball. This is the neatest and most scientific catch.
The omnipresence of the ball develops various ​combinations of catching, which depend for success upon agility of body, as well as perfect at-homeness with the crosse. No one can be a good fielder without a good knowledge of its principles, as the occasions for it in general play are so frequent. Catching is always more difficult when you are running; and the player who can keep a cool head on the field is always the best catch. As you should be able as a dodger, to catch balls thrown past a checker, so should you cultivate the art of catching balls thrown past you, when your position as dodger is reversed. This latter art requires that you should have something of the "tee-totum" in your legs, and an eye quick as an eagle's. The sinking and rising movement in catching is of absolute importance to sure effective play. It perfects any catch, better secures the ball, saves the netting of your crosse, and is scientific and graceful. The different sweeps, deviations and curves described in the termination of catching, follow naturally, when the first principles are mastered; and no better example can be offered in this easy and elegant play, than the every-day Lacrosse of the Indians of Caughnawaga and St. Regis.
​Whether you catch with one hand or two grasping the crosse, is a matter of choice; but though any catch may be commenced with the ordinary grasp of carrying, it is safer to let every catch terminate with the two hands on the crosse, in case you are obliged to throw.
A ball, accidentally caught under the arms, should never be touched by the hand, nor carried there. Avoid the very appearance of unfair play.
Carrying.—Before the laws were made, the fashionable thing was to have a bag of various degrees of depth, at the lower angle, in which it was also fashionable to carry the ball. Of course the bag facilitated carrying very much, and the deepest bag had the best chance. Now, the lower angle is the riskiest place for carrying, unless the leading strings are large and protective. When running, the safest place to carry is on the centre surface, because you can there control the ball better, and are always ready for an effective one-hand throw. If you carry on the lower angle, you have little control of the ball if your stick is struck by a checker; if on the extreme top surface you cannot recover quick, if hard hit, unless you have ​a short grip. The best grasp, for all purposes, is at the butt, leaving half an inch protrude. The arm should hang at full length, and the stick at the lowest level at which the ball will not fall off. The arm and wrist alone should control the crosse; the body should not be contorted. It is a common play to dandle the ball on the netting when running, and otherwise add variety to the plain carry; and we would recommend players cultivating this dandling of the ball, when carrying near an opponent, and even in many carried dodges. Recently some players have resorted to ingenious constructions of the wooden part of the crosse, to get over the restrictions about bagging the netting. The best we have seen is the stick scooped out from the collar to the tup, thereby making nearly as good a bag as the netting could afford were the old bag allowed. Although this is not illegal, we certainly do not approve of it. It is worse than a high leading string, as the ball is oftener carried next the wood than the string, and has even more objectionable features than are interdicted in the netting, in Rule 1.