Barely three months after adopting landmark off-the-field rules limiting early recruiting, women’s lacrosse teams are trying to adjust to a new set of on-field rules.

“There are a lot of significant rule changes that have come all at once,” Johns Hopkins coach Janine Tucker said. “We were just getting used to some of the recent changes, and now we’ve got some more to embrace. But thankfully, we have a fall season to work on the rule changes.”

The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved proposals set forth by the Women’s Lacrosse Rules Committee in late July. The biggest change allows free movement for the first time in the women’s game. Players no longer have to stop moving after a foul or violation as a play is restarted.

“It’s huge,” UMass coach Angela McMahon said. “We were probably ready for the change in terms of the speed, athleticism and strength of the athletes now. Everyone seems a little bigger, stronger, faster. It’s definitely going to cater to the athletes we have right now. While it’s a drastic change, these athletes are playing at such a high level that the transition within it will be pretty smooth.”

Loyola coach Jen Adams, chair of the rules committee, does not look at free movement as an additional rule, but rather as the elimination of stopping on the whistle.

“You don’t have to look any farther than going to basically any other sport that exists in the world,” Adams said. “There’s been a lot of positivity towards moving in that direction. We’ve had the good fortune of seeing it played out live with some of the women’s pro games. I’ve seen it played at camps and clinics. A lot have been trying it out to see what it looks like, and I do think it’s an exciting way for the game to be played. It showcases athleticism, it helps us streamline and provides some clarity to players, coaches and officials and hopefully the fans. At the end of the day, that’s what we’re looking for.”

In 2016, Adams served as the head coach of the Baltimore Ride in the inaugural season of the United Women’s Lacrosse League, which first implemented the innovative rule of free movement, then under the leadership of commissioner Michele DeJuliis. Both Adams and DeJuliis are National Lacrosse Hall of Famers. They’re working together on a new professional women’s lacrosse venture, the Women’s Professional Lacrosse League, founded by DeJuliis with Adams tabbed as commissioner.

Everyone involved, from players to fans, embraced and enjoyed free movement as part of the pro game.

“I definitely think the pro league provided us a platform and avenue to see the game played out in that way,” Adams said. “It’s very difficult when you’re looking at something on a piece of paper to give it your vote or say this would be a great direction for the sport to move in having not seen it played out live. Having that opportunity has been monumental just in terms of easing peoples’ mind about what changes do to the sport and what it actually looks like.”

Maryland graduate Taylor Cummings, the first-ever three-time Tewaaraton winner who played in the UWLX last year and has entered the upcoming WPLL draft, approved of the free movement change coming to the NCAA.

“To have a shot clock and having free movement on the whistle makes the game more exciting to watch as a fan and even more exciting to play as a player,” Cummings told US Lacrosse Magazine last year. “You get a little more tired, but I love it. I love playing fast. I love to run and gun.”

After a foul or violation, the ball carrier will restart play surrounded by a two-meter non-engagement area from which other players are restricted, but they can move freely outside of it. Some clarity on that zone may be required as teams adjust to the rule.

“What they’re calling the non-engagement zone, isn’t really, as I understand it, a non-engagement zone, because as soon as I take one step with the ball, people can collapse on me,” Princeton coach Chris Sailer said. “That might need a little tweaking as it moves forward.”

Violations of the non-engagement area, as well as delays in clearing that zone, will result in a team warning, with future violations drawing a green card and immediate one-minute penalty.

“Some of the rules went hand-in-hand with a different progression of rules as we’ve gone through,” Adams said. “The self-start coming in two years ago, the possession clock coming in last year, and then rolling into free movement for this year, as they roll in on top of each other, there are tweaks that have to be made to the game to get it structurally in the right place.”

FREE MOVEMENT ON FREE POSITIONS

Another big rule change will alter the setup for 8-meter free positions in relation to free movement.

All shooting space fouls, three-second violations and fouls inside the 8-meter arc will result in an 8-meter free position for the offensive team. Yet, outside the 8-meter arc, free movement continues.

“It’s going to allow for a lot more creativity,” McMahon said. “You’re going to see really different crazy things being done in terms of the movements.”

In the new setup, the defensive team can position players at the hashes adjacent to the spot of the free position — with the exception of the offending player who will be placed behind the attacker taking the free position shot. All other players can move freely outside the 8-meter arc, though not in the area below the hanging hashes to the dots.

“Moving the defense and the offense out of that area around the goal below the hanging hashes, that’s really going to be new,” Sailer said. “It takes away the pass in the crease. It takes away kids playing up. We’re going to see a lot more 8-meter goals scored this year.”

Said Tucker: “That’s one I’m excited to mess around with and strategize some things we can do with that rule. It certainly was meant with the spirit of safety in mind. We have to be certain we’re not giving a competitive edge to one side or the other. Right now, it’s very much an offensive player’s game and defenders have to swim uphill with our rules. As much as everyone likes to see goals scored, defenders and defensive units work entirely too hard and some of the rules on the defensive side are a little extra challenging.”

SAFETY IN MIND

The NCAA also approved rules changes that will address positioning of players for fouls occurring in the critical scoring area above and below goal line extended.

Both situations will award a non-engagement zone with the ball either starting at the 12-meter arc or the dot below goal line extended, depending on where the foul occurred.

Another rule change assesses a one-minute penalty to a defensive team that commits three fouls before the offensive team crosses the restraining line in its attacking end.

“All of these changes are needed,” said NCAA coordinator of officials Melissa Coyne, who served as a non-voting consultant in rules committee meetings. “In the long term, they will improve the game and the quality of watching the game will improve. It is a lot to take on all in one year, but I do think the committee addressed some really important things.”

The draw also will look and play out differently.

Each team will be allowed just three players to enter the midfield to gain possession off the draw. Only those six players can play between the restraining lines until possession is earned.

This new rule will allow an easy transition from the high school level, which already implemented this setup.

“It gives such an advantage to a team with the better draw controller,” Sailer said. “We were really great at scrapping for ground balls, getting that jump off the line, reading the ball and double-teaming the ball. It’ll be more like the men’s game now, where you have to have that specialist.”

The intent of the rule is to clean up the draws and help officials better assess possession and fouls. However, it does have one downside for officials, who now have to watch for players below the restraining lines entering the midfield too soon, which could take their attention off the ball momentarily.

“When you go from 10-12 players to six, it makes it easier to see who’s fouling and where the card is,” Coyne said. “They’ll have to pay attention to the restraining lines, but it’ll give them an opportunity to make some cleaner foul calls.”

Another new rule implemented with safety in mind is a yellow card count.

On a team’s fourth yellow card — and every subsequent yellow card after four — the offending player must serve a two-minute non-releasable penalty.

“A two-minute non-releasable penalty, especially with only three people on the draw and holding everybody behind the line, that could have a huge impact on the outcome of the game,” Sailer said. “The onus will be on coaches and players — coaches to teach the game correctly and safely, and players to control their sticks and play the right way — because you don’t want to be in a situation where there’s a fourth yellow card.”

Said Adams: “A lot of research went into that number four. There weren’t many games at all that reached that number. So it’s not something you’ll see frequently. If it does, there is an idea that there should be a stiffer penalty.”

HEIGHTNED AWARENESS WITH NEW RULES

The committee also examined questionable scenarios when officials blow their whistles or time expires as a shot is taking place.

Now in effect, goals or saves will be awarded if they occur while, or immediately after, an official’s whistle is blown.

Goals also count if the shot is released before the game clock expires and it crosses the goal line. Previously, the ball had to cross the goal line before time expired, a ruling that controversially lost Johns Hopkins a game against Northwestern last spring.

“You have to play through everything,” McMahon said. “If the ball’s coming at you, you better save it no matter what. It’s auditory training.”

Players also will now be allowed to self-start in the final two minutes of each half and any overtime period. They can self-start if the ball goes out of bounds on the end line or sideline.

“Everybody’s going to have to be dialed in all the time,” Tucker said. “Every aspect of our game is affected, from the transition game to the draw.”

TRAINING TIME

The new rules mean heavy edits to the official NCAA rulebook, which committee members hope to deliver to college coaches by fall ball, which will serve as a critical time for clarifications if issues develop. Officials, too, will need time to adjust.

“The key is using the CWLOA (Collegiate Women’s Lacrosse Officiating Association) and fall ball events as training places,” Coyne said. “We always encourage officials and will help them reach out to college coaches if they want to attend practices to get some work in with new rules.

“We expect there will be some misinterpretations or things that aren’t done correctly to start, but we hope to have them hashed out during fall ball so when the season comes, they should be pretty good to go,” Coyne added. “These are some massive changes, some fundamental changes to the women’s game, and that can be overwhelming to an official if you just look at it. If you look at the meat of the rules, what happened this year was there was a huge focus on [taking] some of the subjectivity out of the rules and making things a little more black and white for officials.”

The key for this fall, according to Adams, will be communication between officials, players and coaches as they look to embrace the new rules and have questions answered. By springtime, they hope everyone is on the same page and the rules are being interpreted consistently.

“A lot of people get nervous with change,” Adams said. “There’s the unknown of what does fall look like, coming out and trying to teach your kids new rules, and the change for officials.”

Said Tucker: “Our sport is trying to stay as relevant and cutting edge as possible. It’s trying to cater to the athleticism of the athletes today and their lax IQ. We never want to get stagnant. We want to get really fan-friendly and have a good flow to our sport, so I’m hopeful we can take a little bit of a time out with these rules changes, allow them to sink in and allow people to get a handle on them.”

Across the board, coaches agree there are a lot of changes to absorb this year as the women’s game aims to increase safety for players, while also becoming faster and more fan-friendly.

“I’m sure there are people that will like it and people that think our game has changed really fast and we’re losing some of the uniqueness of women’s lacrosse,” Sailer said. “All that remains to be seen, how people will judge it.”

Said Coyne: “We feel good about these changes. Looking down the road two or three years, this is a rule set that could stand for a very long time and make it a tremendous game to watch.”