EXPLORING THE RISE OF MIXED LACROSSE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

When thinking about multi-gendered sports, one's mind might jump to racket sports where partners of the opposite sex can compete in doubles matches such as in tennis, badminton, or squash. Other doubles sports might include ballroom dancing or figure skating where pairs are tasked with working in sync to produce high quality visual performances. And then of course there’s sports which do not separate athletes by gender, the most common of which being equestrian events such as dressage (my discipline until an accident at 15 halted - pardon the pun - my future in the sport), show jumping, horse racing and cross country. It is less likely to come across mixed-gender team sports unless at amateur level, however that does not negate their existence. 

I’ll never forget the first time I witnessed a quidditch match at Loughborough University. I was taking the long and uncommon (for me) walk to the library when something to my left caught my eye. There was a group of men and women running around a grassy area with sticks being held horizontally between their legs to mimic a broomstick, their other hand throwing a larger football-looking ball to one another with the aim of launching it through one of the three hoops at either end of their field. And how can I forget the gold skin-tight suit worn by one player who seemed to be playing their own game of tag as they acted out the part of the golden snitch. To say I was mesmerised would be an understatement, but whilst some stopped to take photos and snigger at these players enjoying their afternoon quidditch match, I admired their fearlessness at embracing an unusual sport plucked from the pages of a magical novel at a university renowned for its sporting excellence.

This also marked the first time I had seen a mixed-gender sport being played outside of PE at school and against other teams; that is, until I joined Loughborough lacrosse club. As a lacrosse beginner I was open to trying anything and everything that the sport had to offer, so when I was asked to come along to a “mixed” session, I decided to give it a go. In the end I only ended up going to a few sessions as I decided that playing with boys just wasn’t for me, but the other reason why it didn’t appeal to me was because I was more often than not unable to get out of bed when the games occurred. The matches against other universities were at the weekends, usually after a heavy night out and played in a state where physical activity could only end in disaster. Mixed became known as the fun and social version of lacrosse which allowed the men’s and women’s teams of all abilities to socialise and get to know one another outside of the Fusion dance floor. The rules weren’t too difficult to follow: only women’s sticks could be used, there was no checking allowed (for those unfamiliar, a check is performed by tactically hitting a players stick with your own in an effort to dislodge the ball), and one could only hold the ball for just a few seconds before a pass needed to be made. Whilst not so dissimilar to women’s lacrosse, men’s players faced a more difficult transition, needing to learn how to use a different stick (men’s and women’s lacrosse sticks are quite different), and being unable to use their physicality to their advantage in a game. This is possibly why it became a more popular choice for female players rather than men’s, and also why it continues to remain less common for men’s rules players to take part [...]