We All Know What Holding is, Right?

by Dan St. André, an official within the Men's Division Officials Council (MDOC) of U.S. Lacrosse and is a member of the Southwest Lacrosse Officials Association (SWLOA).

When you first hear that men's lacrosse has some sort of "holding" infraction, most newcomers to lax immediately think football.
The rule book states" A player shall not impede the movement of an opponent or his crosse." Webster’s Dictionary defines impede to mean "to interfere with or slow the progress of." Similarly, we find the word hold or holding defined to mean "(1) to have or maintain in the grasp; (2) to keep under restraint; (3) to prevent from leaving, (4) to maintain position – refuse to give ground."
In men's lacrosse, an official must concern himself with all of these definitions and not the simple football-like meaning where someone grabbed someone else. While a football interpretation has some value in lacrosse, it is only a small part of actions called holding.
Restricted Behavior
The first part of the rule describes situations where holding-like behavior violates the rules and results in a foul. An unfortunate part of learning this rule involves the fact that the rule describes holding using some form of the word hold when other words might be more effective. Sadder still is the fact that the approved rulings use the word hold as well.
We will use alternate words from our and hopefully avoid confusion. The easiest restrictions are similar to our football infraction in that it involves some form of grasping restraint.
The rules state that no player may grasp an opponent with his free hand. Additionally, no player may step on an opponent's crosse. When one player uses his crosse against an opponent, denies him the right to prevent his opponent from moving his crosse by pinning it against the opponent's body.
Since the crosse has a handle that is somewhere between 40 inches and 72 inches in length, players usually have a length of stick between their hands as they carry and wield their crosse. With the full strength of both arms focused on that exposed length of stick, lacrosse rules clearly declare use of this potential weapon as undesirable. Explicit contact with this part of the crosse is a cross check [Rule 5.3] – a different foul to be discussed in a follow-up article. Preventing an opponent from moving violates and is holding. To avoid holding, the player must grasp the crosse so that his hands touch each other at the time of contact.
The remaining restriction,is one of the hardest to see and properly interpret. It refers to using one's crosse to restrain or prevent the movement of your opponent. For those of you from the land of snow and ice, you know this behavior from hockey as hooking. Therefore, if you use your crosse in such a way that it grabs your opponent or otherwise puts him at a disadvantage, you are guilty of holding.

Equal Pressure
One area of frequent confusion is the issue of equal pressure when one player makes contact from the rear.
When the defender is behind the offensive player, he can only apply eqaul pressure to his back. The instant the defender applies more pressure, the official must be prepared to signal the appropriate foul. It can be holding, push with possession, or an illegal body check.
In order to be considered under one of these permitted behaviors, the player applying body contact pressure must have both hands on his crosse and use a shoulder, forearm or otherwise closed hand. In extreme cases, or if the player gaining advantage makes contact from behind the disadvantaged player, the situation likely crosses the line from holding to pushing [Rule 6.10] – a different foul to be discussed another time.
Enforcement
In all cases, holding is a technical foul. These fouls not serious in nature and cover all violations of the rules that are not specifically listed as Personal or Expulsion fouls under Rule 5.
As with all technical fouls, officials take action based upon whether the attacking or defending team has been disadvantaged and whether or not the ball is loose.
When the ball is loose and an official spots a holding behavior, he will use a mechanic known as play on. He will raise one arm straight up and announce "play on" to the field. He will keep his arm raised for the three to five seconds it takes for the situation to clarify itself. If the offended player or his team gain possession of the ball, the official will lower his arm and announce "play on over" to the field with no further consideration of the infraction. Since the offended team gained possession, the holding behavior did not create a serious enough disadvantage and gets ignored.
On the other hand, if the team that committed the holding behavior gains possession, the official will sound a whistle and award the ball to the offended team.If a player has possession of the ball and is held, there is a penalty. If the hold causes the player to lose the ball, throw the flag, sound the whistle and report the foul.
If the player maintains possession after the hold, the officials will use a mechanic known a slow whistle. When they spot the infraction by the defending team, the official will toss a flag and announce "flag down" to the field.
Regardless of where they are on the field, the team in possession may continue to move the ball toward their attack zone. Play continues until this threat results in a goal scored or the offended team. The play on also ends when the offensive team loses possessions, or if a team member carries the ball out of his attacking area.
When the slow whistle attack ends, the official will sound an immediate whistle, toss a flag, and dispatch the guilty player to the penalty area for thirty seconds.
If there is a goal scored while the flag down exists, the officials will sound the whistle and award the goal as usual. They will also announce the infraction and wipe out the technical. Personal fouls, however, are not wiped out by a goal.