Other Essential Items for Your Lacrosse Goalie Bag
If you’ve been playing goalie for any amount of time you’ve likely already got all the standard lacrosse goalie gear to be protected in the net.
Today I want to cover some other miscellaneous pieces of gear that I always carry in my lacrosse bag. Some might argue these are non-essential items for your bag, but essential items for your lacrosse goalie bag sounded like a better post title.
Looking through my goalie bag after you pull out the helmet, chest protector, Warrior Nutt Hut, and goalie gloves, here’s what remains.
Eye Black
I’m a big fan of eye black.
It reduces glare from the sun and allows you to pickup shots from your opponents easier. Plus it just looks and feels cool.
Personal opinion, don’t go with the Tom Brady thin slivers, you’re better than that.
I much prefer a warrior-esque paint job or even the Bryce Harper style 7’s under my eyes.
Edit: One reader just informed me that eye black rules where changed for the high school level in 2016. Thanks for that info. So I guess only at the collegiate level can you go wild with the eye black. Here’s the rule:
Rule 2, Section 17: Eye black must be one solid stroke with no logos/numbers/letters and shall not extend further than the width of the eye socket or below the cheekbone.
Well that’s a buzzkill. Thanks High School lacrosse rules. Have any referees really called a penalty on a player because his eye black extended further than the width of the eye socket or below the cheekbone? Foul is on white 1-7…looking too sweet..30 second technical.
Most goalies reserve eye black only for the games due to the mess.
But one word of warning. Eye black definitely gives your vision a different “feel”. So if you’re not accustomed to using eye black try it out a few times in practice first.
I never want goalies to try something out for the first time – whether its a new stick, new gloves, new save technique, or eye black – in a game when everything matters. That’s what practice is for.
Eye black is useful for snow games as well to reduce sun glare off of the snow.
Grab a tube of eye black from Amazon, it’s really cheap.
Training Equipment
I also keep several small training items in my lacrosse goalie bag. I’ll bust these out for my pre-game warmup or when doing drills by myself during the summer.
Jump Rope
A jump rope session should be a standard part of every lacrosse goalie warmup.
Jumping rope is a simple exercise that builds the explosiveness and quickness that results in more saves.
Want to improve your endurance, explosiveness, balance, and footwork all at the same time? Grab your jump rope.
At the measly cost of $10, you won’t find a cheaper or more effective piece of lacrosse goalie training equipment.
I could go on and on about all the benefits of jumping rope for your health and your lacrosse goalie game but better you trust me and just grab the rope above on Amazon and starting jumping for at least 10 minutes a day.
Agility Ladder
The agility ladder folds up to be super compact and is something a lacrosse goalie can use to develop conditioning and great foot work.
Agility ladder on Amazon for $13.99.
Resistance Bands
These bands also occupy very little space in the bag but are great for working the muscles in our legs and hips that create explosion in a lacrosse goalie.
Get into your lacrosse goalie stance and put a resistance band around your legs, above the knee and perform slow side steps. You can also perform the agility ladder drills using a resistance band.
The kit above offers bands with different levels of resistance so you can start light and work your way up to heavy.
Resistance Bands on Amazon for $11.95.
Turf and Grass Cleats
I played my home games on turf. Seems like more and more stadiums are switching to the smart turf that’s easier to maintain but there’s still plenty of grass fields out there.
Thus as lacrosse goalies we need to carry both grass and turf cleats.
Even sometimes on grass fields if the crease is rock hard I’ll recommend my goalies use the turf cleats.
Let the conditions dictate which cleats you use but a goalie should be prepared with both sets of cleats.
Here’s the ones I like:
Grass Cleats – Warrior Men’s 2nd Degree Lacrosse Cleats
Turf Cleats – Warrior Adonis Turf Cleats
Extra Athletic Cup
Never step into goal without wearing a cup. Seriously don’t go it.
That’s why I always carried an extra cup in my bag. If for some weird reason my Warrior Nutt Hut went missing or I forgot to put it back into my bag after checking out my gear or cleaning my bag.
That’s why I always carried a second emergency cup as a backup.
Just a standard cheap athletic cup like the McDavid suffices as the backup. While it doesn’t offer as much protection, it’s overkill to carry two Nut Hutts when your nuts can only live in one hutt.
Worse case scenario: enact the Goalie Cup Rule.
What’s the goalie cup rule a young attackman will ask you? That’s where you let me (the goalie) borrow your cup for practice today because I forgot mine. No questions asked. Respect the keeper.
But if you don’t want to enact that rule throw an extra cup into your bag for emergencies.
Extra Lacrosse Shorts
In college our coach ran a tight ship. If someone showed up late for practice or was missing some gear the whole team was doing sprints.
You didn’t want to be the guy who made the whole team do sprints!
I always had a permanent fear of showing up to practice directly from class and not having any lacrosse shorts to play in.
So I always kept an extra pair of lacrosse shorts in my bag.
I also used them as undershorts. I’d put on a pair of lacrosse shorts, put on my athletic cup over that, and then put on another pair of lacrosse shorts.
This made the athletic cup way more comfortable and also gave me a little more leg padding when I wasn’t using my goalie pants.
Extra Protection
I’m a fan of lacrosse goalies getting padded up, especially for practices. So the following pieces of gear lived in my bag.
I wouldn’t use them for every practice but some days when I wasn’t feeling like getting beat up or our coach gave me the heads up there were going to be a lot of shooting drills, I’d throw on the extra protection.
Shin Guards
Getting hit in the shins sucks. No other way to say it.
So to avoid the devastating lacrosse ball to shin bone contact and the potential injuries like shin splints or even bone breaks, I recommend goalies use shin guards. Any pair of soccer shin guard would suffice. Throw a pair of sweats or long socks over top if you don’t want the guards to show.
These guards from Brine are great because the velcro offers easy on / easy off access.
Get them on Amazon for $25.
Goalie Pants
Goalie pants are going to give you extra thigh and hip protection.
Using goalie pants can help you avoid situations like this:
In place of goalie pants I’ve also seen youth goalies use football pants with the hip, thigh, and knee pads. Does the same.
These Brine Ventilators are the best goalie pants I’ve tried. The concern with lacrosse goalie pants is that the goalie is going to lose a lot of mobility. While its true you do lose some, the Brine Ventilators are flexible enough such that its not extremely noticeable.
Wear them in practice and when you remove them for games or scrimmages you’ll find you’re that much quicker.
Buy on Brine Ventilators on Amazon.
Thick Sweats
In addition to the lacrosse shorts I also kept a pair of lacrosse goalie sweats in my bag.
A good pair of thick sweats will help take some of the sting out of shots to the legs (assuming you’re not wearing other protection).
I loved wearing sweats when I played, I still do. I’m wearing sweats right now as I write this. In fact I wrote a whole post about goalies and sweatpants.
Men’s Heavyweight Sweatpants on Amazon for $14.99.
Other Miscellaneous Items
Digging through my bag here are the other items I found.
Athletic Tape
For taping up my goalie stick or my ankles. $2 per roll on Amazon.
Or if I wanted to make it clear I wasn’t wearing any shin guards under my sweats, I’d roll up the sweats and give them a revolution of tape just to make sure they didn’t go anywhere.
Lacrosse Balls
Pretty much goes without saying. If you ever want to play catch or wall ball you’re going to need some lacrosse balls.
I always kept at least a few balls in my gear bag.
Buy ECD Mint balls on Amazon.
Q Ball
The Q ball is a ball with different numbers written all over it. We’ll use this ball for concentration drills that really help us focus on seeing the shot.
Alternatively you can make your own Q ball by simply writing numbers on a lacrosse ball or a tennis ball. Or you can get the real thing from Amazon here.
Get a Q Ball on Amazon for $9.99.
Reaction Ball
This odd shaped ball is going to bounce in funny and unpredictable directions when it hits the ground. That makes it perfect for helping to develop our reaction time as a lacrosse goalie.
There’s a host of drills I like to do with reaction balls and thus I always kept one in the my bag.
Get a Reaction Ball on Amazon.
Leatherman Tool
Even if you are not your team’s dedicated stick ninja there will come a time when you need to make adjustments to your wand.
Having a Leatherman tool handy in your bag is perfect. You can cut sidewall string, you can remove and tighten screws, you can do any number of random tasks with this little guy.
Get a Leatherman Tool from Amazon – $40
Lacrosse Screws
You never know when you’re going to need a screw. I kept a few extra in my bag at all times.
Pick up a pack like this on Amazon, throw in your gear bag, and I guarantee you’ll be the team savior at some point in your goalie career.
Trash Bags
Inevitably you’ll wind up practicing in the rain or snow and when that day comes it’s always nice to have a few large trash bags available.
If you have no shelter, you can throw the trash bag over your gear bag while you practice making sure it doesn’t get soaked and your valuables stay dry.
After practice you can toss the wet gear into the trash bag so it doesn’t damage the other things in your gear bag.
There are tons of uses for large trash bags so do yourself a favor and toss a few in your goalie gear bag.
Trash Bags on Amazon
Extra Butt End Cap
If you’re the type of goalie that prefers to use a butt end cap instead of a pure tape job you’ll want to throw at least one extra in your bag in case of emergencies.
I like these Rocket Mesh Tape Saver Butt Ends. As the name suggests, saves a lot of tape work and still feels really nice when cradling or throwing outlet passes.
The Gear Bag
When we played in college our team ordered the lacrosse bags you see in the main photo of this post.
If your school doesn’t provide lacrosse gear bags you’ll need something to throw all this gear into.
Now the bag I recommend the most is the – Warrior Black Hole
There’s plenty of good lacrosse bags out there. I like this one because it has ample space and also an external stick attachment device that you put your goalie stick in.
Get the Warrior Black Hole on Amazon.
Last but not least, you might pack a comb and a vanity mirror in your bag if you’re trying to qualify for Bro Bibles all flow team.
Conclusion
Besides the normal protective pieces of gear, I think there are other important things that lacrosse goalies should keep in their gear bags.
Maybe these items are not essential but at certain times you’ll be glad you had them.
Buy yourself a large gear bag like the Warrior Black Hole and store these items in your bag for when you need them on a rainy day or on a sunny day perfect for lacrosse for that matter.
Until next time! Coach Damon
Anything else you guys have in your lacrosse bag that I missed? Would love you hear it. Leave me a comment down below.
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Always carry your own Instant Cold Packs!
Or some gum remover for cleaning crews, it contains a liquid that flash freezes. It has the same effect, but you don’t have to hold it on, although cold packs will definitely help for certain places. No matter what I am not spraying my inner thigh.
http://amzn.to/2msYdaf
Good one Bill. Thanks for adding that!
Multiple head screwdriver for fixing lose screws
Great add Andrew! Can’t believe I forgot that one. I always had a Leatherman tool in my bag to fix screws and whatever else. Thanks for the comment.
With my daughter being a tall goalie (5’9″), she uses baseball catcher’s shin guards. Other teams would shoot at her knees and the catcher’s shin guards cover them. You can’t play if you can’t move.
Thanks for adding that Dave. Does she have good mobility with the catcher’s shin guards?
Large plastic garbage bag. To put the lacrosse bag into during rainy practice/games. Or, as our friends in the great white north (who play field lacrosse during the winter!) have taught me, use a large Rubbermaid tote instead of a bag. The even come with wheels and a handle if you don’t want to carry it around.
Solid addition. Thanks Tom.
I personally do not wear any additional leg protection but I always carry around shin guards because sometimes you can get a nasty shot to the shin and you will be a little more scared so you chuck on the pad and you are good to go.
Good idea. I do recommend shin padding during practice but even if you don’t wear it, having it has a backup is smart. I remember once I took 2 crank shots in the exact same place on the thigh in back to back plays and I ended up taping an extra glove to my thigh cause if I took another shot there I might have literally died.
just a few more small things that will come in handy for teammates and yourself: Bandaids, a must have, as lacrosse players seem to be particularly fond of the turf. Hair elastics, if you are a womens lacrosse player (someone always seems to forget them), and extra socks in case yours decide to take the hole-y path in life.
Those are great ones Rina! Thanks for sharing. Stay hole-y
I personally will bring 3 pairs of field cleats. One old pair for rainy days, one low top for extra mobility, and one high top if i want to keep my ankles protected.