Before this Major League Lacrosse season a big deal was made about the league changing the balls they have used. Since its inception, MLL has used “grippy balls” that have tiny dimples in the ball, not unlike a golf ball. This is compared to the flat ball used by other lacrosse leagues including the NCAA. Here are two pictures to compare them. (Photo Credit: Lax All Stars)
Before the season, the league changed using the balls, claiming that dirt got stuck inside the tiny dimples and made the ball harder to see on television. The grippy ball, since it had the dimples, had a tendency to curve slightly on shots with high velocity. This made long distance shots and scoring much more interesting, and goalies had a harder time making saves.
This may seem like a minuscule part of the game, maybe only impacting the league in the slightest of ways. Maybe the players even over reacted to it, one might think. But after some research into the numbers, something in the league has changed.
Keep in mind, this season several MLL players did not miss the start of the season as they typically do. Usually MLL players will start the season with an NLL team, however, several opted for just MLL this season. This includes Brendan Mundorf, Kevin Buchanan, and Kyle Hartzell. The top players are playing, so scoring should be higher.
However, it is not.
Almost every MLL scoring statistic is down after eight games. The biggest impact is probably two point shots, which are down this year. There have been six two point goals through eight games this season and there were 15 at this time last year, including a game which had five two point goals on its own.
Why would this be a big impact? Two point goals are shot much further out than regular goals, and most of them are shot near 100 mph. With the distance and velocity the ball curves more than on other shots. This makes the ball move in different directions and is harder for the goaltender to save. Thus, this is making two point goals more of a rarity than in years past.
Interestingly, shooting percentage is also down, with this season seeing a .270 average and last season at this time it was .284. Teams are averaging .3 shots on net more (from 26 shots to 26.3 per game) than last year as well, though that would minimally impact the shooting percentage.
We reached out to Chesapeake Bayhawks head coach Dave Cottle who was vocally against the league eliminating the grippy ball. He told us, “The MLL had the best ball in lacrosse. It no longer does. The non grippy ball isn’t any more visible than the grippy one. Bring grippy ball back!”
Last year teams combined to average 24.5 points per game. This year it is down by an entire goal and is 23.4 points per game. The teams are averaging 11.7 goals per game on their own and last season it was 12.3.
With most of the American indoor players playing MLL only this season, the scoring should probably be up. Instead, it is down by an entire goal per game two weeks into the season, and two point shots have become a commodity. Does this all have to do with the lack of grippy ball?
These numbers don’t indicate anything other than scoring is down. Is defense just better than it was before? The only thing that changed this off season was the grippy ball, therefore, it becomes assumable that the cause is the league getting rid of the grippy ball.
