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Traditional Thursday: Old Ball Looks Like Traditional

I found this older lacrosse ball a while back, and it was a truly great find. I was running a camp, and doing a ball hunt, and I thought I’d found just another lost nugget at first. Then I pulled it out from under the bleachers, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was totally weird!

I believe the year was 2002 or 2003, when Brine released this new ball, and they called it The Championship Ball. The reception to the next sphere was mixed, and I don’t think it ever made its way into NCAA D1 games, but may have seen time at some practices. It never took off, cost more than a regular ball, and before long it had been relegated to being a weird tangental experiment in someone’s lacrosse gear collection.

The idea behind the ball was likely to increase grip on the ball, and assuming the triangular dimples functioned similarly to how they do on golf balls, another impact could have been increased speed, and curve, on shots. It really remind me of a traditionally strung stick for some reason:

old_vintage_lacrosse_ball

The current MLL ball is different, but uses a similar concept. Instead of creating triangular dimpled indents, the MLL has used a ball that has small bumps on it, or ridges in it, depending on how you look at it. Most MLL players I have spoken with like the orange grippy balls, and believe it does add grip and hold.

mll lacrosse ball by Brine lacrosse
I want a couple of these!