Lacrosse helmets: the NOCSAE standard, and which bodies require it.

Women's field-player headgear is a different product under a different standard, on women's headgear. This page covers the hard-shell helmet.

NOCSAE's helmet documents

NOCSAE lists five lacrosse helmet documents:

• ND041: the performance specification for newly manufactured lacrosse helmets with faceguard;
• ND042: the laboratory guide for certifying them;
• ND043: the specification for recertified lacrosse helmets;
• ND044: the laboratory guide for recertifying them;
• ND045: the specification for newly manufactured lacrosse face protectors.

ND041: the current edition

NOCSAE's ND041 page lists ND041-15m24 as current. The document is marked "Modified June 2024", carries a 1986 NOCSAE copyright line, and lists modifications or revisions dated July 2004, August 2004, June 2005, January 2008, February 2011, May 2012, October 2014, January 2015, June 2015, January 2017, February 2018 and June 2024. A search-result summary gave October 2015 as the effective date of ND041-15, but neither the NOCSAE page nor the document states it, so that date is unconfirmed.

NOCSAE separates a revision, a Standards Committee action that changes a critical test or performance value, from a modification, which is editorial. The June 2024 changes the document lists are: references to NOCSAE's general document ND001 replaced with the text itself; conditioning, construction and materials requirements brought in from ND001; formatting; and a new figure showing impact locations on the headform.

What the standard covers

• Scope: performance requirements for new lacrosse helmets as makers supply them, tested with a faceguard attached that is, or has been, tested to and complies with ND045 on the same helmet model.
• Tests, named only: a stability (roll-off) test comes before drop impact tests at set velocities and locations, at room and high temperature, on NOCSAE headforms.
• Pass or fail: no impact may exceed a severity index of 1200, and the lowest-velocity impacts in the table may not exceed 300.
• History: a June 2005 revision removed the lacrosse ball impact (projectile) test from this standard, and a February 2011 revision changed drop heights to drop velocities.
• Limits: ND041 says it does not claim to address all safety problems associated with its use.

What a helmet must carry

• The maker's name, the model and size, and the month and year of manufacture.
• Warnings that no helmet protects against all impacts and that common substances can damage it, and an outside warning not to use a cracked or deformed shell or deteriorated padding, and that severe head or neck injury, paralysis or death may still occur.
• Section 11.5: a helmet its maker says is not to be recertified must carry a warning saying so and stating the life of its certification, which may be no longer than 5 years from the date of manufacture.
• Section 11.6: makers of helmets meant to be recertified must give a recertification interval.
• Section 11.8: a replica of the NOCSAE mark must appear on the outside of the shell, and use of NOCSAE marks needs a licence agreement with NOCSAE.

NOCSAE's lacrosse standards page points to the National Athletic Equipment Reconditioners Association (NAERA) for recertification and reconditioning. NOCSAE's notices refer to the Safety Equipment Institute (SEI) as the certifier and keeper of the certified-product list; that NOCSAE calls SEI the only certifier comes from a search-result summary and was not confirmed on a fetched page. NOCSAE's next listed Standards Committee meetings are on 5 February 2027 and in July 2027.

Which bodies require what

World Lacrosse

• Men's field, Rule 17.1 (2025-2027, v1.0; a v1.1 dated January 2026 was not read): every player wears a protective helmet designed for lacrosse, with a facemask and a chinstrap fastened on both sides. The rule names no standard.
• Men's sixes, Rule 2.4.1M (2026-2028, v2.0): a lacrosse helmet with facemask and chinstrap fastened on both sides. From the 2027 Sixes World Championships, all players at World Lacrosse owned and sanctioned events must wear helmets and shoulder pads bearing applicable NOCSAE certification or a comparable standard in the product's country of origin.
• Box, Rule 2.5 (2026-2028, v2.0): a helmet with attached facemask and chinstrap, the helmet and facemask combination approved by NOCSAE or the CSA and passing a "ball and stick test": neither ball nor stick may pass through the mask and touch the face, and the mask must cover the whole face including the chin. Rule 2.5.4: the chin strap or chin cup stays firmly attached with continuous contact; a first failure means leaving the floor and a repeat is a minor penalty. Rule 2.8.2: no tape, characters, non-sponsor logos and the like added to the helmet.
• Goalkeepers: women's field Rule 6.A.20 (2025-2026, v1.0; a v1.1 dated March 2025 was not read) and sixes Rule 2.4.3 require the goalkeeper to wear a field lacrosse helmet, and from the 2027 Sixes World Championships sixes goalkeepers at World Lacrosse events need a helmet bearing NOCSAE certification or a comparable standard. See goalkeeper equipment.

NFHS boys' high school (from published change summaries)

• 2024, Rule 1-9-1 Article 1 and 1a: a lacrosse helmet meeting the NOCSAE standard with a visible warning label; chin pad and chin strap attached as the maker designed, secured at every attachment point.
• 2024, Rule 4-24-11: if a helmet comes off during play, play is suspended at once and the player leaves until the next dead ball after play resumes.
• 2026, Rule 6-5-2y: losing a helmet is an illegal procedure (technical foul), with the aim of getting chin straps worn properly. USA Lacrosse (27 January 2026) describes it as an illegal procedure unless the official judges the helmet was knocked off by direct contact to the head.
• 2026 points of emphasis (19 February 2026): helmets must meet NOCSAE standards and be worn as the maker intended, with chin straps always properly fastened.
• 2027, Rule 4-24-8: a helmet counts as lost once the chin strap is no longer on the chin, and play is suspended at once whether the ball is live or dead; Rule 6-5-2y adds that illegal contact by an opponent before the loss means no illegal-procedure foul.

NCAA and USA Lacrosse

NOCSAE said on 24 November 2014 that the rules of US Lacrosse (now USA Lacrosse), the NCAA, the NFHS and other organisations required lacrosse helmets to meet the NOCSAE standard. The current NCAA men's rule book and USA Lacrosse's youth rule books were not read, so their present helmet wording is not given here.

Lacrosse Canada

Lacrosse Canada's equipment regulations allow three set-ups: a NOCSAE-approved field lacrosse helmet, a CSA-approved hockey helmet with a CSA-approved hockey facemask, or a CSA-approved hockey helmet with a CSA-approved lacrosse facemask, and the page names the permitted CSA lacrosse facemask models. Its box equipment page calls a CSA hockey helmet with a lacrosse cage the most common box set-up. Its 2026 memo says helmets must have at least four points of contact, and that first-year officials, and all officials at a national championship, must wear a helmet with a visor. Lacrosse Canada's pages say "CSA-approved" without naming a CSA standard number.

Helmets and concussion

A search-result summary of USA Lacrosse's June 2023 concussion guidance, whose PDF could not be opened, says no current helmet or headgear can prevent concussion because helmet standards are written against severe brain injury and skull fracture; that wording is unconfirmed. A blow to the head or a suspected concussion needs medical care. Each body's concussion rules are on concussion by body.

Decertified helmets

On 24 November 2014 NOCSAE voided the makers' certifications of two lacrosse helmet models after finding they did not comply with ND041. The detail and what followed are on recalls and decertification.