LaxTV Forums | A Forum About The MCLA

Over the years, the mechanics for faceoff hand signals have changed.
Years ago, we pointed towards the faceoff official when our portion of the field was set.
It then became - point towards the midfield from your corner of the box, so theat they can see your arm better. (I won't even get into the horizontal or 45 degree question).
Now, with the wing officials up at the midfield, I've heard a couple different ideas;
1) Point in the direction YOU will be running
2) Both point in the direction the FACEOFF man will be running, as a reminder to him.

I suppose it doesn't really matter, but just curious what others in the group do.

laxfan25 wrote:Over the years, the mechanics for faceoff hand signals have changed.
Years ago, we pointed towards the faceoff official when our portion of the field was set.
It then became - point towards the midfield from your corner of the box, so theat they can see your arm better. (I won't even get into the horizontal or 45 degree question).
Now, with the wing officials up at the midfield, I've heard a couple different ideas;
1) Point in the direction YOU will be running
2) Both point in the direction the FACEOFF man will be running, as a reminder to him.

I suppose it doesn't really matter, but just curious what others in the group do.

I'd prefer to point the direction I'm running, since we're right on the line now and it's easy to get confused.

I've seen many things in this department. Point at the faceoff official/face-off guys, point perpendicular to the midfield line, point parallel to the midfield line.

Our area has been trained to point the direction the faceoff official should go, just as a reminder to him.

What does the most recent mechanics manual say??? Wasn't it last updated in like 1827, or something like that?!?!!

At zlax.net (John Hill's site), there are several downloadable files. One is a 2006 mechanics manual (updated with the new procedures) as well as Powerpoints of 1, 2 and 3 man mechanics.
Unfortunately the faceoff section doesn't say anything about how the wing officials should point. So I guess it's up to to the referee in his pre-game, but again, it's not really a big deal.