Page:Lacrosse- The National Game of Canada (New Edition).djvu/197

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174
DODGING AND CHECKING.

to spare the netting unnecesssry hard work. Learn to reverse your stick so as to bring either side to bear. When you hit with the stick above, give your wrist a turn to bring the netting flat on your opponent’s crosse. Do not try to hook the tip in his net-work.

Quickness in delivering the strokeShakspere’s aphorism may apply to checking in Lacrosse—“If't were done, when ’tis done, then ’t were well it were done quickly.” Free, strong wrists and arms, in sympathy with a quick body and mind, make the valuable checker. Fencing, as an exercise, brings out the necessary qualifications of a good checker, who sometimes anticipates, and is always ready for guard while acting on the attack. Very often it is absolutely necessary to check with one hand. Some of the finest checks are made thus, and every player should practice it, as it can often be done quicker than with two.

Persistency in checking is the marked individualism of Indian play. Wherever the ball falls, there under it, near it, or after it is a red-skin. Indeed, they carry their individual persistency in checking to such an extent when playing against