Page:Lacrosse- The National Game of Canada (New Edition).djvu/163

combinations of catching, which depend for success upon agility of body, as well as perfect at-homeness with the crosse. No one can be a good fielder without a good knowledge of its principles, as the occasions for it in general play are so frequent. Catching is always more difficult when you are running; and the player who can keep a cool head on the field is always the best catch. As you should be able as a dodger, to catch balls thrown past a checker, so should you cultivate the art of catching balls thrown past you, when your position as dodger is reversed. This latter art requires that you should have something of the "tee-totum" in your legs, and an eye quick as an eagle's. The sinking and rising movement in catching is of absolute importance to sure effective play. It perfects any catch, better secures the ball, saves the netting of your crosse, and is scientific and graceful. The different sweeps, deviations and curves described in the termination of catching, follow naturally, when the first principles are mastered; and no better example can be offered in this easy and elegant play, than the every-day Lacrosse of the Indians of Caughnawaga and St. Regis.