It's intense. It's a great workout. It's competitive. And it's great fun! Field hockey is a bit like soccer and a bit like hockey. There's lots of running, passing and shooting. Individual skills are important but like any team sport, the most satisfying part of playing is the thrill of sharing successes with your teammates.
FIELD HOCKEY
Field hockey is a popular sport for males and females in many countries around the world. It's played by more than 3 million people on five continents as both a leisure sport and at the hightest competitive level. It is simply known as "hockey" in most countries, but in countries like Canada where ice hockey is popular, we usually add "field" to its name.
"Fun Fact:
Field hockey is as fast and exciting to watch as it is to play with the ball travelling up to 150 kilometres per hour."
How to play Field Hockey
Field Hockey is traditionally played on grass or synthetic surfaces. Two teams of 11 players compete against each other using their 'hooked' sticks to hit, push, pass and dribble a small, hard, usually white, ball, with one aim in mind.
The team's object is to play the ball into their 'shooting circle' and, from there, hit or push the ball into the goal. To do that, they have to get the ball past the other team's goalkeeper, who protects the goal, and logically, tries to keep the ball out! The team with more goals after two 35-minute halves wins the game.
The match is officiated by two umpires. Each umpire generally controls half of the field.
Player positions
As already mentioned, every team must have a goalkeeper. The other 10 players are referred to as 'field players', and are dispersed over the field of play. The field players can be put into three general categories - attackers, defenders and midfielders. Attackers generally are on attack; defenders generally are on defence; and the midfielders do a bit of both!
“Fun Fact:
Men's field hockey has been an Olympic sport since 1908 and women's field hockey was added to the programme in 1980.”
THE FIELD OF PLAY
Hockey field measurements were (mostly) fixed before metrication, so even in metric-using countries, the field's dimensions are round numbers in imperial measurements.
The game is played on a 100 x 60 yard (91 x 55 metre) rectangular field. At each end there is a goal approximately 7 feet (2.2 metres) high and 12 feet (3.6 metres) wide, and a semi-circle 16 yards (15 metres) from the goal known as the 'arc', or 'shooting circle', with a dotted line 5 yards from the semi-circle. As well, there are lines across the field 25 yards (23 metres) from each end-line and in the centre of the field. A spot, called the penalty spot, is placed 7 yards from the centre of each goal.
In countries like Canada with cold winters, field hockey is played indoors during the off-season. This indoor version, known as Indoor Field Hockey differs from its outdoor parent at some levels. For example, the players may not raise the ball outside the shooting circle, nor hit it.
“Fun Fact:
India is the most powerful field hockey nation in Olympic history, winning six gold medals and 30 consecutive games between 1928 and 1956. ”
The Equipment
Field Players
Each one has a stick, about 3 feet (90 cm) long and traditionally made of wood, though now often made with fibreglass, kevlar and carbon fibre composites. The grip end of the stick is rounded with the left side flattening out halfway down the shaft. There is a hook at the bottom. The flat side of the hook is used to push, dribble, or hit a hard plastic ball. All sticks are right handed. Each field player normally wears a mouthguard and a shinguard.
Goalkeeper
This is the only player who can play the ball with all parts of his or her body. Goalkeepers wear complete protective gear that consists of a helmet, neck guard, chest protector, gloves, super-padded shin guards (known as guards), and kickers which cover their feet and allow them to kick the ball.
FIELD HOCKEY ORIGIN
Field hockey is so old that even historians aren't sure when it started. It is the oldest known ball-and-stick game and is believed to date from the earliest civilizations. The Arabs, Greeks, Persians and Romans each had their own versions of field hockey and traces of a stick game played by the Aztec Indians of South America have also been found. Hockey can also be identified with other early games, such as hurling and shinty and, during the Middle Ages, a French stick game called hoquet was played, and the English word may have derived from this.
“Fun Fact: Field hockey in 19th century England was played with a "ball" that was actually a solid cube of rubber. The London club, Teddington, introduced the more practical spherical ball.”
'Modern field hockey' developed in the British Isles and by the first half of the 1800s field hockey was quite popular. The first club was Blackheath, headquartered in southeast London. The club played on a large piece of open ground with crudely designed sticks. It was left to another London club called Teddington to modernize and refine the game by introducing several major rule changes including the ban of using hands and lifting sticks above the shoulders. They also instituted the striking circle, which was incorporated into the rules of the newly-founded Hockey Association in London in 1886. Today, field hockey is played all over the world by a variety of countries and is recognized as the second most popular team sport in the world, just behind soccer.
“Fun Fact: Field hockey coaches and officials from Canada are among the most qualified in the world.”
Find Out More About FIELD HOCKEY
Field Hockey Ontario
1185 Eglinton Ave. East, Suite 410 North York, ON M3C 3C6 416-426-7023 http://www.fho.ca
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