History of field hockey
Encyclopedia
Games similar to field hockey
have a long history around the world. The modern standard variant of field hockey was developed in nineteenth century England
.
game of hurling
which dates from at least 1272 B.C in Ireland. In Inner Mongolia
, China
, the Daur people have been playing Beikou
(a game similar to modern field hockey) for about 1,000 years. European settlers in Chile
in the 16th century described a hockey-like game of the Araucano Indians called chueca (or 'the twisted one' from the twisted end of the stick used by players). In Western Australia
, early white settlers witnessed Noongar
people played a game called dumbung, in which bent sticks were used to hit a ball made of dried sap
from the native pear
tree.http://trails.heritage.wa.gov.au/ht_pdf/Dumbleyung.pdf (The game is believed to be the source of the name of Dumbleyung
, a town near where it was played.)
wrote in 1853 that On the common some young men were playing at hockey. That old-fashioned game, now very uncommon in England, except at schools.... Hockey's popularity increased with that of other team games. A version of the game played in south-east London was rougher than the modern version, played on a very large field (247m by 64m), and used a cube of black rubber
and rough sticks planed on one side.
The modern game was developed on the other side of London by Middlesex
cricket
clubs, especially Teddington Hockey Club . The members of these clubs were looking for winter exercise, but did not particularly care for football. In 1871, members of the Teddington cricket club, who had recently moved to play in Bushy Park
, were looking for a winter activity. They experimented with a ‘stick’ game, based loosely on the rules of association football.
Teddington played the game on the smooth outfield of their cricket pitch
and used a cricket ball
, so allowing smooth and predictable motion. By 1874 they had begun to draw up rules for their game, including banning the raising of the stick above shoulder height and stipulating that a shot at goal must take place within the circle in front of it. An association was formed in 1875, which dissolved after seven years, but in 1886 the Hockey Association was formed by seven London clubs and representatives from Trinity College, Cambridge
. Blackheath were one of the founder members, but refused to accept the rules drawn up by the other clubs and left to found the National Hockey Union. The Union failed, but the Association grew rapidly.
They rejected a form of the game that involved a 7oz (200g) rubber cube, catching, marking and scrimmaging, based on rugby football, at the time favoured by the Blackheath club. The Teddington club chose to limit the number per side to eleven, and preferred to play with old cricket balls. They also introduced the idea of the striking circle (‘the dee’ or 'D'), and they played several games in Bushy Park, in the winter of 1871. Clubs were also set up in Richmond and Surbiton
in
1874, and inter-club matches were played between them and Teddington. The game grew sporadically, as the clubs didn’t always agree on the rules!
In the late 19th century, largely due to the British Army
, the game spread throughout the British Empire
, leading to the first international competition in 1895 (Ireland 3, Wales
0). The International Rules Board was founded in 1895, and hockey first appeared at the Olympic Games
as a men's competition at 1908 Olympic Games
in London, with only three teams: England
, Ireland
and Scotland
. Men's hockey became a permanent fixture at the Olympics at the 1928 Olympic Games
, at Amsterdam
.
The first step towards an international structuring occurred in 1909, when England and Belgium
agreed to recognize each other for international competitions, soon joined in by the French
federation. In 1924, the International Hockey Federation
(FIH, Fédération Internationale de Hockey) was founded in Paris
, under the initiative of the French man, Paul Léautey, as a response to hockey's omission from the 1924 Paris Game
. The founding members were Austria
, Belgium
, Czechoslovakia
, France
, Hungary
, Spain
, and Switzerland
. The development of the FIH owes a lot to the work of Réné George Frank, a Belgian, in the years after the Second World War until the 1970s. Men's hockey united under the FIH in 1970, when the Hockey Association joined and the International Rules Board became part of the FIH's structure.
The game had been taken to India
by British servicemen, and the first clubs formed there in Calcutta in 1885. The Beighton Cup
and the Aga Khan
tournament had commenced within ten years. Entering the Olympic Games in 1928, India won all five of its games without conceding a goal, and went on to win in 1932 until 1956, and then in 1964 and 1980. Pakistan
won in 1960, 1968, and 1984.
The International Hockey Federation has continued to grow and now consists of 112 member associations, spread around five continent
s.
By the early 1970s there were 22 associations with women's sections in the FIH and 36 associations in the IFWHA. Discussions were started about a common rule book. The FIH introduced competitive tournaments in 1974, forcing the acceptance of the principle of competitive hockey by the IFWHA in 1973. It took until 1982 for the two bodies to merge, but this allowed the introduction of women's hockey to the 1980 Olympic Games
, where, as in the men's game, Australia, Germany, and the Netherlands have been consistently strong.
In the early 1970s, the "synthetic grass
" fields began to be used for hockey, with the first Olympic Games on this surface being held at the 1976 Montreal edition
.
Synthetic pitches are now mandatory for all the international tournaments and for most of the national competitions. While hockey is still played on grass fields at some local levels and lesser national divisions, it has been replaced by synthetic turf almost everywhere in the western world.
The game, as well as the material used to play it, has taken a definitive turn with the introduction of the synthetic field, gaining in speed, losing, some would say, in skills. What is clear is that the game has deeply evolved. In order to take into account the specificities of this surface, new tactics, new techniques (such as the indian dribble
) have been developed and new rules have been settled, often, in order to frame, these new techniques. Regarding the evolution of the hockey player material, the sticks have changed shape, with the bent head at the bottom, which used to be about 15 centimetres long, becoming much stubbier. The extra length was no longer necessary, as the ball travelled much straighter on the flatter synthetic fields. The shorter length made playing the ball with the "backhand" (playing with the head of the stick to the player's left, with the head rotated 180 degrees from its usual position) much easier, increasing the speed with which this tactic, often used for evasive manoeuvres, could be used. It also makes trapping the ball by placing the entire stick on the ground, with the point of the head resting on the ground to the player's left, possible, and this stopping technique is now universal for trapping the ball at penalty corners. The sticks also tend to become more and more stiff as to hit the ball harder. Fibreglass
, carbon fibre and kevlar
were first applied to the traditional wood core in early 1970s. Sticks with an aluminium
core have been produced but are now prohibited due to the danger they pose when broken. Wooden sticks are less and less common, and players are now playing with sticks entirely made of synthetic composite material
s.
The goalkeeper equipment has followed the same trend, becoming more and more able to resist to strength of the balls hit by these new generation sticks. Helmets have become compulsory, padding is thicker and of more shock-absorbing (and reflecting) foam material, and more areas of the body are padded. The new equipment is very expensive and is often a considerable burden for clubs or individual goalkeepers to purchase. The composition of the hockey ball has also changed, from a leather
ball with a seam similar to a cricket
ball, to a seamless, usually dimpled hard plastic
ball. These plastic balls are cheaper, more durable, more consistent in their behaviour, and are unaffected by water; a key requirement in water-moderated synthetic fields used in elite-level hockey.
Ancillary player equipment has also changed. The studded boots for grass fields are banned (and were in any case very uncomfortable) on synthetics, and have been replaced with boots specifically designed for synthetic turf. Shin guard
s have improved padding. Many players have taken to wearing padded gloves, particularly on their left hand, both to protect against contact and allow them to scrape that hand (while holding the stick) across the synthetic turf without injury. Finally, the wearing of mouthguard
s to protect the teeth is now compulsory for safety in many countries.
Some of these rules changes:
Field hockey
Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
have a long history around the world. The modern standard variant of field hockey was developed in nineteenth century England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Games similar to hockey outside the West
Stick and ball games with some similarities to field hockey include the IrishIreland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
game of hurling
Hurling
Hurling is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic origin, administered by the Gaelic Athletic Association, and played with sticks called hurleys and a ball called a sliotar. Hurling is the national game of Ireland. The game has prehistoric origins, has been played for at least 3,000 years, and...
which dates from at least 1272 B.C in Ireland. In Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the northern region of the country. Inner Mongolia shares an international border with the countries of Mongolia and the Russian Federation...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, the Daur people have been playing Beikou
Beikou
Beikou is a game similar to field hockey or street hockey. It has been played for about 1,000 years by the Daur people, an ethnic group from Inner Mongolia, China....
(a game similar to modern field hockey) for about 1,000 years. European settlers in Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
in the 16th century described a hockey-like game of the Araucano Indians called chueca (or 'the twisted one' from the twisted end of the stick used by players). In Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
, early white settlers witnessed Noongar
Noongar
The Noongar are an indigenous Australian people who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the south coast...
people played a game called dumbung, in which bent sticks were used to hit a ball made of dried sap
Plant sap
Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. It transports water and nutrients throughout the plant....
from the native pear
Xylomelum
Xylomelum is a genus of six species in the plant family Proteaceae. They are native to Australia, growing in the form of tall shrubs and trees...
tree.http://trails.heritage.wa.gov.au/ht_pdf/Dumbleyung.pdf (The game is believed to be the source of the name of Dumbleyung
Dumbleyung, Western Australia
Dumbleyung is a town and shire in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, south-east of Perth between Wagin and Lake Grace on State Route 107.-History:...
, a town near where it was played.)
Modern hockey
A game called hockey was being played in English public schools in the early 19th century. Lord LyttonEdward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton
Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton PC , was an English politician, poet, playwright, and novelist. He was immensely popular with the reading public and wrote a stream of bestselling dime-novels which earned him a considerable fortune...
wrote in 1853 that On the common some young men were playing at hockey. That old-fashioned game, now very uncommon in England, except at schools.... Hockey's popularity increased with that of other team games. A version of the game played in south-east London was rougher than the modern version, played on a very large field (247m by 64m), and used a cube of black rubber
Rubber
Natural rubber, also called India rubber or caoutchouc, is an elastomer that was originally derived from latex, a milky colloid produced by some plants. The plants would be ‘tapped’, that is, an incision made into the bark of the tree and the sticky, milk colored latex sap collected and refined...
and rough sticks planed on one side.
The modern game was developed on the other side of London by Middlesex
Middlesex
Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...
cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
clubs, especially Teddington Hockey Club . The members of these clubs were looking for winter exercise, but did not particularly care for football. In 1871, members of the Teddington cricket club, who had recently moved to play in Bushy Park
Bushy Park
- External links :***...
, were looking for a winter activity. They experimented with a ‘stick’ game, based loosely on the rules of association football.
Teddington played the game on the smooth outfield of their cricket pitch
Cricket pitch
In the game of cricket, the cricket pitch consists of the central strip of the cricket field between the wickets - 1 chain or 22 yards long and 10 feet wide. The surface is very flat and normally covered with extremely short grass though this grass is soon removed by wear at the ends of the...
and used a cricket ball
Cricket ball
A cricket ball is a hard, solid leather ball used to play cricket. Constructed of cork and leather, a cricket ball is heavily regulated by cricket law at first class level...
, so allowing smooth and predictable motion. By 1874 they had begun to draw up rules for their game, including banning the raising of the stick above shoulder height and stipulating that a shot at goal must take place within the circle in front of it. An association was formed in 1875, which dissolved after seven years, but in 1886 the Hockey Association was formed by seven London clubs and representatives from Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
. Blackheath were one of the founder members, but refused to accept the rules drawn up by the other clubs and left to found the National Hockey Union. The Union failed, but the Association grew rapidly.
They rejected a form of the game that involved a 7oz (200g) rubber cube, catching, marking and scrimmaging, based on rugby football, at the time favoured by the Blackheath club. The Teddington club chose to limit the number per side to eleven, and preferred to play with old cricket balls. They also introduced the idea of the striking circle (‘the dee’ or 'D'), and they played several games in Bushy Park, in the winter of 1871. Clubs were also set up in Richmond and Surbiton
Surbiton
Surbiton, a suburban area of London in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, is situated next to the River Thames, with a mixture of Art-Deco courts, more recent residential blocks and grand, spacious 19th century townhouses blending into a sea of semi-detached 20th century housing estates...
in
1874, and inter-club matches were played between them and Teddington. The game grew sporadically, as the clubs didn’t always agree on the rules!
In the late 19th century, largely due to the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
, the game spread throughout the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
, leading to the first international competition in 1895 (Ireland 3, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
0). The International Rules Board was founded in 1895, and hockey first appeared at the Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
as a men's competition at 1908 Olympic Games
1908 Summer Olympics
The 1908 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the IV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in 1908 in London, England, United Kingdom. These games were originally scheduled to be held in Rome. At the time they were the fifth modern Olympic games...
in London, with only three teams: England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
and Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. Men's hockey became a permanent fixture at the Olympics at the 1928 Olympic Games
1928 Summer Olympics
The 1928 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the IX Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1928 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Amsterdam had bid for the 1920 and 1924 Olympic Games, but had to give way to war-victim Antwerp, Belgium, and Pierre de...
, at Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
.
The first step towards an international structuring occurred in 1909, when England and Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
agreed to recognize each other for international competitions, soon joined in by the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
federation. In 1924, the International Hockey Federation
International Hockey Federation
The International Field Hockey Federation is the global governing body of field hockey...
(FIH, Fédération Internationale de Hockey) was founded in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, under the initiative of the French man, Paul Léautey, as a response to hockey's omission from the 1924 Paris Game
1924 Summer Olympics
The 1924 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the VIII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1924 in Paris, France...
. The founding members were Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, and Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. The development of the FIH owes a lot to the work of Réné George Frank, a Belgian, in the years after the Second World War until the 1970s. Men's hockey united under the FIH in 1970, when the Hockey Association joined and the International Rules Board became part of the FIH's structure.
The game had been taken to India
Field hockey in India
Hockey is the national sport of India.The Indian men's hockey team is the most successful hockey team in Olympic history with 8 gold, 1 silver, and 2 bronze medals.-New Committee :...
by British servicemen, and the first clubs formed there in Calcutta in 1885. The Beighton Cup
Beighton Cup
Beighton Cup is a field hockey tournament. Instituted in 1895, it is organised by Bengal Hockey Association and is usually held on the Mohun Bagan ground on the Maidan in Kolkata in India. The Beighton Cup was presented by T.D. Beighton, Legal Remembrancer of the Government of Bengal, and was run...
and the Aga Khan
Aga Khan
Aga Khan is the hereditary title of the Imam of the largest branch of the Ismā'īlī followers of the Shī‘a faith. They affirm the Imamat of the descendants of Ismail ibn Jafar, eldest son of Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, while the larger Twelver branch of Shi`ism follows Ismail's younger brother Musa...
tournament had commenced within ten years. Entering the Olympic Games in 1928, India won all five of its games without conceding a goal, and went on to win in 1932 until 1956, and then in 1964 and 1980. Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
won in 1960, 1968, and 1984.
The International Hockey Federation has continued to grow and now consists of 112 member associations, spread around five continent
Continent
A continent is one of several very large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents—they are : Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.Plate tectonics is...
s.
Women's hockey
Women's hockey developed separately from men's hockey. Women do not seem to have played hockey widely before the modern era. Women's hockey was first played at British Universities and schools, and the first club, Molesey Ladies Hockey Club, was founded in 1887. The first national association was the Irish Ladies Hockey Union in 1894, and though rebuffed by the Hockey Association, women's hockey grew rapidly around the world. This led to the formation of the International Federation of Women's Hockey Associations (IFWHA) in 1927, though this did not include initially many continental European countries where women played as sections of men's associations and were affiliated to the FIH. The IFWHA held conferences every three years, and the tournaments associated with these were the primary IFWHA competitions. These tournaments were non-competitive until 1975.By the early 1970s there were 22 associations with women's sections in the FIH and 36 associations in the IFWHA. Discussions were started about a common rule book. The FIH introduced competitive tournaments in 1974, forcing the acceptance of the principle of competitive hockey by the IFWHA in 1973. It took until 1982 for the two bodies to merge, but this allowed the introduction of women's hockey to the 1980 Olympic Games
1980 Summer Olympics
The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Moscow in the Soviet Union. In addition, the yachting events were held in Tallinn, and some of the preliminary matches and the quarter-finals of the football tournament...
, where, as in the men's game, Australia, Germany, and the Netherlands have been consistently strong.
The synthetic revolution
Artificial turf
Artificial turf is a surface manufactured from synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commercial applications as well...
" fields began to be used for hockey, with the first Olympic Games on this surface being held at the 1976 Montreal edition
1976 Summer Olympics
The 1976 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1976. Montreal was awarded the rights to the 1976 Games on May 12, 1970, at the 69th IOC Session in Amsterdam, over the bids of Moscow and...
.
Synthetic pitches are now mandatory for all the international tournaments and for most of the national competitions. While hockey is still played on grass fields at some local levels and lesser national divisions, it has been replaced by synthetic turf almost everywhere in the western world.
The game, as well as the material used to play it, has taken a definitive turn with the introduction of the synthetic field, gaining in speed, losing, some would say, in skills. What is clear is that the game has deeply evolved. In order to take into account the specificities of this surface, new tactics, new techniques (such as the indian dribble
Indian dribble
The Indian dribble is a field hockey technique, first appearing in the 1956 Olympics. It consists of pushing the ball rapidly from right to left and then from left to right repeatedly. It was named after the superb dribbling skills of the Indian and Pakistani teams.-History:It was introduced by...
) have been developed and new rules have been settled, often, in order to frame, these new techniques. Regarding the evolution of the hockey player material, the sticks have changed shape, with the bent head at the bottom, which used to be about 15 centimetres long, becoming much stubbier. The extra length was no longer necessary, as the ball travelled much straighter on the flatter synthetic fields. The shorter length made playing the ball with the "backhand" (playing with the head of the stick to the player's left, with the head rotated 180 degrees from its usual position) much easier, increasing the speed with which this tactic, often used for evasive manoeuvres, could be used. It also makes trapping the ball by placing the entire stick on the ground, with the point of the head resting on the ground to the player's left, possible, and this stopping technique is now universal for trapping the ball at penalty corners. The sticks also tend to become more and more stiff as to hit the ball harder. Fibreglass
Glass-reinforced plastic
Fiberglass , is a fiber reinforced polymer made of a plastic matrix reinforced by fine fibers of glass. It is also known as GFK ....
, carbon fibre and kevlar
Kevlar
Kevlar is the registered trademark for a para-aramid synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed at DuPont in 1965, this high strength material was first commercially used in the early 1970s as a replacement for steel in racing tires...
were first applied to the traditional wood core in early 1970s. Sticks with an aluminium
Aluminium
Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....
core have been produced but are now prohibited due to the danger they pose when broken. Wooden sticks are less and less common, and players are now playing with sticks entirely made of synthetic composite material
Composite material
Composite materials, often shortened to composites or called composition materials, are engineered or naturally occurring materials made from two or more constituent materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties which remain separate and distinct at the macroscopic or...
s.
The goalkeeper equipment has followed the same trend, becoming more and more able to resist to strength of the balls hit by these new generation sticks. Helmets have become compulsory, padding is thicker and of more shock-absorbing (and reflecting) foam material, and more areas of the body are padded. The new equipment is very expensive and is often a considerable burden for clubs or individual goalkeepers to purchase. The composition of the hockey ball has also changed, from a leather
Leather
Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...
ball with a seam similar to a cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
ball, to a seamless, usually dimpled hard plastic
Plastic
A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs...
ball. These plastic balls are cheaper, more durable, more consistent in their behaviour, and are unaffected by water; a key requirement in water-moderated synthetic fields used in elite-level hockey.
Ancillary player equipment has also changed. The studded boots for grass fields are banned (and were in any case very uncomfortable) on synthetics, and have been replaced with boots specifically designed for synthetic turf. Shin guard
Shin guard
A shin guard or shin pad is a piece of equipment worn on the front of a player’s shin to protect them from injury. These are commonly used in sports including association football, baseball, ice hockey, field hockey, lacrosse, rugby, cricket, and other sports...
s have improved padding. Many players have taken to wearing padded gloves, particularly on their left hand, both to protect against contact and allow them to scrape that hand (while holding the stick) across the synthetic turf without injury. Finally, the wearing of mouthguard
Mouthguard
A mouthguard is a protective device for the mouth that covers the teeth and gums to prevent and reduce injury to the teeth, arches, lips and gums...
s to protect the teeth is now compulsory for safety in many countries.
Rules
The rules of the game have widely changed. The main issues have been- To adapt the game to the new synthetic fields introduced in 1980s.
- To enhance comprehension from non-players in order to gain TV coverage
Some of these rules changes:
- The FIH eliminated the offside ruleOffside (field hockey)There is currently no offside rule in field hockey. There were prior offside rules, rules that restricted the positioning of players from the attacking team in a way similar to the offside rule in soccer. The offside rules were changed as the rules of field hockey changed...
(similar to offside in footballOffside (football)Offside is a law in football which states that if a player is in an offside position when the ball is touched or played by a teammate, he may not become actively involved in the play...
) in the mid-1990s in order to increase scoring opportunities. - Constant modifications of the penalty cornerPenalty corner (field hockey)The penalty corner or short corner is a special and important phase in the development of a field hockey match.Also called "PC" or simply "penalty", it is awarded to the offending team when the defending team committed a foul in its circle or a particularly bad foul in its defending quarter...
rules in order to minimize its importance in the game and its readability. - Limitation of the bow of sticks in order to limit the increasing use and power of drag flickDrag flick (field hockey)In field hockey, the drag flick is a specialist scoring shot usually played as a set piece during penalty corners, that appeared in the 1990s. It was introduced to the outdoor game by Dutch international Taco van den Honert in the summer of 1992, after a change in the penalty corner rules...
s.
See also
- Field hockey at the Summer OlympicsField hockey at the Summer OlympicsField hockey was introduced at the Summer Olympic Games as a men's competition at the 1908 Games in London, with six teams, including four from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland....
- Champions TrophyChampions Trophy (field hockey)The Hockey Champions Trophy is the International Hockey Federation's most prestigious annual event . Founded by Pakistan's Air Marshal Nur Khan, it features the world's top-ranked teams competing in a round robin format. The Pakistan Hockey Federation started the competition as a men's tournament...
- History of Ice Hockey
- BandyBandyBandy is a team winter sport played on ice, in which skaters use sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal.The rules of the game have many similarities to those of association football: the game is played on a rectangle of ice the same size as a football field. Each team has 11 players,...
External links
- Field Hockey Stick History - Field Hockey Stick History