All About Field Hockey
The fact that I grew up in an area of the world where field hockey is pretty much only played by women is one of the key regrets of my childhood. Field hockey is awesome. We should all play and watch more field hockey!
How Does Field Hockey Work?
“Field hockey (just called hockey in most of the world outside of the United States and Canada) shares a lot of rules with soccer. Hockey, like soccer, is played with two teams of 11 players each on the field. There are goals on either side of a large rectangular field. Unlike soccer, where natural grass is the optimal surface, the best hockey is played on artificial turf. This is likely because its ball is much smaller than a soccer ball and would be effected more dramatically by the vagaries of a natural surface. The goal of the game, just like soccer, is to get the ball into the opponent’s net more times than they can get it into yours. Also like soccer, there are fairly dramatic limitations on how a player can play the ball. In field hockey, the ball is really only supposed to be hit with one face of the stick that each player has. Field hockey sticks are usually around three feet long and end with a j-shaped hook at the bottom. It’s not the most convenient stick to play a sport with. Its short length makes reaching for and hitting the ball more difficult than in hockey, and the requirement to only use one side of the stick seriously increases the amount of skill necessary to run with the ball. Although field hockey is a sport with a lot of body contact, almost all intentional collisions are illegal.
Games are divided into four 15 minute quarters. Goals can only be scored from within a semi-circle drawn around the goal with a radius of 48 feet. One very common way to score a goal is off a penalty set piece called a penalty or short corner. During one of these, five defenders (including a goalie) are start on the goal-line, usually stacked up within the goal. The attacking team passes the ball in from the corner of the arc around the goal and sets up a quick shot to get off before the charging defenders can reach them. On this play, like all others, only the goalie is allowed to touch the ball with anything other than his or her stick.”
Why do People Like Watching Field Hockey?
Field hockey at an amateur level can be frustrating to watch. The limitations on how one can hit the ball and the stringent rules over contact between players make it a very difficult sport to play gracefully. Luckily, as Olympics viewers, we don’t have to worry about that at all. Olympic hockey players make the sport look easy. Olympic hockey is fast moving and exciting, with lots of clever stick-handling, teamwork, and scoring chances.
Check out some highlights from the 2012 Olympics:
What are the different events?
Field hockey has a men’s and a women’s event.
How Dangerous is Field Hockey?
Field hockey is extremely dangerous. It has all the stick swinging menace of ice hockey but with virtually none of the protective equipment. Hockey players are at great risk of being hit in the face or head by sticks. Goals cannot be scored on some types of shots that are deemed “dangerous” by dint of being lifted too high in an area with a lot of players. Still, they do happen, and being struck by a hockey ball is no fun either. Add to that all the normal potential knee and ankle injuries from a running team sport, and field hockey adds up to quite a dangerous past time.
What’s the State of Gender Equality in Field Hockey?
Around the world, field hockey is played in roughly even numbers by men and women and this is displayed in the Olympics organization of the sport. There are two gold medals available, one for women and one for men, and each medal has 12 teams competing for it. Although it is quite equitable in gender terms, left handed people have reason to complain. Only traditionally right handed sticks are allowed in field hockey.
Links!
Bookmark the full Olympics schedule from NBC. Field Hockey is from Saturday, August 6 to Friday, August 19.
Read more about field hockey on the official Rio Olympics site.