Field hockey today is played by over 3,000,000 players spread over 100 countries and 5 continents, it is one of the most followed Olympic sports, the most practiced sport in colleges around the world, has several international competitions, it is administered by an International Hockey Federation, made up of five Continental Associations and 137 National Associations and is practiced by celebrities such as Kate Middleton and Jennifer Lawrence. The origin of the name is controversial: according to a first hypothesis the name “hockey” derives from the French hoquet which means “shepherd’s stick”, while the second supposition originates the name from the use of corks, called stoppers, instead of wooden balls to play. These items came from barrels that contained hock beer, also known as hocky. The truth is that team games to score at goal with spherical objects pushed by bats, rackets, curved sticks on a field of variable width between 70 and 100 meters have been played for millennia in the four corners of the earth. In Canada a version similar to field hockey is called lacrosse, a game in which the Huron Indians resolved heated tribal issues, as emerges from the accounts of French colonists in the seventeenth century; while in the Scottish Highlands it is called shinty. The field hockey we see today has undergone radical changes and the modern game is played according to a series of rules and regulations formulated first by the clubs and then by the federations. Ice hockey and field hockey are often confused, thinking that the only difference between the two is the surface of the field, but in reality they are sports with a common matrix and, by now, totally different.
What are the benefits of playing field hockey?
The worldwide success of field hockey probably has its roots in the fact that it is a sport with simple rules and ancient gestures, and then it brings all the benefits of a team game whose training insists on intense cardio sessions to train the breath and muscle endurance, which also affects the loss of excess weight.
One of the main benefits of playing field hockey is mutitasking training, since quick reaction is a necessary ingredient for success, as you are expected to pass and receive the ball while in motion.
Not only will you see improvements in agility and balance, but it’s only a matter of time before hand-eye coordination and the ability to make quick decisions, interpreting opponents’ movements and coordinating with teammates are enhanced.
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How long does a field hockey match last?
The total duration of a field hockey match is 60 minutes (four quarters of 15 minutes each). Before 2019, matches were played for 70 minutes, with a five-minute interval after 35 minutes. The clock is stopped whenever the ball is “dead” due to interruptions such as injury, turnover or anything else that is not in the flow of the game. In fact, a 60-minute game usually takes longer to finish.
How many players in field hockey?
Field hockey can be played both indoors and outdoors: outdoor field hockey has 10 players plus a goalkeeper for each team, while the indoor version has 4 players plus a goalkeeper for each team. There are five substitutes on the bench and there is no limit to the number of times a player can be substituted. This is commonly known as a rolling substitution. The full-backs, the side-backs, the center-backs constitute the defensive unit of a team. Their primary responsibility is to prevent the opposing team from scoring a goal.
The forwards, on the other hand, are made up of interior, wingers and strikers and their main role is to score goals. In modern field hockey, there are no fixed jobs, although players are assigned specific positions.
In field hockey, midfielders bridge the gap between attackers and defenders and help in both defense and attack.
Each team uses a different lineup of players on the pitch to suit their style of play.
The goalkeeper, on the other hand, is the only player authorized to touch the ball with any part of the body. The goalkeeper always wears protective equipment such as helmet, throat collar, breastplate, knee guards and leg pads and also wears a different colored jersey.
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Where is field hockey born? What is field hockey called?
The roots of field hockey go back to antiquity. A crude form of the game was played in Egypt 4,000 years ago, in Ethiopia around 1,000 BC and also in Iran around 2,000 BC.
Several museums testify that a form of game very similar to what we know today as field hockey was practiced by the Romans and the Greeks. When Europeans crossed the Atlantic and began colonizing North America, they discovered that native peoples had their own games, precursors to field hockey. Additionally, some museums today show evidence that hockey was played by the Aztecs centuries before Columbus discovered the New World. The modern game of field hockey emerged in England in the mid-18th century and is largely attributed to the growth of public schools, such as Eton.
The first field hockey association was founded in the United Kingdom in 1876 and drafted the first formal regulation, going through ups and downs for 10 years until it was consolidated thanks to the membership of 10 founding clubs.
The development of field hockey in Southeast Asia
It is known that for the past five hundred years this sport has been widely practiced in India and in rural areas of undeveloped areas of the world. In the past, villagers mixed bamboo and homemade rubber to create soft balls. One of the reasons the sport enjoyed such popularity was that it did not require many players and the equipment for the game was very simple. One of the most advantageous aspects of what is now established as field hockey was the lower chance of suffering injuries, compared to other similar games. This primitive field hockey was practiced by pushing the ball instead of hitting it, to avoid sending it off the field and ending it in bushes and ponds, which would have resulted in a longer retrieval of the ball. Over the past two centuries, hockey has become so popular in India that people have started to consider it the national game of India, it is the national sport in Pakistan and it has also become hugely popular in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Korea, Malaysia. and Argentina.