Field hockey

3 February 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Sport Reading Time:  15 minutes

Rio 2016 - Spain vs Netherlands © flickr.com - Jonas de Carvalho/cc-by-sa-2.0

Rio 2016 – Spain vs Netherlands © flickr.com – Jonas de Carvalho/cc-by-sa-2.0

Field hockey is a team sport of the hockey family. The earliest origins of the sport date back to the Middle Ages in England, Scotland, France and the Netherlands. The game can be played on a grass field or a turf field as well as an indoor board surface. Each team plays with eleven players, including the goalie. Players use sticks made out of wood, carbon fibre, fibre glass or a combination of carbon fibre and fibre glass in different quantities (with the higher carbon fibre stick being more expensive and less likely to break) to hit a round, hard, plastic ball. The length of the stick depends on the player’s individual height. Only one end of the stick is allowed to be used. Goalies often have a different kind of stick, however they can also use an ordinary field hockey stick. The specific goal-keeping sticks have another curve at the end of the stick, this is to give them more surface area to save the ball. The uniform consists of shin guards, shoes, shorts, a mouth guard and a jersey. Today, the game is played globally, with particular popularity throughout Western Europe, the Indian subcontinent, Southern Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, and parts of the United States (such as Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania). Field Hockey is the national sport of India and Pakistan. The term “field hockey” is used primarily in Canada and the United States where ice hockey is more popular. In Sweden the term landhockey is used.   read more…

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