Hockey training information

There are many types of hockey games but the essential principle is of two teams competing by trying to manoeuvre a ball, or a hard round disc called a puck (if on ice) into the opponents' net. Hockey can be played on a field, on ice, on roller skates, or even unicycles!

There are similarities between all the hockey games but the equipment is obviously different depending upon the surface that it is being played on. The hockey stick is a long L shaped instrument that is used to strike the puck or ball towards the opponents net. The field version is played by both men and women, but is usually played by single sex teams of women in Europe, Canada and the USA.

The ice version of this game is very popular in Canada and the USA, being one of the main winter Olympic sports and is played in single sex teams of men and women. Players wear protective clothing such as facemasks and padding to prevent injury from the very high speeds of the puck as it shoots across the court.

In the field, sticks tend to be made of a composite of wood, glass and carbon fibre and are more J shaped. The origins of the field game are ancient, going right back to the Egyptians, where there are some 4000 year old drawings of people playing a game that looks very similar to the modern game.