Field hockey
Field hockey, or simply hockey in Asia, Europe, Oceania and Africa, is a fast-paced team sport in which two teams of eleven players use curved sticks to maneuver a small, hard hockey ball towards the rival team's shooting circle and then into the goal. The team with the most goals at the end of play wins the match.
Matches are played on grass, watered turf, or artificial turf, although grass has become increasingly rare as a playing surface. Indoor hockey is usually played on a synthetic hard court or hardwood sports flooring, and beach field hockey is played on sand.
The stick has evolved significantly over the game's history in its composition and shape. Wooden sticks, though once standard, have become increasingly uncommon as technological advancements have made synthetic materials cheaper. Today, sticks are typically made of a combination of carbon fibre, fibreglass, and aramid, in varying proportions. At the elite level, sticks with a very high carbon content are near universally preferred. The stick has two sides; one rounded and one flat; only the flat face of the stick is allowed to progress the ball. If the ball is "played" with the rounded part of the stick, it will result in a penalty, though accidental touches are not an offence as long as they do not materially affect play. Goalkeepers often have a different design of stick; they also cannot play the ball with the round side of their stick. Goalkeepers are allowed to touch the ball with any part of their body when inside their shooting circle. No other player is allowed to touch the ball except with their stick, though a player's hand is considered part of the stick if holding the stick.
The modern game was developed at public schools in 19th-century England and it is now played globally. The governing body is the International Hockey Federation, called the Fédération Internationale de Hockey in French. Men and women are represented internationally in competitions including the Olympic Games, World Cup, FIH Pro League, Junior World Cup and in past also World League, Champions Trophy. Many countries run extensive junior, senior, and masters club competitions. The FIH is also responsible for organizing the Hockey Rules Board and developing the sport's rules.
The sport is known simply as hockey in many countries. In Sweden and Finland, the term landhockey and maahockey respectively are used, translating to "ground" hockey in opposition to the more standard ice hockey variant. A popular variant is indoor hockey, which differs in a number of respects while embodying the primary principles of hockey.
History
According to the International Hockey Federation, "the roots of hockey are buried deep in antiquity". There are historical records which suggest early forms of hockey were played in Egypt and Persia, and in Ethiopia. Later evidence suggest that the ancient Greeks, Romans and Aztecs all played hockey-like games. In Ancient Egypt, there is a depiction of two figures playing with sticks and ball in the Beni Hasan tomb of Khety, an administrator of Dynasty XI.In Ancient Greece, there is a similar image dated, which may have been called Κερητίζειν because it was played with a horn and a ball. Researchers disagree over how to interpret this image. It could have been a team or one-on-one activity. Billiards historians Stein and Rubino believe it was among the games ancestral to lawn-and-field games like hockey and ground billiards, and near-identical depictions appear in later European illuminated manuscripts and other works of the 14th through 17th centuries, showing contemporary courtly and clerical life.
In East Asia, a similar game was entertained, using a carved wooden stick and ball, before 300 BC. In Inner Mongolia, China, the Daur people have for about 1,000 years been playing beikou, a game with some similarities to field hockey. A similar field hockey or ground billiards variant, called suigan, was played in China during the Ming dynasty. A game similar to field hockey was played in the 17th century in Punjab state in India under name khido khundi.
In South America, most specifically in Chile, the local natives of the 16th century used to play a game called chueca, which also shares common elements with hockey.
In Northern Europe, the games of hurling and knattleikr, both team ball games involving sticks to drive a ball to the opponents' goal, date at least as far back as the Early Middle Ages. By the 12th century, a team ball game called la soule or choule, akin to a chaotic and sometimes long-distance version of hockey or rugby football, was regularly played in France and southern Britain between villages or parishes. Throughout the Middle Ages to the Early Modern era, such games often involved the local clergy or secular aristocracy, and in some periods were limited to them by various anti-gaming edicts, or even banned altogether. Stein and Rubino, among others, ultimately trace aspects of these games both to rituals in antiquity involving orbs and sceptres, and to ancient military training exercises ; polo was devised by the Ancient Persians for cavalry training, based on the local proto-hockey foot game of the region.
The word hockey itself has no clear origin. One belief is that it was recorded in 1363 when Edward III of England issued the proclamation: "Moreover we ordain that you prohibit under penalty of imprisonment all and sundry from such stone, wood and iron throwing; handball, football, or hockey; coursing and cock-fighting, or other such idle games". The belief is based on modern translations of the proclamation, which was originally in Latin and explicitly forbade the games "Pilam Manualem, Pedivam, & Bacularem: & ad Canibucam & Gallorum Pugnam". The word baculum is the Latin for, so the reference would appear to be to a game played with sticks. The English historian and biographer John Strype did not use the word hockey when he translated the proclamation in 1720, and the word hockey remains of unknown origin.
The modern game developed at public schools in 19th-century England. It is now played globally, particularly in parts of Western Europe, South Asia, Southern Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, and parts of the United States, primarily New England and the mid-Atlantic states. The term field hockey is used primarily in Canada and the United States where hockey more often refers to ice hockey. In Sweden, the term landhockey is used, and to some degree in Norway, where the game is governed by Norges Bandyforbund.
The first known club was formed in 1849 at Blackheath in south-east London, but the modern rules grew out of a version played by Middlesex cricket clubs as a winter activity. Teddington Hockey Club formed the modern game by introducing the striking circle and changing the ball to a sphere from a rubber cube. The Hockey Association was founded in 1876. It lasted just six years, before being revived by nine founding members. The first international competition took place in 1895, and the International Rules Board was founded in 1900.
Field hockey was played at the Summer Olympics in 1908 and 1920. It was dropped in 1924, leading to the foundation of the Fédération Internationale de Hockey sur Gazon as an international governing body by seven continental European nations; and hockey was reinstated as an Olympic game in 1928. Men's hockey united under the FIH in 1970.
The two oldest trophies are the Irish Senior Cup, which dates back to 1894, and the Irish Junior Cup, a second XI-only competition instituted in 1895.
In India, the Beighton Cup and the Aga Khan tournament commenced within ten years. Entering the Olympics in 1928, India won all five games without conceding a goal, and won from 1932 until 1956, and then in 1964 and 1980. Pakistan won Olympic gold in men's hockey in 1960, 1968, and 1984. All but three of Pakistan's 11 Olympic medals so far have been in field hockey, including three gold, three silver, and two bronze medals.
In the early 1970s, artificial turf began to be used. Synthetic pitches changed most aspects of field hockey, gaining speed. New tactics and techniques such as the Indian dribble developed, followed by new rules to take account. The switch to synthetic surfaces ended Indian and Pakistani domination because artificial turf was too expensive in developing countries. Since the 1970s, Australia, the Netherlands, and Germany have dominated at the Olympics and World Cup stages.
Women's field hockey was first played at British universities and schools. The first club, the Molesey Ladies, 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 field hockey grew rapidly around the world. This led to the International Federation of Women's Hockey Association in 1927, though this did not include 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 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 started about a common rule book. The FIH introduced competitive tournaments in 1974, forcing the acceptance of the principle of competitive field hockey by the IFWHA in 1973. It took until 1982 for the two bodies to merge, but this allowed the introduction of women's field hockey to the Olympic games from 1980 where, as in the men's game, the Netherlands, Germany, and Australia have been consistently strong. Argentina has emerged as a team to be reckoned with since 2000, winning the world championship in 2002 and 2010 and medals at the last three Olympics.
In the United States, field hockey is played predominantly by girls and women. There are few field hockey clubs, most play taking place between high school or college sides. The sport was largely introduced in the U.S. by Constance Applebee, starting with a tour of Seven Sisters colleges in 1901 and continuing through Applebee's 24-year tenure as athletic director of Bryn Mawr College. The strength of college field hockey reflects the impact of Title IX, which mandated that colleges should fund men's and women's games programmes comparably. Hockey has been predominantly played on the East Coast, specifically the Mid-Atlantic in states such as New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. In recent years, it has become increasingly played on the West Coast and in the Midwest.
In other countries, participation is fairly evenly balanced between men and women. For example, in the 2008–09 season, England Hockey reported 2,488 registered men's teams, 1,969 women's teams, 1,042 boys' teams, 966 girls' teams and 274 mixed teams. In 2006, the Irish Hockey Association reported that the gender split among its players was approximately 65% female and 35% male. In its 2008 census, Hockey Australia reported 40,534 male club players and 41,542 female.