2. Field Hockey
Field hockey is played on gravel, natural grass, sand-based or
water-based artificial turf, with a small, hard ball. The game is
popular among both males and females in many parts of the
world, particularly in Europe, Asia, Australia, New
Zealand and South Africa. In most countries, the game is
played between single-sex sides, although they can be mixed-
sex.
Modern field hockey sticks are J-shaped and constructed of a
composite of wood, glass fiber or carbon fiber (sometimes
both) and have a curved hook at the playing end, a flat
surface on the playing side and curved surface on the rear
side. While current field hockey appeared in the mid-18th
century in England, primarily in schools, it was not until the
first half of the 19th century that it became firmly established.
The first club was created in 1849 at Blackheath in south-east
3. Rules and Play
The game is played between two teams of up to sixteen players, eleven of whom are permitted to
be on the pitch at any one time. The remaining five players, the substitutes, may be substituted in
any combination, from one to five, an unlimited number of times in the course of a game.
Substitutions are permitted at any point in the game, apart from between the award and end of a
penalty corner; the only exception to this rule is for injury or suspension of the defending
goalkeeper.
Players are permitted to play the ball with the flat of the 'face side' and with the edges of the head
and handle of the hockey stick with the exception that, for reasons of safety, the ball may not be
struck 'hard' with a forehand edge stroke, because of the difficulty of controlling the height and
direction of the ball from that stroke.
The flat side is always on the "natural" side for a right-handed person swinging the stick at the
ball from right to left. Left-handed sticks are rare, but available; however they are pointless as the
rules forbid their use in a game. To make a strike at the ball with a left to right swing the player
must present the flat of the 'face' of the stick to the ball by 'reversing' the stick head, i.e. by
turning the handle through approximately 180°(while a reverse edge hit would turn the stick head
through approximately 90° from the position of an upright forehand stoke with the 'face' of the
stick head.
Edge hitting of the ball underwent a two year 'experimental period', twice the usual length of an
'experimental trial' and is still a matter of some controversy within the sport. Ric Charlesworth, the
current Australian coach, has been a strong critic of the unrestricted use of the reverse edge hit.
The 'hard' forehand edge hit was banned after similar concerns were expressed about the ability
of players to direct the ball accurately, but the reverse edge hit does appear to be more
predictable and controllable than its counterpart.
Other rules include; no foot to ball contact, obstructing other players, high back swing, and no
third party. If a player is dribbling the ball and either loses control and kicks the ball or another
player interferes that player is not permitted to gain control and continue dribbling. The rules do
not allow the person who kicked the ball to gain advantage from the kick, so the ball will
automatically be passed on to the opposing team. Players may not obstruct another's chance of
4.
5. Ice Hockey
Ice hockey is played on a large flat area of ice, using a
three-inch-diameter (76.2 mm) vulcanized rubber disc called
a puck. This puck is often frozen before high-level games to
decrease the amount of bouncing and friction on the ice.
The game is contested between two teams of skaters. The
game is played all over North America, Europe and in many
other countries around the world to varying extent. It is the
most popular sport in Canada, Finland, Latvia, the Czech
Republic, and in Slovakia.
Ice hockey sticks are long L-shaped sticks made of wood,
graphite, or composites with a blade at the bottom that can
lie flat on the playing surface when the stick is held upright
and can curve either way, legally, as to help a left- or right-
handed player gain an advantage.
6. Injury
Ice hockey is a full contact sport and carries a high risk of injury. Not only are the
players moving at around 20–30 miles an hour, quite a bit of the game revolves
around the physical contact between the players. Skate blades, hockey sticks,
shoulders, hips, and hockey pucks all contribute. The number of injuries is quite
high and includes lacerations, concussions, contusions, ligament tears, broken
bones, hyperextensions, and muscle strains.
According to the Hughston Health Alert, "Lacerations to the head, scalp, and
face are the most frequent types of injury [in hockey]." Even a shallow cut to the
head results in a loss of a large amount of blood. Most concussions occur during
player to player contact rather (49%)than when a player is checked into the
boards (35%).Not only are lacerations common, “it is estimated that direct
trauma accounts for 80% of all [hockey] injuries. Most of these injuries are
caused by player contact, falls and contact with a puck, high stick and
occasionally, a skate blade.” One of the causes of head injury is checking from
behind. Due to the danger of delivering a check from behind, many leagues,
including the NHL have made this a major and gross misconduct penalty.
Another type of check that accounts for many of the player to player contact
concussions is a check to the head. A check to the head can be defined as
delivering a hit while the receiving players head is down and their waist is bent
and the aggressor is targeting the receiving player's head. Checks to head have
accounted for nearly 50% of concussions that players in the National Hockey
League have suffered. Concussions that players suffer may go unreported
because there are no obvious physical signs if a player is not knocked
7.
8. Roller Hockey
Roller Hockey is a form of hockey played on a dry surface using
skates with wheels. The term "Roller Hockey" is often used
interchangeably to refer to two variant forms chiefly differentiated by
the type of skate used. There is traditional "Roller Hockey," played
with quad roller skates, and "Inline Hockey", played with inline
skates. Combined, roller hockey is played in nearly 60 countries
worldwide.
There are two kinds of Roller Hockey; Inline and Quad.
Inline roller hockey
Inline hockey is a variation of roller hockey very similar to ice
hockey, from which it is derived. Inline hockey is played by two
teams, consisting of four skaters and one goalie, on a dry rink
divided into two halves by a center line, with one net at each end
of the rink. The game is played in three 15-minute periods with a
variation of the ice hockey off-side rule.
Quad
Roller hockey (quad) is an overarching name for a roller sport
that has existed since long before inline skates were invented.
This sport has been played in sixty countries worldwide and thus
has many names worldwide. The sport is also known as quad
hockey, international style ball hockey, rink hockey, roll hockey,