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Hockey is one of the fastest paced
team sports and generates a lot of
excitement at the Olympics. It is one
of the most popular Olympic sports,
drawing large crowds and television
audiences. Yet whilst it is a huge sport
in The Netherlands, where it is ranked
second only to football and in other
countries such as India, hockey often
does not get the profile that it deserves
in the intervening years. However things
are changing. Hockey is played on five
continents by over 3 million people and
its popularity is growing.
History
Hockey is one of the oldest competitive
sports recorded. However, although
it can trace its roots back to ancient
Egypt over 4,000 years ago, the
modern game of hockey has its origins
in England in the mid 18th Century,
primarily in schools.
The first Olympic hockey competition
for men was held in London in 1908.
The International Hockey Federation
was founded in Paris in 1924 and in
1927 the International Federation of
Women’s Hockey was formed. The
two organisations came together in
1982 to form the International Hockey
Federation. The FIH now has 127
member associations around the
world.
Hockey has been an Olympic sport on
and off since the early days, but is now
a regular feature of the programme.
World Rankings
Australia is the number one ranked
team in men’s hockey followed by
Germany, Netherlands and Great
Britain. However, India, has won
the most Olympic gold medals since
1908 followed by Pakistan and Great
Britain.
The Netherlands head the women’s
rankings, followed by Argentina,
Germany andGreat Britain. The country
with the highest number of hockey gold
medals in the Olympics is Australia,
followed by The Netherlands.
The Game
• Hockey gets its name from the
French word ‘hocquet’, which means
shepherd’s crook.
• Hockey is played on all five continents
by 3 million people around the
world.
• The hockey pitches are 91.4m long
and 55m wide. The goals at each
end are 3.66m wide and 2.14m high.
Each goal is surrounded by a D-
shaped shooting circle. The penalty
spot at either end is 6.4m from the
goal.
• Hockey sticks are always right
handed. This is for safety reasons.
It is illegal to play with a left handed
stick.
• A team can make substitutions
as many times as they want during a
game. They can do it at any time,
even while the ball is in play.
• The ball can only be played with the
flat side of the stick. The umpire will
call a foul if the back (curved) side of
the stick is used.
• Two umpires control the match. They
each control half the pitch and work
together on decisions in the middle.
Hockey Terminology
Golden goal
– if extra time is
required during the knockout stages of
the competition, the team that scores
the first goal – the golden goal – wins
the match.
Green card
– an official warning that
results in an automatic two-minute
suspension. The umpire may also
issue yellow cards (longer temporary
suspensions) and red cards (removal
from the game).
Penalty corner
– awarded for
a variety of different infringements
(usually in the shooting circle), penalty
corners are taken from the back line,
10m either side of the nearest goalpost.
Only five defenders are allowed to
defend penalty corners, which are also
known as short corners.
Shooting circle
– an arc in front of
each goal; goals can only be scored
from within the shooting circle.
FOCUS FEATURE:
HOCKEY
TO COINCIDE WITH THE OLYMPICS, TOUCHLINE IS COMMENCING A SERIES OF FEATURE ARTICLES
FOCUSING ON OLYMPIC SPORTS. IN THE FIRST IN THE SERIES, THE SPOTLIGHT IS ON HOCKEY. WE’VE
INTERVIEWED SOME OF THE TOP NAMES IN HOCKEY TO PROVIDE AN INSIGHT INTO THIS EXCITING SPORT.
Focus