Super Skills

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpg2PC2neQM

This video includes a variety of different and very useful hockey skills. These skills include different techniques including dribbling, static tackling and drills which are very important for losing your players.                   

(video taken from youtube)

Hockey World Cup

Hockey is played at many levels all around the world. It is played for fun, at a competitive level and at proffetional level. One of the major intenational tounaments is the Hockey World Cup. This competition was organised in 1971 by the International Hockey Federation. It is held every four years. The womens Hockey World cup was organised in 1974.

The trophy for the Hockey World cup is unique and individually made. It was designed by Bashir Mooij and created by the Pakistan army. The trophy was formaly given to the president of the FIH in March 1917.                                                           

                                                                    

                                                               

                                                              

   

The top scoring places have been dominated by five main countries. These countries are Pakistan, Germany, Austria, Netherlands and India. Pakistan is one of the the most succesful country as they have won the tournament four times. Germany have also done exceptionally well and are also one of the best teams in the tournament over the years. They came first in 2002 and 2006. Germany has also got in to the semi finals in every tournament of the Hockey World Cup bar one year. The hosts to date of the Hockey World Cup are the Netherlands, Germany,Spain, England, Pakistan and Australia.

I have learnt a lot about the diferent countries who play hockey at international level and are high achievers in the skillfull stick and ball game.

World of Hockey

In all the time I have played hockey, every training session, match or team meeting, I have never thought about the hockey world. Do you ever wonder where hockey is the most played sport? Or the most popular? I myself haven't and am very interested to find out different and new information on hockey.

Hockey is very common and popular in Western Europe, Asia, Argentina and Oceania. Something I never new before is that hockey is the national sport of Pakistan. It has also been said that hockey is the national sport of Indian but in actual fact India doe not have a national sport.

Countries where hockey is played 

There are a few international competitions for hockey. Some of the main ones are 

• The Olympics
• World hockey cup
• Champions trophy
• Hockey Champions Challenge
• Hockey Champions Challenge 2
• Commonwealth games
• Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey tournament

The Netherlands, Germany and Australia are probably the best in male hockey. The Hockey World Cup started in Pakistan.

Hopefully this has given you some more insight and knowledge on the world of hockey and the different countries that play the sport. 

Pitch Perfect

I have played hockey on a few different surfaces including indoor, turf, grass and grit but the most commonly played surface for hockey is artificial turf. There are a few different types of artificial pitches including

• Filled surface - made from synthetic yarn filled with sand to its full height to help maintain it. 
• Water-based  filled surface - made from synthetic yarn and filled with sand but only to about 50%. The other 50% is filled with water.
• Unfilled surface - This pitch is unfilled and un-watered and is made from synthetic yarn only. The height is not as high but has god stability. 
• Water-based unfilled surface - made from dense synthetic yarn, this pitch is very good for smooth ball play. It is essential for safety that the pitch gets watered frequently. 
• Long-pile surface - This pitch again is made from synthetic yarn but is also made up of small rubber granules that have been added to it. 

Most pitches as watered before use. This is because the water acts as a lubricant and reduces friction. It means that a dimpled hockey ball with travel more smoothly and allowing less opportunities for the ball to bounce. The water also helps reduce friction burns and surface scrapes which often occur when players fall. Sand based pitches are never watered. These pitches have more friction and are more irritant to the skin in the case of a fall.

Watering of pitch 

I have played mostly on sand based and water-based pitches. I personally prefer the water based pitches as the ball glides a lot more smoothly and effortlessly. 

Weather Warnings

I have been playing hockey for quite a while and have played it in sun, wind and rain. Because hockey is usually played on all weather pitches it can usually be played in moat types of weather. However frost is not ideal for playing hockey. Frost is a form of weathering which occurs when water seeps in to the cracks in rocks then when the temperatures drop this water freezes. The water then expands causing the rock to expand and crack. If it freezes over night to extremes, the pitch becomes as hard as rock. The ball does nor roll as smoothly and elegantly as it should. Players end up injured if they play in these weather conditions as if they fall, they will land on an extremely hard surface.
 Frost Action


  Frozen hockey pitch 


Snow also has an impact on hockey. It does not snow very often in Ireland however, but when it is heavy, it can affect the game. Snow is formed when temperatures are low and there is moisture in the form of tiny ice crystals.  If snow is sever it will collect on the pitch making the pitch unplayable thus causing training sessions and matches to be cancelled.

  Snow covered hockey pitch 


Most of my hockey life has not been greatly affected by the weather but there have been a few cases of frost and snow resulting in cancellation.

Wonderful Women

Hockley now a days is a widely played sport, played by men, women and children. However when hockey first started it was only played by men. However women being the determined, motivated and purpose driven people they are did what they could to play this new interesting and beautiful sport.

Womens hockey first was first played in unniversites and schools in Britain. The first womens hockey club was founded in Molesey. Molesey is a town on the boarder of greater London. This was an essential place at the time to start the hockey club as it was at a location where hockey was in demand and it was in the suuburban area of London so there was land space available. It was formed in 1887.   

                                     Molesey Ladies Youth team

The Irish Ladies Hockey Union was the first women's national association. With he help of this association womens hockey was able to spread to countries around the world. This later led to the develpoment of the International Federation of Women's Hockey Association in 1927. After this many Euopean and continental European countries began to play competitions.

Womens hockey was first entered in to the Olympics as an official sport in 1980.

It is interesting to see how womens hockey progressed much slower than mens hockey. The sport has the same rules as mens hockey but obviously at the time women did not show as much interest in winter exercise as the men did. However they realised what they were missing out and soon fought to be able to play hockey too.            

Modern Hockey

A game called hockey was played in England in the 19th century. It was very uncommon at the time and was played mostly in schools only. Many members of cricket clubs in London (particularly Middlesex cricket clubs which developed Teddington Hockey club)  were looking for winter exercise but did not really like the idea of football. Thus they began to experiment a game involving stick and ball. They played the game on the smooth outfield of the cricket pitch and used the hard heavy cricket ball which created smooth movement. In 1874 Teddington began to draw up some rules including not allowing players to lift the stick above head height and only allowing players to score from the circle or the d. In 1886 the Hockey Association was formed. Many of the first club hockey matches did not go too well as different clubs had different sets of rules.



Later in the 19th century the game spread through the British empire due to the travelling of the British army. This lead to the first even international game played by Ireland vs Wales which resulted in a score of 3-0 to Ireland.
Because of the previous hassle with different understandings of rules in club hockey, the International Rules Board was founded in 1895. After the sport being made official, hockey was entered into the Olympics in 1908 and was played in the games in London by three teams, England, Ireland and Scotland. In order to make hockey an international sport the International Hockey Federation was formed in 1924. The founding members of this organisation were Austria, Belgium, Spain, Hungary, France, Switzerland and Czechoslovakia. By now hockey had spread to all these countries and many more. It was being played in many competitions and tournaments. Hockey also spread to India by British servicemen and in 1885 the first club was formed in Calcutta. By 1928 India had developed its hockey skills greatly and had become a very competitive team. On entering the Olympic games in 1928 they won all five of of their games without conceding a single goal.

 India in the 1928 summer Olympics

I myself have been playing hockey for nine years and only now have I discovered this information. It is very interesting to look at hockey from a different point of view. Instead of looking at the fitness, the scoring and the teamwork but to look at the origins, the first clubs, and how it became the sport we play today.