Ice is for drinks, not hockey! (Hockey - General)

Member Name: IainWear

Product:	Hockey - General
Date:	27/08/01 (458 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great fun and exercise, Fairly easy to learn, Lots of clubs around

Disadvantages: Injuries can happen, Virtually no TV coverage

What really annoys me is this. Telling people I play hockey and being asked “Oh, do you skate”, or “you mean ice hockey?” or “Isn’t that dangerous, all that shoulder charging and stuff?” No, no, NO! Why, in a country that is regularly skated all over by the greatest ice hockey teams in the world, yet held an Olympic Medal in “field” hockey (I hate having to specify the “field bit, too!), does ice spring to peoples minds whenever you mention hockey. Yes, the Sekonda Superleague is more popular than hockey’s National League, and gets a lot more coverage, but “my” hockey is more fun, easier and cheaper to play, requires less equipment and is far less dangerous!

Let me tell you where it all began for me. Seoul. 1988. The British Men’s Hockey Team wins the gold medal, inspired by scoring machine Sean Kerly. Dartford. 1988. A bunch of 3rd formers at Dartford Grammar School, inspired by this, decide to start a school hockey team, and start practicing in “games” lessons. Quickly vilified by the rugby crowd, we carry on regardless. In 1990, we start playing games against other local schools, and some of us join Belvedere H.C., a fairly local club and begin playing fairly seriously, eventually becoming reasonable players, although highly unlikely to ever make the England line up! The game is played for fun, and that’s all. I settle into my position as left-half (more on this a bit later) and succeed in scoring at an average of once a season but enjoying the game so much that I crawled out of bed at 9 am on a New Year’s Day to participate in my sport. Shortly before that start of the 1994-95 season, I leave the area to go to university and settle into a life of drinking and smoking, and hockey is forgotten.

In late 1999, I start talking to a colleague, who plays for a local club, Southgate Adelaide, near to where I have now settled, and I
go along. I discover fairly quickly that I have lost none of my (very limited) skills, but that 5 years of heavy drinking, smoking, and running only when I’m very close to an essay deadline has taken their toll on my fitness. I’m still a left-half, I’m still not very good, I’m still averaging a goal a season (although it took me until the last game of last season to get it!) and I still love the game. I don’t know why I stopped playing. Although we play in a league, the team is as much about being a team as it is about winning (which was very handy that first season, as we didn’t!) and the main priority is enjoyment of the game.

So why do I play the game? I love it, pure and simple. It’s great exercise, and is a fairly easy game to learn. The risk of injury is fairly small (although I’ll discuss that a little later) and it can be enjoyed equally by male and female players of all different ages. Enjoyment of any sport is purely subjective which makes it difficult to put into words exactly why I enjoy playing so much, but it’s probably the only game I’m really any good at (except for pool!) and my social life has improved greatly since joining the club.

So, if you’d like to play, but don’t know a lot about the game, let me give you a few pointers. I hope to cover everything here, but if there’s anything else you would like to know, ask as a comment on this op, or send me an E-Mail (the address is in my profile).

FINDING A CLUB

Unless you’re playing at school, or your employer’s Social Club (of which there seem to be less and less these days) runs a team, you will need to find a club to start playing. There are literally thousands of clubs around the country, and there will almost certainly be at least one in any decent sized town near you. Within 15 miles of my own home, there are 3 men’s and 1 women’s hockey club, with
the men’s clubs running 16 teams between them. All levels of skill and experience are catered for. To find your nearest club there is a search facility on the English Hockey Association’s website at www.hockeyonline.co.uk. For those living in other parts of the UK, try www.scottishhockey.org.uk, www.welsh-hockey.co.uk or www.hockey.ie as appropriate. For hockey throughout Europe, the European Hockey Federation website can be found at www.eurohockey.org. Although I cannot speak for all of these websites, the English HA site at least allows you to search by town and will then give you a link to a club’s website. Your local paper may also be able to provide you with some details.

In my experience, and due to the lack of new, young players coming into the game these days, which I feel is due to the complete lack of television coverage for the game in recent years, most good clubs will be happy to teach and train newcomers to the game. Many clubs do operate a junior team as well, or some of the younger players may know of a local junior team, which will provide great assistance to younger players, both in terms of learning and making new friends. For the older player, many sides host regular club events for fundraising purposes, which are always good to be involved in, both on a personal level and to show your support for the club.

EQUIPMENT

For the average player, the level of equipment required is actually quite low, and many people will already possess most of the minimum required. The standard playing/training kit of t-shirt and shorts or a tracksuit belongs in most people’s wardrobe, even if it hasn’t seen the light of day since John Major was PM.

The essential pieces of kit will be a stick, which can be purchased for anything between £10-£15 and £150 upwards. The important thing to consider when choosing a hockey stick is how it feels in your hands. You will be carrying it around for
70 minutes during a game, and you will be waving it around a fair amount, so it is important that you have a stick which you feel happy with. This is purely an individual thing. The major hockey stick manufacturers are Dita, Grays, Slazenger and Kookaburra. I am using a Slazenger stick at present, but have previously owned both Dita and Grays sticks. I prefer a lighter stick, but this may not be suitable for you. If you are playing in a defensive position, where more hitting is involved (see The Rules section) a heavier stick may be an advantage. Sticks rarely break, if used correctly, but the plastic/PVC covering does have a tendency to crack and flake off after it has taken a few blows. Many hockey players use black electrical tape to fix this, and it is not at all unusual to find hockey sticks with repairs of this sort made to them. Shin pads are also vital. Plastic football shin pads will suffice, and are what I use, although special hockey shin pads, with a metal core, can be purchased for £25 or so. Last season I took a low on the shin with a ball which left me with a large bump and heavy bruising, even through my shin pad. Had I not been wearing them, however, I would probably have suffer a fractured or broken leg. It is not a common occurrence, but the ball is very hard, and protection is vital

A pair of football boots will be required for games on grass, which are generally few and far between, and trainers will suffice for Astroturf training sessions, although a pair of proper Astroturf trainers would be a good investment as, if you do slip over on Astroturf, which is always more likely without the correct type of footwear, your knees and elbows may come out with some skin missing. Astroturf shoes can be purchased from most sports shoe retailers, and are no more expensive than your average pair of trainers. I think I paid £60 for mine at the start of last season, but I did buy a brand name (Adidas) for a change, and cheaper pairs are
available. My previous pair cost £30, and lasted very well for about 4 seasons. A hockey glove, which is essentially a covering for the back of your left hand is also useful, and these can be purchased for £5-£10 from most major sports retailers, and some minor ones. Some players also wear gum shields, but I prefer not to, and have never required one.

If you are a goalkeeper, more equipment, including chest protection, a helmet and larger pads and boots will be required. This is generally quite expensive, and not recommended for the beginner. Should you become a goalkeeper later on, then this should be seen as an investment, and some clubs (mine does) may offer a reduced subscription fee (see below) due to the expense involved.

COST

Aside from the costs listed above for equipment, most clubs will charge a subscription fee, as this is how they cover their own costs, such as hiring of pitches and provisioning of meals after games. This has been £100 for the last two seasons at my club, but cheaper rates are often offered for the unemployed and under 16’s. There will also be a match fee, charged for the same reasons, which is about £5 at my club, but given that most games are on a Saturday, it is cheaper than most things that you may be doing at that point. Say you went to see a Premiership football match, for example, this would cost at least £20-£30, before any other expenses! Generally, at most clubs, there will be a meal provided for players at the clubhouse after the game.

There may be other one-off, or seasonal expenses. Your club will most likely prefer you to buy a club shirt, and possibly socks, especially if you will be taking part in league matches. This works on the old “if you look like a team, you play like a team” theory. Again, the cost will not be extortionate, given how long the items in question will last. I purchased two club shirts (one home, one away) and a pair of club socks two
seasons ago for a total of £47, and these will last for at least a couple more years. Given that our club shirts are button top short-sleeved polo shirts, and given the current popularity of the Hackett clothing brand, and shirts with numbers on (how dated will this op look next Summer?), they also fill in as social wear in the off-season! There will also, like as not, be fund raising social events offered by the club periodically throughout the season. Contribution and attendance at these will be voluntary, but they are often a good opportunity to meet players from the other teams within the club.

DANGER/RISK OF INJURY

This is actually fairly low. There is a risk of injury in any sport, but if you purchase the recommended protective equipment as detailed above, and the game is played within the rules, as detailed below, any risk of injury is greatly reduced. Personally speaking, I am about to enter my sixth season as a hockey player, and have suffered no worse injury than a pulled hamstring. With this in mind, warming up and warming down after a game is vitally important, as any sportsperson will tell you. So is paying attention to the signals your body is sending out. If something aches, rest it. If it still aches, see a doctor. The same rules apply here as would do to your general health.

I will not soft soap anyone by denying that injuries do not happen. There is the chance that a player may be hit by a ball in the air, and although this does not happen often given that it against the rules of the game, I have seen a couple of players knocked out, one require stitches to a head wound and one suffer a fractured kneecap. Bruises and skinned knees and elbows are not uncommon, due to falling on an Astroturf pitch, and a team mate once ruptured a ligament after landing badly. However, this is the total extent of the serious injuries I have known in five seasons, which makes the game a lot safer than many other sports. To take
two of the country’s most popular sports, for example, and you will see that Liverpool footballer Jamie Redknapp has suffered two serious knee injuries and has hardly played a game for two years, and Nasser Hussain, the England cricket captain and Graham Thorpe, one of his players, have suffered three broken fingers between them over the last two months. Hockey is a non-contact sport, which keeps the number of injuries down.

THE RULES

The easiest and most basic way to explain the rules of hockey is “like football, except you use your stick instead of your feet.” This is really a far too simplistic way to describe the rules of the game, but it does provide a fairly useful starting point. The pitch is usually a fairly similar size to a football pitch, although more commonly Astroturf rather than grass, and major noticeable difference in the markings are that the “area” is in a D-shape in hockey, with a 16 yard radius, as opposed to football’s rectangle and that the goalkeeper must remain in this area. Goals can only be scored when the shot is taken from inside this “D”. The only player who can use their feet is the goalkeeper, and then only whilst they are inside their area. The goalkeeper can use any part of their body to block a shot inside this area, hence all the protective equipment they require. Given that there is no foot to body contact, free-kicks are replaced with free-hits, although the ten yard rule still applies, throw-ins are replaced by “sideline hits” and the goal kick is replaced by a 16 yard hit-out taken by a defender as opposed to the goalkeeper. The goals are also smaller, and the team is usually in a 3-4-3 formation, with 3 defenders, 4 midfielders, or “halves” and 3 forwards, usually 2 wingers and a centre forward.

The ball can be either struck or pushed with the stick, but only with the front of the stick. If you wish to hit the ball on
your “wrong” or “weak” side the stick must be reversed. The ball is not allowed to leave the ground in a dangerous situation (ie, too close to another player) and a penalty will be called for “lifting” if this occurs. However, a ball can be lifted into an open space for an attacker to chase, much like the long ball in football. Much as in football, the stick (in football, the foot) cannot be lifted above shoulder height and a player in possession is not allowed to turn his back on an opponent. Tackling from the blind side is forbidden, much like the tackle from behind in football, and presents an injury risk for the player attempting to do so. If the player you are attempting to tackle is not aware of your presence, and moves to hit the ball, you may be struck by his stick. This is what occurred in the case I mentioned above which left a player requiring stitches.

The obstruction rule is different from football, in this case a little like rugby. The player in possession of the ball is not allowed to run behind another player from his own team, thus creating a barrier between himself and the opponent and, in much the same way, and player not in possession of the ball cannot run between the ball-carrier and the opponent. This is known as “crossing”. Much like rugby, as well, is the use of cards for disciplinary purposes. Players receive a green card as a first warning, followed by a yellow card, which results in ten minutes off the pitch, followed by a red card, which is a permanent sending off. Football authorities have been contemplating the introduction of a green card at irregular intervals over the years, but this is unlikely to ever occur. Cards are very rare, and are usually the result of a player taking an action considered to be dangerous, and green cards are more common for “unsportsmanlike conduct”, such as swearing on the field of play. In five seasons, I have never seen a p
layer receive a red card, and the professional foul does not appear to be a part of the game at all.

The final major rule difference is the rule concerning corners and penalties. If the ball is inadvertently played over the goal line by a defending player, a “long corner” is awarded, which is taken in much the same way as a traditional corner in football, although it is actually a sideline hit, taken from approximately five yards from the goal line. If a defender commits a foul within the area, but in a manner that would not directly prevent a goal, a “short corner” is awarded. In this situation, the defensive team is only allowed to place five players on the goal line (to include the goalkeeper) and the remaining members of the side must wait on the half way line until the ball is played. The offensive team can have as many players around the area as they wish, but all players, with the exception of the person taking the corner, must wait outside the “D”. The ball must be pushed outside the area, and brought to a complete stop before a shot on goal can be taken. This “short corner” routine is the most practised set play in hockey. If a foul is committed in a method that will directly prevent a goal, a penalty flick is awarded, and this occurs in much the same way to football, in that it is attacker versus goalkeeper. The attacker, however, can only take a single step before flicking the ball, and there are no rebounds. The result of a penalty flick is either a goal, or a hit-out to the defending team.

This should give you a grounding into getting started with playing hockey. Please contact me if you have any questions. I hope that anyone who plays enjoys the game as much as I do.

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