Another brand new sport for all of us! Although field hockey has been played since the 1909 Olympics, it didn't become a women's event until 1980. We met with a coach and some of her players after their season ended at a local high school on a beautiful fall day. The rules of this game are constantly being updated, according to the coach - safety is paramount as a hard, softball sized and relatively heavy ball goes flying around at ever faster and faster speeds. The rules are similar to soccer, but there is no off-sides and in order to take a shot on goal, you must control the ball for at least 5 yards. This can be done by dribbling, passing or a combination thereof. In other words, no stealing it from your opponent and blasting it at the goal. This gives the defensive team some time to set and know that the ball may come hurtling at them.
We first got the feel of the sticks and how to dribble and pass with them, plus how to "lift" the ball.
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| Practice passing |
Then we took to shots on goal and "strokes" (like a penalty shot in soccer or hockey). Generally you do not pull the stick back away from the ball to shoot, rather shove it with force.
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| K getting ready to shoot |
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| J practicing her strokes |
Finally, we attempted to put all that together in a quick 6 on 6 scrimmage with the girls. What we really ended up doing was doing a lot of chasing - either the ball or the other team.
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| K & M chase the ball as L1 looks on. |
I have much more respect for this came and its intricacies now. Looking forward to watching some when the 2016 Olympics roll around!
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| Field hockey complete! |
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