Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick. In many areas, one sport (typically field hockey or ice hockey) is generally referred to simply as hockey.
Etymology
The first recorded use of the word "hockey" is from the 1773 book Juvenile Sports and Pastimes, to Which Are Prefixed, Memoirs of the Author: Including a New Mode of Infant Education, by Richard Johnson (Pseud. Master Michel Angelo), whose chapter XI was titled "New Improvements on the Game of Hockey". The belief that hockey was mentioned in a 1363 proclamation by King Edward III of England is based on modern translations of the proclamation, which was originally in Latin and explicitly forbade the games "Pilam Manualem, Pedivam, & Bacularem: & ad Canibucam & Gallorum Pugnam". The English historian and biographer John Strype did not use the word "hockey" when he translated the proclamation in 1720.
The word hockey itself is of
unknown origin. One explanation is that it is a derivative of hoquet, a Middle
French word for a shepherd's stave. The curved, or "hooked" ends of
the sticks used for hockey would indeed have resembled these staves. Another
explanation is that the cork bungs that replaced wooden balls in the 18th
century came from barrels containing "Hock" ale, also called
"Hocky".
History
bas relief approx. 600 BC, in the National Archaeological Museum of
Athens
Games played with curved sticks and
a ball can be found in the histories of many cultures. In Egypt, 4000-year-old
carvings feature teams with sticks and a projectile, hurling dates to before
1272 BC in Ireland, and there is a depiction from approximately 600 BC in Ancient
Greece where the game may have been called kerētízein or kerhtízein
(κερητίζειν) because it was played with a horn or horn-like stick(kéras,
κέρας) In Inner Mongolia, the Daur people have been playing beikou, a
game similar to modern field hockey, for about 1,000 years.
Most evidence of hockey-like games
during the Middle Ages is found in legislation concerning sports and games. The
Galway Statute enacted in Ireland in 1527 banned certain types of ball games,
including games using "hooked" (written "hockie", similar
to "hooky") sticks.
...at no tyme to use ne occupye the
horlinge of the litill balle with hockie stickes or staves, nor use no hande
ball to play withoute walles, but only greate foote balle
By the 19th century, the various
forms and divisions of historic games began to differentiate and coalesce into
the individual sports defined today. Organizations dedicated to the
codification of rules and regulations began to form, and national and international
bodies sprung up to manage domestic and international competition. Ice hockey
also evolved during this period as a derivative of field hockey adapted to the
icy conditions of Canada and the northern United States.
Subtypes
Field hockey game at Melbourne
University.
Field
hockey
Field hockey is played on gravel,
natural grass, sand-based or water-based artificial turf, with a small, hard
ball approximately 73 mm (2.9 in) in diameter. The game is popular
among both males and females in many parts of the world, particularly in Europe,
Asia, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Argentina. In most countries,
the game is played between single-sex sides, although they can be mixed-sex.
The governing body is the 126-member
International Hockey Federation (FIH). Men's field hockey has been played at
each summer Olympic Games since 1908 (except 1912 and 1924), while women's
field hockey has been played at the Summer Olympic Games since 1980.
Modern field hockey sticks are J-shaped
and constructed of a composite of wood, glass fibre or carbon fibre (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. All sticks are right-handed –
left-handed sticks are not permitted. While current field hockey appeared in
mid-18th century 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 London. Field hockey is the national
sport of Pakistan.It was the national sport of India until the Ministry of
Youth Affairs and Sports declared that India has no national sport in August
2012.
