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(field) Hockey around the globe

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    (field) Hockey around the globe

    Prompted by seeing who's playing who at the Hockey World Cup, taking place now in India, I got thinking. Amongst all major sports, hockey's development and relative popularity seems the most interesting, in respect of where it is played?

    At first glance it looks like it is one of your standard "commonwealth" sports, played to a world level by Britain, Australia, NZ, SA, India, Pakistan and Canada. All but the latter are test-playing cricket nations, so the temptation is to assume that hockey and cricket kind of spread hand-in-hand, back in the day.

    But then how to explain the presence of Holland and Germany as two of the perenially best Hockey-playing nations (Germany are multi-time world champions) as well as Spain, Argentina and Korea? Argentina have adopted Rugby, as well as hockey, but there's no discernible evidence of a French hockey team.

    Why have the Germans and Dutch taken to hockey with such gusto, but never cricket or rugby? I know the Dutch have recently enjoyed a bit of success in cricket, but that has been a new phenomenon, not really underpinned by any history.

    And Korea, and Spain? Did they simply have "hockey development programmes" linked to their hosting of (and hence entry into) Olympic Games in 1988 and 1992 that have kind of just carried on into modern success?

    #2
    (field) Hockey around the globe

    In Germany it is still a purely amateur team sport. In terms of media presence and number of players it is far behind football, handball, basketball, ice hockey or even volleyball but in front of rugby, cricket, baseball and American football which all hardly exist here.

    Hockey is for whatever reason a very upper class issue and extremely advanced in tactics and training theory (maybe because almost all players and managers have an academical background). Taken the extremely low number of active hockey players Germany is unbelievable successful in a sport that is only recognized every four years for the Olympics.

    I guess that past and present success makes hockey more attractive to play for some youngsters than let's say rugby. It also has relatively simply rules and the intention (get the ball into the goal) is crystal clear while the intention of cricket will always remain the best kept secret of England and its former colonies.

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      #3
      (field) Hockey around the globe

      Field hockey remains a very popular sport for high school girls here in Massachusetts and beyond but there is not a single high school boys field hockey team. In fact a local girls team had to petition the authorities to allow a boy onto their team recently (denied).

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        #4
        (field) Hockey around the globe

        Australia has just beaten South Africa 12-0 in men's field hockey... but I can never understand why Australia is so good at hockey as there is very little interest in it here. People will watch it on TV at the Olympics, but in the four years between olympic tournaments, there is virtually no interest in hockey and very few people seem to be involved with it. It doesn't seem to be played in schools, either. I wouldn't know where to go to watch a live hockey match, apart from the university playing fields, where it is played at quite a lowly amateur level.

        So I don't know where all the elite players come from once every four years...

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          #5
          (field) Hockey around the globe

          It's 100% girls only here. Usully the same girls/women that play field hockey play women's lacrosse too, since FH is in the fall and lax is in the spring. They still wear plaid skirts.

          My parents' neighbors' daughter was an alternate for the Olympics and has played for the US in international indoor tournaments. I haven't seen that, but it sounds like it would be better than outdoor field hockey. Another local woman played for the US, so I guess Cape Henlopen High School is a field hockey powerhouse.

          I'd seen it in high school and college and thought it was really crap - too many stops and a lot of ticky-tack fouls. But during the last olympics, a few games were televised here and it was pretty cool. Like soccer, but not.

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            #6
            (field) Hockey around the globe

            The German Rugby team just lost 0:69 in a European qualifier with Portugal. That should prove my statement about Rugby in Germany quite well.

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              #7
              (field) Hockey around the globe

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                #8
                (field) Hockey around the globe

                Australia has just won the Hockey World Cup, beating Germany in the final in New Delhi- without creating much interest here; few people are even aware that the Hockey World Cup is being played. Australians only take an interest in hockey during the Olympics.

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                  #9
                  (field) Hockey around the globe

                  I somehow missed this thread...

                  Anyway, Argentina won the Women's World Cup over the weekend, which given the noise in the stadium sounded like a big deal to them. Not a huge shock, they were one of the pre-tournament favourites and have the world's best player (Luciana Aymar) in their ranks.

                  To roughly answer the initial question, I think what happened was hockey was adopted as the international version of a stick-and-ball game that existed in variants in lots of countries. The name, for exmaple, probably derives from French (who do play, btw, and are fairly decent but not at Holland/Germany/England/Spain level).

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                    #10
                    (field) Hockey around the globe

                    Is there anywhere on the planet where field hockey draws crowds?

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                      #11
                      (field) Hockey around the globe

                      India and Pakistan, definitely (though the game has been in free fall in India), and decent crowds for major championships in places like Germany, Holland, Australia, Argentina and the UK.

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                        #12
                        (field) Hockey around the globe

                        Where is the best pro league? Is there a pro league at all?

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                          #13
                          (field) Hockey around the globe

                          The closest thing to a pro league is in the Netherlands, which is about the only place where club hockey draws respectable crowds.

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                            #14
                            (field) Hockey around the globe

                            It's not precise, but to give Reed an idea, club hockey (field/men) in the Netherlands is roughly similar to rugby (union/men) in the US (though I think that Dutch hockey probably has higher average attendances).

                            It attracts a similar (university educated, upper middle class and above) demographic as well.

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                              #15
                              (field) Hockey around the globe

                              Good thread, Rogin.

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                                #16
                                (field) Hockey around the globe

                                The UK does have a league with some professionals in it. Cannock used to draw pretty reasonable crowds for their teams (playing there was pretty intimidating).

                                One thing that has helped Australia in the past was they were at the forefront of astroturf technology with water based pitches. Hockey changes a lot with the pitch (ball movement, bounce, keeper slide) and having more top standard pitches made quite a difference. The Southern Hemisphere (NZ especially) have been at the forefront of goalkeeping technology as well.

                                I miss playing hockey, though it is probably just as well I am out as my knees would probably have packed in by now.

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                                  #17
                                  (field) Hockey around the globe

                                  Tending goal in hockey strikes me as something of a fool's errand. At least in football you can leap in the air a lot and pluck crosses out of the air. Hockey goalkeepers always strike me as wishing they were somewhere else. Am I being unfair?

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                                    #18
                                    (field) Hockey around the globe

                                    The Exploding Vole wrote:
                                    Tending goal in hockey strikes me as something of a fool's errand. At least in football you can leap in the air a lot and pluck crosses out of the air. Hockey goalkeepers always strike me as wishing they were somewhere else. Am I being unfair?
                                    Yes.

                                    Being a goalkeeper certainly involves a fair amount of pain. Padding has increased dramatically in the past ten years, but it remains that technique is all that prevents you from being seriously injured. Having been knocked unconscious twice while playing, my technique improved.

                                    There is a lot of sliding out and coverage techniques, plus the freedom to crush players so long as you get the ball. I think the rules have changed such that you can now move your left hand into the ball (it used to be you had to stiff-arm save, which was really counter to natural instincts while diving).

                                    The ball very rarely is lifted other than shooting, so a lot is judging lines and angles for crosses and shots. I have to admit it can be pretty rough - short corners can be crazy, but then you aren't the dude running at the guy trying to flick it while not wearing a helmet. Overall it is a lot of fun, but the kit starts to stink a bit.

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                                      #19
                                      (field) Hockey around the globe

                                      Australia has now won the World Cup, the Champions' Trophy and the Commonwealth Games gold medal- all in the one year. Yet the game gets so little publicity here that few people- I for one- would be able to name a single player in the team.

                                      They beat India 8-0 in the commonwealth games final before 19,000 spectators in Delhi.

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                                        #20
                                        (field) Hockey around the globe

                                        India loves its hockey. They love to play really technical. The Australians are simply incredible though, and have been for some time.

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                                          #21
                                          (field) Hockey around the globe

                                          Dwyer. He's an Australian male hockey player. But even I, as someone who plays the sport, couldn't give you his first name, or that of any of his teammates.

                                          Hockey is still consider the 'official' national sport of India (though I don't know who goes around defining such things, and if I did I would advise them they are thirty years out of date). Despite this, India have been on a serious downward trend for a couple of decades (they didn't qualify for the last Olympics, for the first time ever), basically ever since hockey moved from grass to astroturf, and became a high speed team passing game rather than a individual skill based dribbling one.
                                          England losing to India in the Commonwealth semis was a desperately poor result, and one which will be of great concern to the Britains coaches ahead of the next Olympics.

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                                            #22
                                            (field) Hockey around the globe

                                            dglhand of god wrote:
                                            Being a goalkeeper certainly involves a fair amount of pain. Padding has increased dramatically in the past ten years, but it remains that technique is all that prevents you from being seriously injured. Having been knocked unconscious twice while playing, my technique improved.

                                            There is a lot of sliding out and coverage techniques, plus the freedom to crush players so long as you get the ball. I think the rules have changed such that you can now move your left hand into the ball (it used to be you had to stiff-arm save, which was really counter to natural instincts while diving).

                                            The ball very rarely is lifted other than shooting, so a lot is judging lines and angles for crosses and shots. I have to admit it can be pretty rough - short corners can be crazy, but then you aren't the dude running at the guy trying to flick it while not wearing a helmet. Overall it is a lot of fun, but the kit starts to stink a bit.
                                            What level do you play at dgl? I'm guessing from your description of play that it's reasonably high. You make it sound like you regularly face strikers that are drag-flicking.
                                            As a defender I've always felt a bit safer running than as a post-man. That means being on the line, without a helmet, with a ball potentially whizzing in. I'd rather have a broken leg than a broken head...

                                            Also, speaking as a someone who is qualified to ump (though only at the basic level), you really don't have "the freedom to crush players so long as you get the ball." That is deliberately dangerous play, a flick and a yellow card if the umpire appreciates that your aim was 'taking everything'. Of course you guys try and cover it up by making it seem 'accidental', and often get away with it...
                                            Was the change in the rules about saving aerial shots around five years ago, at the same time as defenders on the line were allowed to raise their sticks above shoulder height to deflect a shot? Because if not, it's not something I've heard about (and I do try and read each years rules changes on the England Hockey site).

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                                              #23
                                              (field) Hockey around the globe

                                              I played for a team that fought way above its weight - playing around 2nd XI / 3rd XI level around South London & Surrey. Playing Surrey meant Oxsted, who counted Calum Giles in their club for years. That said, three or four teams a season always had a pretty solid drag-flick. I did have TK sponsorship, but I think they gave it out fairly liberally to get into the GK kit market (their kit is great, some actually better than OBO).

                                              I agree that the guy on the post was crazy. The change to motion of the hand was coming through in 2007 - it was still and odd rule IIRC on whether you are allowed to continue your motion when in contact. It was certainly more of a slap thing a penalty if you played it too near to anyone.

                                              The impact thing was a little bit of dramatic license. The way I played it was that the keeper was pretty much required to slide out at forwards in certain situations. Now the GK could minimize impact or be forceful, both without being crazy in any way. So you go in and what happens, happens. I wasn't one for playing nasty, but sometimes the player just isn't going to clear a 4ft wall of pads, and other times it is very unfortunate (limbs catch when sliding and it all goes into a very odd crunch). So, as you say - it is more the accidental thing. If it is the natural course of things, there is nothing wrong with making a striker apprehensive to take you on again.

                                              I hope I express myself clearly there.

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                                                #24
                                                (field) Hockey around the globe

                                                Well, a keeper today came crashing through a forward, taking the ball and player (though not, in my opinion, in that order). I gave a flick. No-one else on the pitch, including the team who got the flick, thought I was right... (D'Oh!).

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                                                  #25
                                                  (field) Hockey around the globe

                                                  Ha! I missed mentioning that the dglh part of my name was a 2008 Euro championship translation (with grammatical errors) of "Big Left Hand", my original log in name. Taken from Hockey Goalkeeping common parlance.

                                                  Calling a flick on a keeper making contact, when not 100% obvious, is going to be hard. Strikers kind of expect it, defenders expect their keeper to do it... etc. I am trying to remember if I gave a flick away in the last few seasons we played. I don't think I did - they normally were for stick tackles in front of goal or somesuch. There weren't many flicks at all - shame, because my flick keeping was one of my better part of my game (many highschool shootouts), whereas short corners were always really fricking painful.

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