By Regina Volpe and Abby Strusowski - STAFF WRITERS
You say you’re going to a hockey game, but what type of hockey do you mean? Ice? Roller? Street? Field?
Hockey is a whole big family of sports that share the common goal (pun most definitely intended) of hitting a ball or puck with a stick. Like soccer, there are 10 players on the field plus the goalie, totaling 11 active players. Like many other sports, the team who scores the highest is the winner. Should the score be a tie, the game is either called a draw or they go into overtime.
Field hockey is not just a game of running around with a stick in your hand. Each player has a defined position. These positions are:
Forwards: the offensive position and the players that usually score.
Midfielders: aka links; typically play both offense and defense.
Fullbacks: mainly defenders, sometimes there’s a sweeper who plays closest to their own goal.
Goalie: the one who saves the ball from going in, must wear thick pads that resemble the Michelin Man.
Once again, here’s a list of terms that are thrown around at games:
Bully: When possession of the ball is unknown after a play, the players restart by placing the ball between them and tapping sticks above it, like a hi-five of sorts, before they can begin the play.
Clearing: When the defending team hits the ball away from their own goal.
Dangerous play: Exactly what it sounds like, a general title to any play that could end in injury as in tripping or illegally raising the ball (see below).
Dribble: Similar to a dribble in soccer, a player travels on the field while moving the ball, makes it more difficult for the opposing team to steal possession.
Drive: Think Tiger Woods. Like in golf, this is when a player makes a hard hit to the ball to make it go a long distance.
Misconduct: Unsportsmanlike conduct, it can result in one of three cards.
Green: a two-minute suspension.
Yellow: a five-minute suspension.
Red: a removal from the game without chance for substitution.
Penalty corner: An unobstructed circle-play during which four defensive players rush out of the goal against the offense.
Penalty stroke: Awarded when a likely goal was prevented by a foul. A one-on-one shot against the goalie from a mark seven yards from the goal.
Push: The player pushes the ball up the field, the stick maintaining contact with both the ball and the field.
Raising the ball: When the ball leaves the ground, a legal move unless raised higher than knee-level in close proximity to another player.