Field hockey, or simply
hockey, is a team sport of the
hockey family. The earliest origins of the sport date back to the Middle Ages in England, Scotland and the Netherlands. The game can be played on a grass field or a turf field as well as an indoor board surface. Each team plays with eleven players including the goalie. Players use sticks made out of wood or fiber glass to hit a round, hard, rubber like ball. The length of the stick depends on the player's individual height. Only one side of the stick is allowed to be used. Goalies have a different kind of stick. Theirs has another curve on the end of the stick. The uniform consists of shin-guards, cleats, skirts (usually referred to as kilts) or shorts, a mouth guard and a jersey. At the turn of the 21st century, the game is played globally, with particular popularity throughout western Europe, the Indian subcontinent, and
Australasia as well as the American South and Northeast (such as Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania) as well as Southern Africa. Hockey is the national sport of
Pakistan, and is sometimes assumed to be
India's national sport as well, although officially
India does not have a national sport. The term "field hockey" is used primarily in
Canada and the
United States where
ice hockey is more popular.
