Different Forms of Hockey
Hockey like many other sports, such as football, kabbadi and wrestling, is the evolved form of a basically similar type of prehistoric sport. The hockey rules are simple. There is a ball or puck, sticks to hit the ball or puck with, and a bunch of players who execute the said action. So yes, it seems perfectly normal that it was played sometime around 200 BC in Greece.
Hockey has come a long way since its variegated appearances in history. The word ‘hockey’ was coined around 1363 AD by Edward the third of England. Centuries later it made its way into the school education and sport system of English public schools during the initial part of the nineteenth century. The first hockey club came into being around 1849 and the first Hockey Association came soon after in 1886. By the beginning of the twentieth century, hockey was a part of the events and games at the Summer Olympics. In 1887, shortly after the Hockey association was formed, a hockey club named Molesey Ladies, exclusively for women, came into being. The creation of the International Federation of Women's Hockey Associations (IFWHA) came later on in 1927. By the end of the twentieth century, Hockey was accepted worldwide and was on a league of its own.
Hockey itself has a number of subtypes- the same game with slight but significant variations from the original played with its own unique set of rules. There is the most popular form of hockey known as the field hockey that can be played on gravel, grass, sand or water based turfs. This form of hockey is very famous in many countries and is even regarded as the national sport of India or Indian Hockey and Pakistan. Hockey news often monopolizes Pakistan’s sports section. The next subtype of hockey in terms of popularity is ‘Ice hockey’ which as its name suggests is played flat areas of ice. It is a popular item at the Winter Olympics and is the national sport of Latvia and Canada.
Then there is the lesser known version such as Roller Hockey which itself is divide into two: Roller hockey quads and Roller Hockey inline. It is implied that the game is played on roller skates. There are way too many ice Hockey videos and bloopers doing its round on the internet. Then there is the Sledge hockey played by people who are handicapped or have disabilities affecting the lower half of their bodies. There are also other forms of hockey, all of which are derivations of the same game molded to suit the players’ interests.
