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Indoor field hockey, or indoor hockey, is an indoor variant of "traditional" outdoor field hockey. It is not to be confused with indoor roller hockey variants such as rink hockey or inline hockey.
Field hockey is a team game of the hockey family. The earliest origins of the game date back to the Middle Ages in Pakistan. The game can be played on grass, water turf, artificial turf or synthetic field as well as an indoor board surface. Each team plays with eleven players, including the goalie. Players use sticks made out of wood, carbon fibre, fibre glass or a combination of carbon fibre and fibre glass in different quantities to hit a round, hard, plastic ball. The length of the stick depends on the player's individual height. Only one face of the stick is allowed to be used. Goalies often have a different kind of stick, however they can also use an ordinary field hockey stick. The specific goal-keeping sticks have another curve at the end of the stick, this is to give them more surface area to save the ball. The uniform consists of shin guards, shoes, shorts, a mouth guard and a jersey. Today, the game is played globally, mainly in parts of Western Europe, South Asia, Southern Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, and parts of the United States. Known simply as "hockey" in many territories, the term "field hockey" is used primarily in Canada and the United States where ice hockey is more popular. In Sweden, the term "landhockey" is used and to some degree also in Norway where it is governed by Norway's Bandy Association.
Roller hockey is a form of hockey played on a dry surface using wheeled skates. Most professional inline hockey games take place on an indoor or outdoor sport court. Otherwise, any dry surface can be used to host a game, typically a roller rink, macadam, or cement. The term "Roller hockey" is often used interchangeably to refer to three variant forms chiefly differentiated by the equipment used. There is traditional "Roller hockey", played with quad skates and a ball, "Inline hockey", played with inline skates and puck and "Skater hockey", played with quad skates or inline skates and plastic ball. Combined, roller hockey is played in nearly 60 countries worldwide.
It is traditionally and mainly played as a pastime by outdoor field hockey players during the off-season, when the outdoor pitches are frozen, or alternatively when conditions are too hot for outdoor play. Indoor field hockey is played in regular national and international championships. The first Indoor Field Hockey World Cup was organized in 2003. It included countries which do not compete at the highest level of the outdoor game.
The 2003 Indoor Hockey World Cup championship was the first time this competition took place. It occurred in February 2003, in Leipzig, Germany. The host nation Germany won both the men’s and women’s gold medals. The Eurosport TV channel covered the event, which had good ratings despite the late schedule. The 2015 Men's Indoor Hockey World Cup was also held in Leipzig, Germany. A total of 20 million viewers watched 13 hours broadcast on Eurosport, with ten matches broadcast on live TV.
Indoor field hockey differs from its outdoor parent in several ways:
The playing field is smaller than the outdoor pitch. An indoor pitch is 18m to 22m wide by 36m to 44m long, divided by a center line. The shooting circle is a semicircle measured out 9m from each goal post. Side-boards mark the sidelines, helping to keep the ball in the field and allowing players to play against it. Despite who hit it, when the ball goes over the endline the defensive team will receive a hit coming out. The pitch is made of wood or synthetic material. The board surface facing inwards to playing surface is angled slightly to encourage ball to bounce down not up.
The goals are smaller than a field hockey: 2m high by 3m wide and a minimum of 1m deep. (This is the same size as Team Handball goals as early indoor hockey used existing handball courts)
A team consists of 6[1] players on the pitch, 5 field players and 1 goalkeeper, with a maximum 12 players on a team.
Internationally the game is divided into 2 periods of 20 minutes. (In the German Indoor league, they play 30 minute halves with the ability to call time outs as in basketball.) Halftime break is 15 minutes. In case of a regulation tie teams play up to two 5-minute golden-goal overtimes; otherwise, the game will be decided by penalty strokes (5 rounds for each team followed by sudden-death rounds in case of ties).
The players may not hit the ball, but only push it or deflect it, and may not raise the ball except in the shooting circle, with the purpose of scoring a goal.
The balls and the sticks are similar, but players prefer lighter sticks than for the outdoor game.
In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by intercepting shots at goal. Such positions exist in hurling, shinty, association football, Gaelic football, international rules football, handball, field hockey, bandy, rink bandy, rinkball, floorball, roller hockey, ice hockey, ringette, water polo, lacrosse, camogie and other sports.
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball through the defender's hoop while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own hoop. A field goal is worth two points, unless made from behind the three-point line, when it is worth three. After a foul, timed play stops and the player fouled or designated to shoot a technical foul is given one or more one-point free throws. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins, but if regulation play expires with the score tied, an additional period of play (overtime) is mandated.
The small field and sideboards make indoor field hockey a quick, technical and physical game. Some of the original rules eventually influenced outdoor hockey, such as unrestricted substitution. It is often an ideal game for field hockey players to develop vision on and off the ball, developing a better understanding of tactics and set plays.
History
Indoor hockey developed in Germany during the 1950s, quickly spreading to other European nations. Belgium was one of the countries to adopt the field hockey variant, and in 1966 René Frank, a native of Belgium, who was later to become President of the FIH, persuaded the German Hockey Associations to give responsibility over the rules of Indoor Hockey to the FIH. This led to the FIH recognising indoor hockey in its constitution in 1968.[2]
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central and Western Europe, lying between the Baltic and North Seas to the north, and the Alps to the south. It borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, France to the southwest, and Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands to the west.
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. It comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia.
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Western Europe. It is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to the southwest, and the North Sea to the northwest. It covers an area of 30,688 square kilometres (11,849 sq mi) and has a population of more than 11.4 million. The capital and largest city is Brussels; other major cities are Antwerp, Ghent, Charleroi and Liège.
Whereas in many countries field hockey is played all year long, in Germany and Austria the hockey season is divided evenly into a field hockey half in summer and an indoor hockey season in Winter. There has been criticism that this impairs these countries' chances in international field hockey competition, but on the other hand the north European climate favours indoor hockey in Winter, as outdoor pitches may be unplayable due to snow and ice. In Germany's case one could argue that it complements and enhances skills of their players with the German Women winning gold in Athens Olympics and German Men winning the 2006 Field Hockey World Cup, the 2007 indoor hockey world cup and gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
In Germany indoor hockey is quite popular with many players, as due to the smaller fields and the use of side-boards the game-play is much faster. It is also both technically and physically very demanding.
The first FIH sanctioned tournament matches of Indoor Hockey were played in 1972.
World Cup
The International Hockey Federation organise the Indoor Hockey World Cup start from year 2003. The first Indoor World Cup was held in Leipzig, Germany in 2003, where the home nation won both the men's and women's gold medals. Eurosport television ratings for the recent Indoor Hockey World Cup, held in Leipzig, Germany, have shown the event to garner large audiences. A total of 20 million viewers watched 13 hours broadcast on Eurosport, with ten matches aired live. Peak viewing audience reached 889,000 viewers during the opening Poland vs.USA match, with the average live viewing figure for the whole tournament at 601,000. Germany and Poland, Eurosport’s two strongest markets, showed particular interest, with more than 4 million different viewers tuning in from Germany, and more than 1.5 million watching from Poland. The average audience, calculated across several of Eurosport’s key territories, showed a strong bias towards young males according to Eurosport’s research. Arnaud Simon, Eurosport's Program Director commented: 'The first Indoor World Cup was a very exciting event, well suited for television and with good production standards. These characteristics were rewarded with very strong ratings, particularly considering that many of the matches were aired at off-peak viewing times.'
The Fédération Internationale de Hockey, commonly known by the acronym FIH, is the international governing body of field hockey and indoor field hockey. Its headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland and the president is Narinder Batra. FIH is responsible for field hockey's major international tournaments, notably the World Cup.
The Indoor Hockey World Cup is an international indoor field hockey competition organised by the International Hockey Federation (FIH). The tournament was first held in 2003 and it is held every four years.
Leipzig is the most populous city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany. With a population of 581,980 inhabitants as of 2017, it is Germany's tenth most populous city. Leipzig is located about 160 kilometres (99 mi) southwest of Berlin at the confluence of the White Elster, Pleiße and Parthe rivers at the southern end of the North German Plain.
Els van Breda Vriesman, the President of the International Hockey Federation, added: 'The figures speak for themselves, proving not only that hockey has mass appeal on television, but also that the target audience presents a very attractive commercial proposition for potential sponsors and advertisers.'
Germany defended their titles in Vienna, Austria in February 2007. The German men were successful, although the women were beaten in the semi-final by Spain, who went on to lose the final against the Netherlands.
Vienna is the federal capital and largest city of Austria, and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primate city, with a population of about 1.9 million, and its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 7th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union. Until the beginning of the 20th century, it was the largest German-speaking city in the world, and before the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I, the city had 2 million inhabitants. Today, it has the second largest number of German speakers after Berlin. Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations and OPEC. The city is located in the eastern part of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region. Along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In July 2017 it was moved to the list of World Heritage in Danger.
Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in Central Europe comprising 9 federated states. Its capital, largest city and one of nine states is Vienna. Austria has an area of 83,879 km2 (32,386 sq mi), a population of nearly 9 million people and a nominal GDP of $477 billion. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The terrain is highly mountainous, lying within the Alps; only 32% of the country is below 500 m (1,640 ft), and its highest point is 3,798 m (12,461 ft). The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects as their native language, and German in its standard form is the country's official language. Other regional languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene.
See also
European Championship: The European championship, both men's and women's, was first held in 1974.
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