Inline hockey in the United Kingdom

Inline hockey in the United Kingdom
Highest governing body	BRSF, BIPHA, BiSHA
Characteristics
Contact	Non-contact to Full Contact
Team members	5 at a time, 4 outfield and 1 netminder
Mixed gender	Male & Female

Last updated April 09, 2019

Inline hockey and skater hockey are team sports, similar to ice hockey. In the UK, there are two associations that govern inline hockey. The British Inline Puck Hockey Association (BIPHA) govern the sport with rules using a Puck. The British inline Skater Hockey Association (BiSHA) is different from BIPHA as BiSHA uses a Ball, Inline skates and roller skates and is played to full-contact rules. GBinline, Inline UK and BRHA, are minor association within the country.

Ice hockey is a contact team sport played on ice, usually in a rink, in which two teams of skaters use their sticks to shoot a vulcanized rubber puck into their opponent's net to score points. The sport is known to be fast-paced and physical, with teams usually consisting of six players each: one goaltender, and five players who skate up and down the ice trying to take the puck and score a goal against the opposing team.

Inline skates are a type of roller skate used for inline skating. Unlike quad skates, which have two front and two rear wheels, inline skates typically have two to five wheels arranged in a single line. Some, especially those for recreation, have a rubber "stop" or "brake" block attached to the rear of one or occasionally both of the skates so that the skater can slow down or stop by leaning back on the foot with the brake skate.

Roller skates are shoes, or bindings that fit onto shoes, that are worn to enable the wearer to roll along on wheels. The first roller skate was effectively an ice skate with wheels replacing the blade. Later the "quad" style of roller skate became more popular consisting of four wheels arranged in the same configuration as a typical car.

The BRSF is recognised by UK Sport, Sport England, Sport Northern Ireland, Sport Wales and SportScotland as the National Governing Body of Roller Sports in the UK, its members include BIPHA, BiSHA, NRHA, FARS, UKRDA and Skateboarding. Clubs and teams who wish to be recognised by UK Sport and the four Home Countries must be registered to one of the members of the BRSF.

UK Sport is the government agency responsible for investing in Olympic and Paralympic sport in the UK. It is an executive non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport.

Sport England is a non-departmental public body under the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Its role is to build the foundations of a community sport system by working with national governing bodies of sport, and other funded partners, to grow the number of people doing sport; sustain participation levels; and help more talented people from all diverse backgrounds excel by identifying them early, nurturing them, and helping them move up to the elite level.

Sport Northern Ireland is the regional government sports council for Northern Ireland.

BIPHA has nine current regions spread across the UK, regional league winners and runners-up progress to national finals held in Rotherham each summer. BIPHA provide leagues for players at several age groups including Under 08, Under 10, Under 12, Under 14, Under 16, Junior Men and Women, Senior Men and Women and Masters. The association also sends teams to compete in the FIRS Inline Hockey World Championships at Junior, Senior and Masters level and to the AAU Olympics at Junior level held in the United States.

The Inline Hockey World Championships are an annual inline hockey tournament organized by the Comité International Roller In-Line Hockey (CIRILH), an organization and discipline of Fédération Internationale de Roller Sports (FIRS). First held in 1995, it is the sport's highest profile annual international tournament. The first World Championship that was held was in 1995 in which twelve nations participated in pool play followed by single elimination games to determine the champion. This basic format would be used until 2006.

The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It has more than 700,000 members nationwide, including more than 100,000 volunteers.

BIPHA has two specific Inline hockey venues. These are used by each of the associations. Simply Skate Arena, in Rotherham, has two small sized pads and is the home venue of BIPHA. Also, the Lord Roberts Centre in Bisley, Surrey, has a similar sized rink. For Regional Leagues, often Leisure Centres are used due to the lack of specific venues.

Rotherham is a town in South Yorkshire, England, which together with its conurbation and outlying settlements to the north, south and south-east forms the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, with a recorded population of 257,280 in the 2011 census. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, its central area is on the banks of the River Don below its confluence with the Rother on the traditional road between Sheffield and Doncaster. Rotherham was well known as a coal mining town as well as a major contributor to the steel industry.

Bisley is a village and civil parish in the borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England. It is centred 3.4 miles (5.5 km) west of Woking. It was a medieval creation. Neighbouring Bisley is the 19th-century West End, centred 900 metres north, across the Windle Brook. According to the 2011 Census, the population of Bisley was 3,965, which is largely within a focal area – the surrounding green and heather-and-gorse heath buffer land running into other parishes is lightly populated – in contrast to Knaphill which is contiguous to Woking, 1 mile (1.6 km) east.

Surrey is a subdivision of the English region of South East England in the United Kingdom. A historic and ceremonial county, Surrey is also one of the home counties. The county borders Kent to the east, East Sussex and West Sussex to the south, Hampshire to the west, Berkshire to the northwest, and Greater London to the northeast.

BiSHA has four current regions and is more popular in the South of the UK with only one league covering the North of England. Similarly to BIPHA, BiSHA holds national championships for league winners and runners-up. BiSHA also sends teams to represent the country, the BiSHA Great Britain team competes in the iiSHF European Championships.

Often, players will play in one or more associations, this is generally due to the lack of players and available teams. Some players will travel to other regions where the standard of hockey may be higher than in their own region.

Related Research Articles

Hockey is a sport in which two teams play against each other by trying to manoeuvre a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick. There are many types of hockey such as bandy, field hockey, and ice hockey.

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.

The Fédération Internationale de Roller Sports was the world governing body for roller sports, including skateboarding, rink hockey, inline hockey, speed skating, inline alpine, downhill, roller derby, roller freestyle, inline freestyle and artistic roller skating. It was established in April 1924 in Montreux, Switzerland by two Swiss sportsmen, Fred Renkewitz and Otto Myer, who had close connections to the International Olympic Committee.

Roller Hockey International was a professional inline hockey league that operated in North America from 1993 to 1999. It was the first major professional league for inline hockey.

Roller derby is a contact sport played by two teams of five members roller skating counter-clockwise around a track. Roller derby is played by approximately 1,250 amateur leagues worldwide, mostly inside the United States.

Street hockey is a variation of the sport of ice hockey where the game is played outdoors on foot, or with inline or roller skates using a ball or puck. Both ball and puck are typically designed to be played on non-ice surfaces. The object of the game is to score more goals than the opposing team by shooting the ball or puck into the opposing team's net. Street hockey in pickup form is generally played under the following guidelines since there are no "official rules" for local pickup hockey:

Floor hockey is a family of indoor hockey games. 5 variations exist: three variations in the style of ice hockey, and the other two in the style of bandy, one of which is called floorball in English speaking regions. Two of these variations involve the use of wheeled skates and are categorized as roller sports under the title of roller hockey. Quad hockey uses quad skates and looks similar to bandy, while inline hockey uses inline skates and is of the ice hockey variation. All styles and codes are played on dry, flat floor surfaces such as a gymnasium or basketball court. As in other hockey codes, players on each team attempt to shoot a ball or puck into a goal using sticks, usually with a curved end. Floor hockey games differ from street hockey in that the games are more structured, and two use wheeled skates. The variations which do not involve wheeled skates are sometimes used for training children to play ice hockey and bandy in a training format known as dryland training.

USA Roller Sports (USARS), formerly the United States Amateur Confederation of Roller Skating, is the national governing body of competitive roller sports in the United States. It is recognized by the International Roller Sports Federation (FIRS) and the United States Olympic Committee.

Roller in-line hockey, or inline hockey is a variant of hockey played on a hard, smooth surface, with players using inline skates to move and hockey sticks to shoot a hard, plastic puck into their opponent's goal to score points. There are five players including the goalkeeper from each team on the rink at a time, while teams normally consist of 16 players.

The International Inline-Skater hockey Federation (IISHF) is an international sporting federation that internationally organizes skater hockey. Each of the ten member-countries organized in their national governing bodies.

Roller hockey, rink hockey or quad hockey is a team sport that enjoys significant popularity in a number of Latin countries.

The Confederation of Asia Roller Sports (CARS) is the main roller skating organization of Asia. The CARS is part of the International Roller Sports Federation, or FIRS. Varieties of skating governed by the CARS include:

Ice hockey has been played in the United Kingdom since the beginning of the twentieth century, and it was a game between English Army veterans played in Canada that is the first recorded use of a sawed-off ball, which led to the use of the puck in hockey. The Great Britain men's national ice hockey team enjoyed worldwide success through the 1920s and 1930s, achieving bronze at the 1924 Olympics, and gold twelve years later. They also won medals at the World Championships in 1935, 1937 and 1938, though never won the tournament. The national team has struggled since the Second World War, and has not finished better than twelfth in the World Championships since 1962. Ice hockey is played professionally in the United Kingdom in the Elite Ice Hockey League, a eleven-team league which was founded in 2003.

Matthew "Matt" Lloyd is a British Paralympian who was born with spina bifida and two club feet. He has competed in ice sledge hockey at the 2006 Winter Paralympics, in Sitting volleyball at the 2007 European Championships, and is credited with inventing the sport of Inline sledge hockey. He was born in Crawley, Sussex but grew up in Rainhill, Merseyside and later resided in Hollym, East Riding of Yorkshire.

The USA Rink Hockey National Championship is the biggest Roller Hockey Clubs Championship in United States. In the U.S., the sport is largely owned by roller rink operators. The sport suffers stateside since players are mostly made up of operator's family members and a gaggle of childhood friends. Since the sport transitioned to the United States in the 1960s, teams and players competing in the United States have waned as roller rinks continue to close nationwide. Teams are often completed by tapping skaters from ice or inline hockey who are willing to give it a go and round out teams at U.S. nationals; many playing on inline skates. The sport is struggling in the U.S. due to the lack of public access to the sport found in other countries where the sport continues to grow. In contrast to other countries, the U.S. players and teams are managed and vetted by roller rink operators and their families. This practice explains the recurring players, teams, and regions who compete each year, and the loss of total number of teams since the 1960s and 1970s.

The Israel Roller Hockey League is the biggest Roller Hockey Clubs Championship in Israel.

The Australia men's national inline hockey team represents Australia in international inline hockey competitions. They are controlled by Ice Hockey Australia for events organised by the International Ice Hockey Federation and by Skate Australia for events organised by the International Roller Sports Federation. Australia plays in Division I of the IIHF InLine Hockey World Championship and Group C at the FIRS Inline Hockey World Championships.

England Roller Hockey, which originated in England, is a game played on roller-skates with a ball and stick. It was first played at The Lava Rink in Denmark Hill, London in 1885. The National Roller Hockey Association of England (NRHA) is the roller hockey governing body in England.

The Roller Skating Federation of India (RSFI) is the national governing body for roller sports in India. The RSFI was established in 1955, and has been affiliated to the Fédération Internationale de Roller Sports since 1971. The RSFI was a founder member of the Confederation Asian Roller Skating (CARS) in 1978. The Federation was officially recognized by the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in September 1990, and was subsequently recognized by the Indian Olympic Association.

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