Hockey became our national sport when the Indian hockey team in the Olympics remarkably excelled at performance, which made the Indian Ministry of Youth Affairs and sports declare it as our national sport. India won eight gold medals, one silver medal and three bronze medals between the years 1928 and 1956.
Hockey requires basic protective equipment
It is a sport that requires basic protective equipment, a ball and it’s sticks. It’s field needs eleven players for each team with ten in the field and one being a goalkeeper. To win, players must move a hockey ball around the field by hitting it with the stick towards the opponent’s shooting circle and then score the goal.
Matches are played on some types of surfaces like grass and artificial turf. Goalkeepers essentially use a more different design of the hockey stick. This games usually last 60 minutes played into four separate 15-minute quarters with 2-minute breaks after the first and third quarter and unlike regular football they also use green cards which when shown towards a player means that they should leave the field for two-minutes.
Invention of this Game
It was invented in Montreal, Canada, in 1875. James Creighton was a huge part in development of modern ice-hockey. James Creighton(1850-1930) is thought to be the father of ice-hockey because he drafted the rulebook for ice-hockey.
Today as we find ways to get more modern, hockey has a new court to play indoor using synthetic hard court, instead of the old wooden hockey-sticks they now use more advanced cutting-edge carbon fibre to manufacture the hockey-sticks. The material carbon fibre sticks also have the advantages of cheaper price, enhanced durability and this could also be customized to meet the player’s desired requirements on-field. But carbon fibre needs to very good care so that the stick doesn’t impact the players crucial game performance. (Click to know about 9 sports safety tips for kids)
Notable competitions are The International Hockey Federation Hockey World Cup and The FIH Pro League.
Hockey’s major skills include First Touch, Agility, Dribbling, Passing, Shooting, Defending and Smart Choices Of Play
Dhyan Chand – The Wizard of the Game
Dhyan Chand known by the title “Wizard of Hockey” is truly a magical hockey-player because of his accomplishments in this game. He won three Olympic gold medals with the Indian team in 1928, 1932, and 1936, and scored an estimated 570 goals in 185 international matches and a total of 1000 goals in his career.
Let’s celebrate hockey by encouraging the future generations to nourish the game and win bigger & better titles to the legendary game of hockey.
The world’s most famous sports
It one of the world’s most famous sports became India’s national sport due to a reason. It became our national sport when the Indian hockey team in the Olympics remarkably excelled at performance in the game which made the Indian Ministry of Youth Affairs and sports declare it as our national sport! India won 8 gold medals,1 silver, and 3 bronze medals between 1928 and 1956.
History tells us that there were similar stick-ball games found in ancient Greece and Egypt. James Creighton was a huge part in development of modern ice-hockey.
Author: I Tarun Karthi, Grade 8
