Field hockey

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, carbon fibre, fiberglass or a combination of carbon fibre and fibre glass in different quantities with the higher carbon fibre stick being more expensive and less likely to break, 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 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 on the end of the stick. The uniform consists of shin-guards, shoes, shorts, a mouth guard and a jersey. At the turn of the 21st century and 3rd millennium, 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.