SPORT- I AM INTERESTED IN

My favourite sport is Field Hockey.

I used to play at primary and high school.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hockey

• Good book to look in is ~ 100 Australian Sports Stars OF THE 21st CENTURY BOOK 2
  
• Modern field hockey sticks are J - shaped and made of wood. Equipment used is a stick, hockey ball and goal keeper cage. It is the oldest known stick and ball game (apart from Irish Hurling, which dates back to pre-historic times).
  
• Who invented hockey is England.
  
• One of the greatest secrets in hockey - goalkeepers has extra-ordinary eyesight. Goal keepers have the ability to focus set on an object for a long time called the "Quiet Eye Phenomenon".
  
• The goalkeeper can filter everything else in his sight and zoom in the puck and the shooters stick.
  
• What makes a hockey game good is preparation.
  
• Hockey is 2 teams of 11 players each who use their 'hooked' sticks curved at the striking end to hit a small, hard ball into their opponent’s goal. It is called field hockey to distinguish it from the similar game played on ice. You push, pass and dribble a small, hard, usually white, ball, with one aim in mind - to score by getting the ball into the opponents' goal. To do that, they have to get the ball past the other team's goalkeeper, who protects the goal, and logically, tries to keep the ball out.
  
• Field hockey is played on gravel; natural grass, sand based or water based artificial turfs. This is very popular in Europe, India, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and South Asia. Most countries games played between single-sex sides, although it can be played by mixed sex sides. In United States and Canada it is played predominantly by women.
  
• Famous Australian hockey players are Jamie Dwyer who won the International Hockey Federation's Player of The Year Award in 2004; he became the only player, man or woman, to win both the junior and senior awards. He won the junior award in 2002. To be voted the best hockey player in the world twice reflects his outstanding talent.
  
• A famous Australian hockey player is Rechelle Hawkes. A three times Olympic gold medallist, she started playing hockey when she was six years old, little did she know that one day she would become one of Australia's most famous athletes. Hockey was played in Western Australia as early as 1902.
  
• Player positions as already mentioned, every team must have a goalkeeper. The other 10 players are referred to as 'field players', and are dispersed over the field of play. The players can be put into three general categories - attackers, defenders and midfielders.
  
• Stick handling is an essential skill necessary for playing hockey is the ability to control, pass, push, stop and shoot the ball with your hockey stick.
  
• No Feet it may seem like common sense, but it is worth mentioning that in hockey, field players are not allowed to use their feet (or any other parts of their bodies for that matter) to control the ball.
  
• Scoring a goal in hockey is very interesting. There are only certain ways it can be done; from a Field Goal, from a Penalty Corner, and from a Penalty Stroke.
  
• Penalty Corners if a defending team breaks certain rules, the other team may be awarded a penalty Corner.