Hockey
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Hockey is any of a family of sports in which two teams compete by trying to maneuver a puck or ball into the opponents' goal using a stick. The major forms of hockey are:
- Field hockey, that used to be played on grass with a ball but now is more frequently played on sand or water-based astroturf.
- Ice hockey, played on ice with a small rubber disc called a puck.
- Rink hockey, played indoors with a ball.
Field hockey and ice hockey both developed independently from an earlier form of the game. In most countries field hockey is the game referred to by the word hockey on its own. Where ice hockey is played more commonly (especially Canada, the USA and Scandinavia), hockey on its own refers to ice hockey. In south European countries (such as Spain, Portugal and Italy and South American countries (mostly Brazil and Argentina) hockey refers to Rink hockey. Field hockey sticks are smaller than ice hockey sticks and have a hook instead of a long blade that can lie flat on the playing surface when the stick is held upright. Rink hockey sticks have a curled "L" shape, and are about the same size of those in field hockey.
There are also a number of other derived games:
- Bandy is played on ice with a ball on a football (soccer) size field, typically outdoors. It is in many ways field hockey played on ice.
- Floorball is played in sport halls.
- Roller hockey is a variant of ice hockey that is played on concrete or asphalt using in-line roller skates.
- Shinny is an informal version of ice hockey.
- Air hockey and table hockey are played on tables indoors.
- Underwater hockey is played on the bottom of a swimming pool.
- Road hockey or street hockey is a version of ice hockey played (most typically) on residential streets with or without roller blades, on ice or on bare pavement. Games are usually informal with no referee and no set teams. Because the game is played in the middle of the road, it is often interrupted by traffic, at which point someone will yell, "car!" and players stand to the side to allow the vehicle to pass.
Sometimes roller hockey is the name given to rink hockey. When that happens, the designation for roller hockey is inline hockey
