Talk:History of field hockey

Untitled
First two chapters. Do not hestate to rephrase my poor English. Lvr 14:40, 16 Sep 2004 (UTC)


 * Your English could use a little work (your tenses are a bit wonky) which I'll fix in a little while. Are you doing all this from memory, or do you have some sources which you are referring to?  If so, could you list them at the bottom of the article?


 * Secondly, I would take issue with your characterisation of the change in the game due to synthetic fields. While everybody agrees speed has increased, I think there are a variety of opinions over whether the skills of the game have improved or not.  Ideally, what we need is some attributed opinions on this matter (though this might require some work).  --Robert Merkel 22:59, 16 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * I haven't done that entirely from memory. I read a couple of stuff from internet and mixed it with what I remembered. I would list the most obvious influences.
 * What do you mean by "attributed opinions" ? Lvr 09:26, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * Opinions on the effects of synthetic fields, and whether the effects were good or bad, differ. Therefore it would be best to find out what the major opinions were/are, and describe them, with direct quotes if we can find good ones.  --Robert Merkel 13:03, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * I Understand what you mean. I will just have to listen to some old folks in my club !!!!

How do call, in English, the technique that consists of playing the ball quickly "normal hand" and "backhand", in french, we call it "coup droit-revers", also "Indian dribble", because it was invented by Indian people ? Lvr 13:13, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)
 * It's generally called an Indian dribble in English. I don't know whether it was actually invented by the Indians or not.  It's a term that's fallen out of use somewhat these days, though.  To play the ball with the stick on the left of the body (what you've called backhand) is normally called "(on the) reverse stick", "back stick" or sometimes simply "reverse". with "normal hand" generally described as "fore stick".  --Robert Merkel 13:29, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I would take issue with the statement that the 'Indian dribble' (playing the ball to either side of the body and across the front of the feet by means of over the front/top of the ball movements of the stick head) was a development that followed on from the introduction of synthetic surfaces. This type of dribbling, which was added to what was later often termed the 'English dribble' (the stick head in the 'English' style being generally moved around the back of the ball and the feet ajusted accordingly at the same time) was largely a result of the shorter stick head, which the Indians developed and was a large factor in the early dominance of the game by India. See article Field Hockey Stick which covers some of the same ground. If anything the need to move the ball and beat an opponent with stick-work diminished as passing tactics developed on the fast flat surfaces in the 1980's and especially after the introduction of the 'water-base' pitch.

Modern stick-play is a combination or meld of the two styles, with the addition of techniques such as edge hitting, which were previously prohibited by rule, and the use of the aerial ball, drag flick, slap hit and sweep hit, which can I think be said to owe their origins to the flat predictable surface of the synthetic pitch.

It is worth noting that 'grass' pitches in many parts of the world are in fact 'murram' (spelling?), basically a wetted sandy/clay earth which is rolled flat (common in India and parts of Africa) and these too would have aided the development of close fast stick-work. An artificial 'murram', known as Redgra. which was like a very large gain sand or small rough pebble bound with finer grains, preceded the plastic artificial pitch in the UK and probably elsewhere. A Redgra pitch was installed for hockey and football use at the National Sports Centre at Crystal Palace in the early 1970's (I left a fair amount of my skin on it). It was a good surface to play on when freshly rolled after rain but in dry periods it was loose and there could be a haze of dust two feet high over the entire playing area during a game. ZigZag (talk) 21:17, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

Modern hockey
At the first Olympics in 1908 there were six teams (not three) - see here: Field hockey at the 1908 Summer Olympics Jürgen-Michael Glubrecht (talk) 16:46, 24 November 2012 (UTC)

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