hi

Just interested if anyone here plays field hockey??

Played alot at school until 18 but now 24 and went to my first session on thursday night at a local club. God its hard work, but ive still got some skills. Mishits and shanks were common though!

Anyone play? what position?

Any stick recommendations for a Defender?
What is your local club scene like? thriving or declining?

Can’t offer any advice as I don’t play, but my GF plays every week and I’m team photographer…

Cambridge Nomads vs City Ladies Hockey by brf, on Flickr

Cambridge Nomads vs City Ladies Hockey by brf, on Flickr

Cambridge Nomads vs City Ladies Hockey by brf, on Flickr

Me…

I still play (centre forward or centre mid), being 43 its getting tough on my Knees, but its a great sport and the league we play in is very competitive.

First 3-4 games are always tough, if you leave it for a stretch, but it gets easier & you never forget your skills.

They keep messing with the rules every season too, so its worth reading up as your opposition will be onto you if don’t Know the changes.

Finding decent astro shoes helps, makes a real difference to me, as astro can kill you legs if you are not used to it.

Our club is struggling, we run 4 men’s teams two youth & its a struggle to keep the club going with costs always going up & not enough new players joining.

We used to run seven men’s sides, two ladies and two junior, plus a touring team and a vets & summer league, its all going the wrong way at the moment!

Any stick recommendations for a Defender?

A long one 😉

I use Grays kit, its never let me down.

Its worth getting a decent mouth guard though, I paid for a fitted one through my dentist, best £50 I ever spent, we have a player in our team who is £7k down on dental work over two years, because of a stick to the mouth!

aaaah, i used to play in defence – from 12 to 18, then got an injury – am also 24 now, and haven’t been able to run more than 500m since 🙁

i love it, and when i move back to the uk, i’ll get some more physio sorted (or an op), in order to be able to get back in to it. i used to prefer indoor actually – much like 6-a-side footy – quick, intense and a lot of fun.

club was thriving back then, and i’ve recently heard that some of my team mates are doing well (randomly my ex’s housemate used to go out with a team mate, 400 miles from where we both came from) – think his brother is vice-captain of the Navy team, and a few others had england trials etc.

Played at school, club, uni, and now at work. Usually defence – centre / left back.

I’ve got a Mercian Manta which I really like, nicely weighted and balanced.

Up here in Edinburgh there are loads of clubs, though haven’t signed up for one as I can play for the work team during the week and keep the weekends free for biking.

Edit – I’ll second the gumshield recommendation. Ended up in plastic surgery getting my face stitched back together but teeth were thankfully all intact

Been playing every week for the last 8 years follwing a 6 year break after Uni. Was hard work getting back into it skills and fitness wise but well worth it. Near us there’s loads of teams and their seems to be a race to get new astro pitches, so a sport that’s on the up! I recommend TK sticks for defending having broken several Kookaburra and Slazenger ones far too easily, HTH.

Cheers guys, good to know there are some people out there.
I’m sure i would enjoy getting back into it im just worried that i might not be able to commit to many saturdays and therefore might be more trouble than im worth to a club. I also got rid of pretty much all my kit so it is going to be a bit of an investment to get going again regularly.

Do you regulars find enough time for riding, hockey and partners/family?

I also played left back and would probably still like that position. I love the feeling of a well connected, accurate reverse hit up the line 🙂 I was always a TK stick fan, i think the main reason was the fact i liked the elephants symbol!

My current plan is to go along thrusday nights for 3-4weeks with borrowed stick and pretty much no kit and see if i am still motivated. then i can look at getting stuff. It will also depend on if i get moved from practicing with the juniors soon! (i am not used to watching my language!)

My Grandad played for Middlesex and I work with an England international.

But no – the most interesting thing for me about it is watching sweaty ladies playing with stiff sticks. 🙂

+1 for the gum shield.

Can’t stress this enough (with the benefit of hindsight). I too took a face-full of stick and whilst the dental bills hurt like hell, that’s nothing next to the pain just from breathing in cold air when half your teeth are cracked!

I played at school and really enjoyed it. Wish i still played as I reckon it must be even better on astroturf than the grass we played on.
Good mate was due to go to the Sydney Olympics in the GB team but a knee injury 3 weeks before leaving screwed that one up!
Nowadays he still plays, coaches and rides rings around everyone else on bikes 🙁

It’s around this time of year I miss it*.

Played at a reasonable level (captained my county side as a lad, North Prem at university and afterwards).

Every year I’d trundle off to Barringtons in Knutsford to buy a new stick. More than once the stick that felt great to play with in the shop was a TK. A couple of games in, and I’d wish I’d stuck to Grays.

As a lad, I used to use BADA Carbon sticks, though I believe the business is long gone.

I was lucky enough to play with some great players – several junior (and subsequently full) internationals, as well as an Olympic medallist.

*Injury stopped me playing almost exactly 6 years ago – ball in the eye from 5 yards away. Damaged eyesight and three titanium plates holding my eye socket together.

Blimey omin that is a good enough reason to stop! Mine was a live of girls and drinking when I went to uni!

U lot trying to scare me off with your injury stories? Or does everyone stop hockey following massive facial injuries!

Goalie played school Uni, Mill Hill, Radlet and finished at Chepstow. Great game would like to give it another go but to many things going on.

Any stick recommendations for a Defender?

Slazenger Flick? 8)

IGMC

I’ve played for about 23 years now, coached for the last 12 years, currently playing in the “badgers” team (one of 2 central midfielders) to help bring youngsters through to playing league hockey. Stick wise I use a Dita sticks with a 23.2mm low bend (there is hockey geek tech as well) as I prefer that for close control.

Having played mainly right back, center back and sweeper, for a person coming back to the sport I would recommend Grays GX4000 (about search around at between £55 and £80) as a good balance between stiffness (good for power) and feel (for that non-bouncy first touch). The biking analogy would be that it’s the Specialized Rockhopper of sticks :-).

You need to see if you prefer the megabow (24.75mm bend), which can be better for close control but cause hits to unintentionally lift or the standard stick (20mm bend), less likely to lift the ball – someone will have a megabow Grays floating around. Weight wise, most people use light sticks, as stick technology is such that as long as your hitting technique is good you’ll get sufficient power without needing a heavier stick while retaining the finesse you get with a lighter stick.

As for your hitting, if you are topping the ball, you are probably lifting your head to see where the ball is going before you have hit it causing your left shoulder to lift and correspondingly the head of the stick – look at the ball at the moment of contact. If it’s not going where you want, concentrate on finishing the push/slap/hit with the stick pointing in the directing you want the ball to go, develop the disguise on your passing/shooting once you’ve got the accuracy.

Otherwise, it’s a great sport and the self pass rule is a great addition to the game.

I played hurling for years so find hockey a bit on the pedestrian side. Always fancied a go though. 🙂

I used to play pretty seriously in the Southern Prem B after playing at University. I played keeper for nearly 20 years. Was a qualified umpire and met Mrs S on the hockey pitch as I was umpiring club games as well as playing.

I stopped playing once it was clear my body wasnt recovering from one saturday to the next. Just didnt “want” the win as much as I used to. Such a great game. Met some of the nicest people, loved the discipline and technical skill and of course met Mrs S 🙂

Played my first game on sat for Chippenham 4ths and managed a 2-1 win. Really scrappy though!
Was playing midfield, god you have to run a lot!

Managed to get a free stick from my brother in law (who won it but doesnt play!)

but its light weight and pretty bowed so it is taking some getting use to.

Gonna keep it up though, really enjoying it atm.

Played for years but got a bit bored of 100 mile round trips for matches that we only got beaten in. I couldn’t imagine giving up every other Saturday for away games now I have a family. Have the odd “veterans” game once or twice a year which is good fun though, and I’ve met some of my best mates playing hockey. Hate playing without a gum shield though; i get very nervous. One of my mates had his teeth knocked out.