Facts of Hockey.

Facts I just learned
I've been doing a tonne of research and I have discovered new facts on my favourite sport!
 Did you all know that  field hockey is the 2nd largest team sport in the world right now? It is played in over 100 countries world wide and I think that is a great achievement for the hockey community as it has not even been made a professional sport here in Ireland, i.e the people who play for Ireland in field hockey don't even get paid to represent their country.

The Game 
Hockey is played on astroturf (used to be played on grit) and the astro pitch is 100 yards by 60 yards and it is marked at the 25 yard line, the 50 yard line and the other 25 or 75 yard line. The game is played with a round solid ball and sticks with curved ends to make it easy to hit the ball and control it.
While playing hockey you must wear protective gear, all players must wear shin guards and a gumsheild at all times and the goalie is in full protective gear as shown in picture below. 

           A ball and an Osaka Stick.

OBO goalie gear.

Photo credits to http://onlinehockeystore.wordpress.com/dita-products/

and http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2012/mar/21/england-host-2015-eurohockey-championship

Introduction

Hello my name is Lucy Taylor and I am in Wesley College in TY and this is my blog about Hockey.
 I chose this blog because I am a huge fan of hockey, I've been playing for nine years now and I play all the time! I play in school and for a club- Corinthians.
 Throughout the course of my blog I will be telling you about the origin of hockey, how it has developed in recent years, who are the top teams in the world and Ireland and hopefully update you on my own hockey pursuits.