Ice – Hockey

I. Introduction :

In Summer, you enjoy an ice-cream very much but you can also enjoy going to the skating rink. Maybe some day you have seen a match of ice-hockey and you must admit that it is really a fantastic game.

II. History :

The origin of the word hockey is quite unknown but some people say that it comes from the word "hook" and other say that it comes from the "hoock day" in Scandinavia.

Ice hockey can be considered as a new version of the bandy. (This game was played on the ice but without ice-skates)

The first official match took place at the Victoria Skating Rink in Montreal on 3 march 1875. Since then, Canada has been a sort of leader in the development of the game, particularly two cities : Kingston and Halifax.

In France, the game appeared in 1881, and the first club was created in Paris : "Hockey club of Paris" in 1901.

III. The game in itself :

The ice-rink is at least 26 m wide and 56 m long and the maximum dimensions are 61*30 metres. The corners of the ice-rink are round and it is surrounded by a fence between 0,8 and 1,2 metre high.

The goals are 1,83 m wide and the aim of the game is to shoot the puck into the goals.

This game is played in teams of 22 players but only 6 of them are on the ice at the same time.

The players can stop the opponent but they are not allowed to hit or hurt them.

The length of a meeting depends of the age of the players :

- 3 times of 20 minutes (with a rest of 15 or 10 min between each) for the oldest players

- 3 or 2 times of 15 minutes (with a rest of 5 to 10 min between each) for the youngest players.

IV. Conclusion :

This game seems to me quite interesting because when I watch some matches, I am always fascinated by the speed of the players on the ice and their ability on skates.

So I can say that Ice-hockey is an interesting sport which can be cool in summer and even if it's not a very popular sport, the players seem to enjoy it a lot.

Nowadays, ice-hockey is mostly played in the south of France (the Alps) and in big cities because an ice-rink is required.

Manuel Collongues