Have you ever played hockey?! Let’s discover five hockey facts for kids.
Most people automatically think of ice hockey when they think of Hockey, and yes that it is one type of hockey played. Other types of hockey played include field hockey, roller hockey and shinny hockey. The most popular type of hockey is ice hockey, which is mainly played across the united states of America and Canada. Do people play hockey where you’re from?
Ice Hockey uses a rubber disk that is called a puck which easily slides along the ground. Think of the hockey pucks used in arcade hockey games. The hockey sticks used in ice hockey have a long blade which allows the players to glide it along the ice to hit the hockey puck. Field Hockey uses a small hard rubber ball. The hockey sticks are smaller for field hockey as the ball is smaller, the bottom of the hockey stick also curls up like a ‘C’ shape.
The first hockey pucks used for hockey were made from cow dung! Ew, how disgusting is that! The cow dung was frozen and would only last for one game before it would start to get too soft. Thankfully these were soon replaced with wooden pucks. Rubber pucks were first introduced by slicing rubber balls and trimming them into squares. In the 1880s round pucks were brought to the game instead of square ones. We still use round pucks to this day.
Injuries are very common in Ice hockey! To protect the players a helmet, mouth guards, shoulder and elbow pads, chest protector, and padded shorts are worn. Goalies wear even more protection with a face guard and heavier clothing to protect them from hits they may get from the puck. In field hockey the goalies wear protective gear similar to the ice hockey goalies, but the players do not. The players wear short-sleeve tops and shorts, women wear a skirt with short pants underneath. All players wear knee-high socks and shin guards.
A hockey puck can travel up to 100 miles per hour. Now that is fast! An ice hockey puck can travel around 80-100 miles per hour. Some things can change the speed of the puck. If the player is moving fast, the puck will move faster. If the puck is nice and smooth it will also travel faster. For this reason the puck is kept in a freezer before games. Plastic pucks travel faster than rubber pucks as they are lighter. The obvious one of course is how hard the player hits the hockey puck. The harder they hit it, the faster it will travel.
We hope you enjoyed learning more things about hockey as much as we loved teaching you about them. Now that you know how majestic this sport is, you can move on to learn about other sports and activities like: Baseball, Super Bowl, Football World Cup, Gymnastics and Olympic Games.
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