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Hockey in Nigeria
Hockey Sports Competition
Hockey is a sports game played on grass fields or ice fields; it is played with sticks with a round, flat side to move the spherical, usually a white ball, to score a goal.
Considering some countries' limitations to ice, just as Nigeria is one of them, field hockey is generally practiced rather than ice hockey. However, there are numerous types of hockey games, such as underwater hockey.
Field hockey uses a ball, while ice hockey uses a puck. Both sports use a curved stick of differing strength to strike an object. Considering the physical elements in ice hockey, i.e., body checking, players wear more protective outfits than in field hockey.
The massive increase in speed in ice skates over shoes makes ice hockey a faster-than-light sport. An ice hockey game is played on an ice-covered area comprising three 20-minute periods, while field hockey is played on a 60-100-yard grass field.
Complete hockey teams comprise eleven players, which include five forwards, three halves, two backs, and a well-equipped and guarded goalkeeper. As in football, team size and formation vary depending on the coaching statistics and play level.
A score is made in a hockey game when a ball is played inside the circle, where an attacker creates a mark in front of a goal and doesn’t go outside the circle before flowing over the goal line. Low scoring is one of the characteristics of a hockey game; players don’t raise their sticks above another player's head.
It’s against the rules for a player to use the stick back or to lift the ball while playing intentionally. Hockey players always wear closely fitted colored, head-guarded masks, which must be soft and eye-goggle.
Unnatural pitches are now compulsory for all international tournaments and national competitions, though some national divisions and local levels still play field hockey on grass fields.
In 1928, the game was initiated in Nigeria, four years after the hockey federation was formed to normalize the game internationally.
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