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POND HOCKEY
What is pond hockey?
Pond hockey is a form of ice hockey similar in its object and appearance to traditional ice hockey, but simplified and designed to be played on part of a natural frozen body of water. The rink is 50 to 80 percent the size of a standard NHL-specification rink, and has no boards or glass surrounding it; usually only a barrier of snow keeps the puck in play.
In addition, because there are no protective barriers behind the goal to contain high errant shots, the top of the goal is lower, in fact only slightly taller than the width of a puck, and the game does not have a formal goalie. Because of these differences, pond hockey places more emphasis on skating and puckhandling ability and less on shooting and checking.
TACTICS
What equipment to choose?
Because pond hockey discourages hard physical contact, the equipment involved is basic. Helmets are not mandatory for men, but recently the trend has been to wear a helmet for apparent safety reasons, also shin pads have evolved into popular use.
Most pond hockey enthusiasts also decide to wear gloves, because of the temperature and because gloves provide safety from unintentional slashing from hockey sticks, or skates.
Other equipment involved corresponds directly to basic ice hockey equipment such as a hockey stick, skates, and a hockey puck.
How to play pond hockey?
The most important tactic to possess in pond hockey is good passing, because incomplete passes can result in losing pucks in the surrounding snow. Most of the game consists of open ice puck handling; therefore hand-eye coordination is crucial. Speed is also an important ingredient that makes a good pond hockey player.
There are no goalies in pond hockey which almost guarantees goals on break away streaks. To be a skilled pond hockey player one does not necessarily need to have a good shot, because the goal is barely taller than the height of the puck the player just has to be accurate in guiding the puck close to goal. In pond hockey, a good player does not specialize in offense or defence.
Teamwork becomes important, because the lack of a goalie everyone has to work together to make sure the other team does not get an easy goal. Playing intelligently becomes key, because if a player makes a bad pass or slips over an opponent, the opponent will have an easy attempt at a goal.
A long way to global official rules
The path to the current world-wide rules of pond hockey was really long. It is the result of playing process cooperation with an emphasis on the sense of the sport. All the rules have been sensitively selected and tested in the last 19 years, so that just the wording exactly matches the natural playing of this sport from the player's perspective. However, development is not complete and will continue to be subject to progressive changes over time.
