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Outline of Underwater Hockey
By Julie Davis
History
Underwater hockey was invented in 1954 by a Southsea diver called Alan Blake. Originally it was called octopush, 8 players pushing a puck or squid as it is normally known. Now a days it is normally known as underwater hockey although the term octopush is still common throughout Britain.
Octopush was designed in a bid to keep diving clubs occupied during the British winter and it rapidly spread throughout the UK mainly through interactions between diving clubs. Alan Blake also travelled and during his travels introduced the sport to many different people and countries. Changes then started to take place and octopush soon started to become a sport in its own right. Non-divers started playing and leagues and tournaments were soon set up. The British Octopush Association (BOA) was founded in 1976 to act as a governing body for the sport. It was decided to change the number of players in the water to six with up to four substitutes and new rules were set up. It is now a worldwide played sport with about 2000 people in the UK playing. There are 42 countries that play throughout the world with it being especially popular in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Europe, USA and Canada to name a few places. South Africa for example has around 8000 players with Australia and Europe having similar numbers.
How is it played?
Players need special equipment to play underwater hockey comprising of a mask, a snorkel, a pair of flippers, a glove to protect your hand and also a pusher. The pusher is a small bat, which is held in one hand. This is used to push and flick the puck to other team members and also to tackle and catch flicks from the opposition. Most people also wear gum shields to protect against impacts to the face. Finally a squid and gulleys are needed. The squid is a circular lead puck covered in plastic and the gulleys are the goals, which are 3 metre long metal troughs. The puck needs to be pushed up a lip into the trough or flicked into the trough. A metal back prevents damage to pool tiles and rebounds normally fall into the tin.
As mentioned above a team comprises of up to 10 players. For tournaments two extra players can be taken but only ten can be included in each game. From the ten that play in the game, six are in the water at any one time. It is quite an intense sport requiring short bursts of high effort therefore subbing is a continuous and important part of the game. Standard game lengths are 33 minutes, 15 minutes each way with 3 minutes for half time. This is often reduced during tournaments due to a high number of games to be played and time constraints.
The game starts with the puck in the middle and each team at their goal end. A whistle or other audible signal is sounded and the team sprints to the puck in the decided formation. The general positions are forwards, midfield and backs. A formation is chosen for example 2-1-2-1 which means 2 forwards, 1 centre, 2 wing backs and 1 centre back. There is no goalie and the team plays the formation relative to where play is in the pool for example if the play is down the left wall the right players come to the centre of the pool. Positional play is especially important in this sport as any one player can only play for around 20 seconds. It is important to be able to read the game and take into account that it will take a couple of seconds to get down to the bottom. You also have to take into consideration how long other people have been down and time your decent so as not to waste air. It is generally considered that underwater hockey players have an amazing ability to stay down for several minutes but this normally is not the case. Yes they generally do have a good lung capacity but it is more that they have better anaerobic systems i.e. they can stay down for 15 seconds come up breath once and then go straight back down and continue doing this for a couple of minutes. Hence the need for frequent subbing.
The standard pool dimensions are, 25 metres long, 12 metres wide and 2 metres deep. This is not often the case as it is difficult to get training pools like this and it is sometimes even played in diving pits of around 5m deep.
Sport Organization
As mentioned above underwater hockey in the UK is governed by the BOA. The BOA is responsible for promoting and developing underwater hockey in the UK. It has the main core committee positions of chairperson, treasurer, secretary and also competition manager, development director, national director of coaching, UK national teams manager, membership secretary, area representatives, junior / youth manager, CMAS representative, national referee and publicity officer.
The BOA has a constitution and is responsible for the introduction and amendment of rules, and also for arranging tournaments and training sessions. They have special positions for the national teams and organize participation in European and World championship events.
The BOA is affiliated to CMAS which is the world governing body of water sports. It is also affiliated to BUSA (British underwater sports association) which governs underwater sports (freediving and underwater rugby are examples). BUSA is recognised by CMAS.
There are about 400 players in Scotland with teams from Orkney, Shetland, Inverness, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen University, Robert Gordon University, St Andrews, Stirling University and several dive clubs. SUHA (Scottish underwater hockey association) has recently been set up to develop and promote underwater hockey in Scotland. SUHA is a separate organization with a separate constitution and accounts and works with the BOA carrying out a similar job but regionally. SUHA supports the Scottish teams and has secured an invitation for the Scotland teams to the 2001 European championships in Yugoslavia in July.
June 2001 Julie Davis
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