In field hockey, each player carries a stick and cannot take part in the game without it. The stick is usually between 36" and 38" long (but this is not defined or restricted) and traditionally made of wood but now almost all the more expensive sticks are composite, that is made of a number of materials. They usually contain a combination of fibreglass, aramid fiber and carbon fibre in varying proportions according to the characteristics (flexibility; stiffness; resistance to impact and abrasion) required.
Early rules
Although the exact origin of field hockey remains unknown, historians have recorded a number of 4,000-year-old drawings found in the tomb at Beni-Hasen in the Nile Valley (Egypt) which showed men playing the sport. Throughout the following centuries, variations of the game were played by a spectrum of cultures ranging from Greeks and Romans to Ethiopians, Indians and Aztecs. In most of these cultures a single wooden stick with a curved end, probably a sapling or a suitable tree branch, immediately available, was used rather than a purpose 'manufactured' sports item.
Finally after centuries of different variations of hockey, ( including a version in England, sometime prior to 1860, in which. because of the very hilly heathland area in which it was played, a rubber cube and not a ball was used, ) the game became more organised and regularised.
By 1886, when an association of clubs was formed and the game became more standardised, the modern game as we know it began (and a white painted cricket ball had become the standard object to play with). The game had also by this time divided into various branches which developed as separate sports. Shinty, a game popular in Scotland, uses both sides of a round stick with a curved end, which is shaped in a similar way to a walking stick; the Irish game, hurling, uses both sides of a stick which is flat on both sides and shaped somewhat like bill-hook with an axe-like handle. The stick in England, possibly because of the close association with it of cricket players, developed with a stick with just one flat playing side, the left face, below a round grip area - with the use of the right-face side, which is rounded, prohibited - an oddity that had a profound effect on the later development of the hockey stick and of the game itself.
There have been only three parts of a hockey stick ever named in the rules The head and the handle and the splice . Originally (until 2004) The handle was the part above the bottom end of the splice and the head was the part below the bottom end of the splice. Other terms in common use are 'grip' which refers to the part of the stick held, particularly that area held with two hands when hitting the ball. Most sticks have a round grip which is covered in a non-slip, sweat absorbent, fabric tape. The handle remains rounded on the reverse, back or right hand-side but becomes gradually flat on the 'face' side and also becomes wider, changing from a diameter of approximately 30mm to a flat width of approximately 46mm (the permitted maximum was 2" - now 51mm). This flat area above the curve of the head is generally referred to as the 'shaft'. The head of the stick is generally thought of as the curved part. The right side is called the face, the upturn the 'toe' and the bend of the head where it joins the shaft the 'heel'. In recent times using the edges of the stick (as well as the face side) to strike at the ball has been permitted and thus 'forehand edge stoke' and 'reverse edge stroke' will be found in rule terminology. Forehand and reverse stroke refers to the taking of these stroke, from the right or left hand side of the body respectively, as the stick may be used 'face up' or 'face down' to make an edge stroke, the two edges of the stick are not separately named but simply referred to as edges.
Initially there were six rule requirements applying to the hockey stick.
- The stick had to be flat on the playing side (the left side when the 'toe' of the stick-head is facing away from the user).
- It had to able to be passed completely through a two inch (internal diameter) ring.
- The stick was to be smooth (no rough or sharp edges).
- The head of the stick was to be a) curved and b) made from wood.
- A maximum and minimum weight were specified, 28oz and 12oz respectively.
Description
By Rule a hockey stick comprises two parts (even if all one piece) A 'Head' and a 'Handle'. Historically the stick was made in two separate parts and the Head was spliced to the Handle, in much the same way as the handle of a cricket bat is spliced to the blade.
Today many hockey sticks are manufactured from man-made materials (so called 'composite sticks') in moulds and in one operation, so do not have a separate joined head and handle. The need to inspect that a stick complied with new regulations, concerning materials used (Rules 1992), and with new regulations, concerning the permitted shape of the ‘head’ and handle (Rules 1990) (without rendering the stick thereafter unusable) led to a change in the description of the ‘head’ and handle parts (Rules 2004). After 2004 the head part was limited to 100mm above the base of its bottom curve and reference to a splice was deleted.
This article will examine the transition from the shape of sticks in the era before the First World War to the Hockey World Cup in Willesden England in 1986 and from there, to the modern designs. Many of these changes have come about because of the availability of new materials and changes to playing surfaces but this article will be focused more on the reasons for stick shapes and the differences between them, rather than on an exploration of construction materials and reinforcements or ‘artificial’ playing surfaces.
Hockey stick head parts were commonly made from large timbers, 4¼" x 4¼" in section and more than 4' in length, which were bent in presses after steam treatment, dried and then cut into four 'bats' for later shaping with saw and adze.
This type of manufacture is still in use today, although significant numbers of stickheads are now of laminated timber manufacture and more and more hockey sticks are now being made entirely from 'composite' materials, in one piece, in moulds.
Head length
In the upper left corner of the picture of the press there is a small insert showing the kind of head bend these presses were originally designed to produce. That stick is circa 1962/3. Near the lower right of the picture and unfortunately, cut off, is a view of the typical 'horseshoe' shape bending produced by the machine. A heavy cast iron staple was hammered across the ends while (while the timber is still in the press) and the piece was further restrained by a flexible steel strap, then removed from the press and allowed to dry out and 'set' for a few days before cutting (It is the steel strap that causes the black stain so often seen on the base of the head of 'one piece' hockey sticks, it is caused by a reaction between the acids in the timber and the oxidising of the strap) . This particular machine was modified to run from an electric motor, but it was originally hand operated and probably dates from a time before electricity was available (or reliable) in that part of Pakistan (Sialkot - an industrial town in the province of Punjab). The boss in the centre would also have been modified to produce the tighter head bends required at the time this photograph was taken (February 1989)
The first major developments to what was later termed the 'English style' stick (and the method of play with such sticks) occurred in India. (The game in its modern form was apparently brought to India by the British Army, although there does not appear to be any specific evidence of this. But certainly hockey was played by the British forces in India). At that time the stickhead was very long (in excess of 12" - 300mm) and made from an indigenous British timber, ash. The Indians then produced sticks with a much shorter head length and a tighter heel bend and used mulberry, which is tougher than ash, but has similar bending characteristics and weight and is easy to work. This development changed the nature of the game, led to the 'Indian dribble' and to Indian dominance of the game in the first half of the twentieth century.
A hockey stick is occasionally used in the vertical position shown, but manipulating the movement and the direction of the ball in a controlled way (dribbling) is carried out in what is termed a 'dribbling crouch', when the handle of the stick will usually be angled between 35° and 55°. Hitting or pushing the ball can be done with the stick at any angle between the vertical and horizontal and recent changes to the rules allow even the edges of the stick to be used to sweep or strike at the ball on the ground. The various designs will be initially looked at with the handle at an angle of 45° to compare how they differ in the carrying out of the 'Indian dribble' i.e. controlling the direction of the ball by rotating the s
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