Encyclopedia Definition of Field Hockey Field Hockey, also called Hockey, is an outdoor game played by two opposing teams of 11 players each who use sticks curved at the striking end to hit a small, hard ball into their opponent's goal. It is called field hockey to distinguish it from the similar game played on ice.
Hockey is believed to date from the earliest civilizations.
The Arabs, Greeks, Persians, and Romans each had their own versions, and traces of a stick game played by the Aztec Indians of South America have been found. During the Middle Ages a French stick game called hoquet was played, and the English word may be derived from it. Teddington, another London club, introduced several major variations, including the ban of using hands or lifting sticks above the shoulder, the replacement of the rubber cube by a sphere as the ball, and most importantly, the adopting of a striking circle, which was incorporated into the rules of the newly founded Hockey Association in London in 1886. The British army was largely responsible for spreading the game, particularly in India and the Far East. International competition began in 1895.