• Hockey is a game played with a ball and a hockey stick.
• Two teams with eleven players each including a goal keeper.
• Five substitute can be used throughout the game.
• One can be substituted any time and as many times by the coach, except when a penalty stroke is being taken. Substitute has to enter the game at the center of the field.

Hockey stick:

• Flat on one side and curved at the other
• It cannot weigh more than 737 gm

Ball:

• Weight- 156 to 163 grammes
• Circumference- 22.4 to 23.5 cm
• Colour-white or any other agreed or permitted

Hockey Field:

• Rectangular 91.4 meters long 55.0 meters wide
• Marked with 7.5 cm wide white lines
• Longer 91.4 meter lines are called side lines and shorter 55.0 meter lines are called back lines.
• There is a center line and two other lines (22.90) from the center.
• At the center of each back line are goals. It is rectangular in shape with 2.14 meters high and 3.66 meters apart.
• Goal lines are between the back line and the goal post
• Goals are surrounded by 16 yard semicircle or sometimes also reffered as ‘D’ because of the shape it gives. These are shooting circles and a goal can not be score unless the shot came from within the circle. Width of the goals is 4 yard each.

Duration:

• International matches- 35 minutes each half
• Junior hockey- 20 minutes each half
• Intermediate and secondary hockey- 25 to 30 minutes

Umpires:

•   Two umpires
•   Take half of the field each and work in their own half.

Governing body:

•    International Hockey Federation (FIH) an apex body governing at the top
•    Hockey India solely responsible for men and women hockey in India.

Major Hockey tournaments:

Though there are many tournament organized by international hockey federation and other hockey playing nations. But here are the few major tournaments of hockey

• The Hockey World Cup (organized in between the Olympics years). The first hockey world cup was held in the year 1971.
• The Olympics- hockey as a sport was added in the Olympics in the year 1908.
• Champion’s Trophy- held yearly by FIH in round robin format. It is the brain child of Pakistan
• Asian Games and the Asia Cup - to show their dominance in Asian sub continent.
• Sultan Azlan Shah Cup- held in Malaysia. Earlier organized once in two year, later made as the yearly event.
• Euro Cup in European countries
• The World Champion’s Challenge- to improve the game of newly hockey playing nations. The tournament is held to help the teams, which rank between 7 and 12 to improve their game and ranking.
• The common wealth games hockey tournaments among common wealth nations.

Other major hockey games:

• Ice hockey
• Roller hockey
• Sledge hockey
• Street hockey
• Beach hockey
• Underwater hockey etc…