Posts tagged diving
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Friday’s FANtastic Sport: Underwater Hockey
The puck slides, like on ice, but the air is far above. Welcome to underwater hockey , the fast-moving sport played on swimming pool bottoms across the United States.
Two teams of six face off in 6 to 8 feet of water, swimming and diving to try to shoot a weighted puck into the goal.
Players wear fins, for speed, as well as masks, snorkels, and protective gloves and headgear. The sticks are short — about one foot long — so players can move them quickly through the water. Sticks flick and flash as players maneuver the puck on the bottom, shoot the puck past (or over) defenders, and bat down shots.
Underwater hockey play and strategy is similar to soccer or ice hockey. On average, each player is underwater less than 5 seconds at a time, and almost never more than 15 seconds. Success — putting the puck in the goal trough at the bottom of each end wall — ultimately depends on teamwork, not how long you can hold your breath.
UWH as some call it for short is officiated by two (or three) water referees who are in the pool with full snorkelling gear, and wearing a distinctive cap, gloves and t-shirt to observe and referee play at the pool bottom, and one or more poolside deck referees to track time (both in the period and for each ejected player), maintain the score, and call fouls (such as excessive number of players in play, failure to start a point from the end of the playing area, or another foul capable of being committed at or noticed at the surface). The deck (chief) referee responds to hand signals given by the water referees to start and stop play, including after an interruption such as a foul or time-out.
Now that you have a basic understanding of Underwater Hockey its time to get your game face on and dive in.
