If like me you’ve been closely watching the world cup in India at the moment, you’ll know that Hockey is a really exciting and involving game. The England team is doing very well as they have just managed to get into the semi finals after beating a very good Argentinean team. They must have been watching a lot of Hockey Training drills like the ones that you get at www.sportplan.net/drills/Hockey/Overload-situations/Creating-2-v-1-h100194.jsp to have done that and perhaps the Argentineans might benefit from looking as well.
One of the reasons Hockey is so exciting is that it has its roots deep in history. There is evidence that the first people to play the game where a J shaped stick was involved was in the times of the ancient Egyptians. That is not to say that we have found some hieroglyphics with Tutankhamun having a go at the game or some records from the Romans saying how Cleopatra liked nothing better to than to unwind from the affairs of state and plotting with Mark Anthony by getting out the Hockey sticks and having a bully off. No, we have found this on the side of a good old-fashioned stone tablet through the science of comprehensive archaeology.
The tablet contains two figures, who appear to be smirking at each other, attempting to make contact with a ball, both are clearly holding J shaped sticks and it is believed that there was some form of the game being played here at the time. Before you ask, there aren’t any pyramids and the Sphinx in the background to tell us they are Egyptians. Before you ask, there aren’t any pyramids and the Sphinx in the background to tell us they are Egyptians. What evidence there is overwhelming points to them being Egyptian as for one, it was found in Egypt and for a second point Radio-Carbon dating gives us the age of the tablet as being cut in the age of the Egyptians.
The other ancient example of the game is still going on right now in Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland. It is the classic game of Shinty. Shinty is an aggressive game where the use of J shaped sticks is employed with a nice hard ball. You really do not want to be on the receiving end of this ball or a flailing stick either. In fact, if the opponent taps the ball in the air and takes a swing it’s a good idea to be somewhere else. There is documented and archaeological evident to show that this game has been played consistently through the ages in Ireland and it remains as popular today in the country as it did back then.
