One of the most exciting games in America is also the most unfamiliar and misunderstood. It's been played in China for at least 1000 years, and it was played in Greece before that. England is credited with refining the modern game. America learned about the sport in 1901 by an intrepid sportswoman by the name of Constance Mary Katherine Applebee. The US fielded its first men's Olympic team in 1932, and its first women's Olympic team in 1980.

Throughout most of the world this sport is considered a man's sport, but in the US it is mostly women who play. A small group of men play the game in America, the first men's game was played in 1928. The object of the game is to propel a ball into the goal by means of a curved stick. The game is called field hockey but to the lovers of the sport it is simply hockey.

Learn the basics of the game from a field hockey official and people will come to you during a contest to ask you about the game. It's not like any other game. Hockey is a highly skilled game that many people, especially men, aren't familiar with. They might know about football, basketball, or ice hockey, but field hockey has its own set of rules. Educate yourself and impress the others around you by learning this great sport.