There are a number of sports that were originally played on land but which have moved to water, thus, creating a new form of the original sport. In addition to sports such as underwater rugby, underwater orienteering, and underwater wrestling, there is also underwater hockey. It is a sport that takes place at the bottom of a pool.

How It Came To Be

The British Navy invented the game in the year 1954 to keep the divers fit and improve their ability to work and move efficiently under water. Alan Blake and a group of other divers, who had their own diving club, played underwater hockey for the first time in Portsmouth, England. They introduced a couple of simple rules and called the sport ‘Octopush’ – a name that is popular till date.

Rules of Underwater Hockey

Each team consists of 10 players. However, only 6 players from each team are submerged in the water and the remaining 4 act as rolling substitutes. The players play on the pool floor where the 1.5 kg puck is situated. Players pass the puck along the floor to their teammates using a stick attached to their glove that’s roughly one-foot in length.

Winning the Game

The team scores a goal when it manages to hit the puck into the opponent’s goal using the stick. The winner is announced with maximum goals once the allotted time surpasses. If the game comes to a tie after the allocated time, then an extra 15 minutes are allocated to find a winner.