Hockey, the classic winter sport for affluent white males, is making a comeback. While it remained popular in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, the game was considered past its prime in other parts of the world. That is until recently when hockey started making inroads in the Middle East.
The sport was first introduced to the region around the late 1880s when a number of English schoolboys traveled to the Middle East to study. Although some of the British schoolboys reportedly returned home with severe cases of conjunctivitis (pink eye) and measles, others developed a love for the game and brought the sport with them. The first formal hockey match was played in Beirut in 1890, and the first hockey league was founded in Beirut in 1913. Since then, hockey has become commonplace in the region.
Today, it is one of the most popular sports in the country. An indicator of this popularity is the fact that the country is currently holding an Asian Hockey Federation meeting in Riyadh.
While one of the main appeals of hockey in the Middle East is undoubtedly the climate, it also offers a bit more than the average winter sport. For instance, hockey in the Middle East is traditionally played with a puck – a round, ball-like object made of rubber – rather than a round ball. This type of hockey, which is also known as Asian Puck Line Hockey or APLH for short, is considerably faster and more intense than the game played with a ball.
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What Is The Difference Between Hockey And Asian Puck Line Hockey?
To put it simply, hockey is what you see in movies and on TV. The quintessential winter sport, it is a combination of ice-skating, speed, and skill. The object of the game is to score more goals than your opponent.
Hockey is a team sport. Two teams of four players each compete against each other. The teams switch positions after each goal, with the goal of preventing the other team from scoring. Typically, the offense is on the left side of the rink, and the defense is on the right, but the roles can be reversed.
Hockey is very popular in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. In fact, hockey is the most popular winter sport in the United Kingdom, where the country’s equivalent of Major League Baseball, the English Premier League, is named after the sport. There are regular Major League Hockey games in Europe, and the Winter Olympics have also featured the game. Hockey has also seen huge popularity in Australia, with the country winning four consecutive Olympic gold medals, the last of which was in 2014.
By comparison, Asian Puck Line Hockey is a much faster and more intense version of the game. Also known as Japanese Cocktail Hockey or JCIH for short, it is less the organized sport and more a series of collisions and individual battles for supremacy at high speeds. There are no teams in Asian Puck Line Hockey, but rather each player fights for position in a line, usually along the right-hand side of the rink.
Players in Asian Puck Line Hockey wear different colors to represent their teams. Generally, the blue and white are used for the Pacific Islanders, while the Han Chinese typically wear red and the Uyghurs (a Turkic people) typically wear white. However, in some instances, players have chosen to represent themselves purely on the basis of personal loyalty or affinity rather than sporting ties.
Where Do The Names Come From?
The origins of the names of both sports can be traced to the late 1800s, when they were first seen as leisure activities for the affluent in the region. The game was named after the British schoolboys who introduced it to the region. Some of the English schoolboys reportedly returned home with severe cases of conjunctivitis (pink eye) and measles, while others developed a love for the game and brought the sport with them. The first organized hockey league, the Japan Figure Hockey League, was formed in Tokyo in 1891. In the same year, the Japan Amateur Hockey Association was also founded. The governing body for both associations is today called the Japan Ice Hockey Association, or JISA for short.
The first Asian Hockey Federation meeting was held in Tokyo in 1968, with the Asia-Oceania Ice Hockey Summit also being launched in the city during the same year. In 1971, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) recognized the Japan Ice Hockey Association as the governing body for ice hockey in Japan. Since then, the country has regularly sent representatives to international competitions.
Who Made These Adaptations?
Perhaps the most recognizable face of hockey in the Middle East is Hollywood’s Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Austrian-born actor and former governor of California spent several years in Germany on government work after finishing college in the U.S. In the early 1980s, he travelled to the Middle East to promote a film that he had produced, The Terminator. While in the country, Schwarzenegger tried out Japanese martial arts and immersed himself in the culture, learning to chant, salute, and wear traditional clothing, among other things.
The Terminator was released in the region in 1982, and the following year, Schwarzenegger founded the Arnold Sports Festival – an annual celebration of martial arts, rock music, and hockey, which is currently held in Toronto.
While it may not be a commonly held belief, the majority of people in the Middle East are not particularly athletic. As a result, the sporting adaptations were done with the intention of making the game more accessible to the general public. This was particularly the case in the Middle East, where many people do not have the time or the money to devote to organized sports. This is evidenced by the fact that attendance at hockey games in the country is reportedly around 50 percent.
However, rather than make the sport less physically demanding, the adaptations served to make the game more exciting. The object of the game now is not to score as many goals as your opponent but rather to prevent the other team from scoring at all. The team that scores the most goals wins the match.
In most cases, the adaptation came about because there were no skilled ice-makers in the country. The problem of how to make ice came about in the early 1900s, with each region and city in the country having a network of ice hotels that regularly fed the hockey world. The solution, in most cases, was to bring the ice machine with you. This meant that hockey had to be adapted to fit the terrain – typically, the bigger, the better. It also meant that the ice had to be stored and transported to the rink, which introduced another set of challenges.
Other adaptions included changing the rules of the game. Other changes included changing the object of the game to be more competitive and to improve attendance at games. In Beirut, for instance, the object of the game is now to prevent the other team from scoring, with each player trying to hit the puck into the other team’s goal.
What Does The Future Of This Sport Look Like?
While the future of hockey in the Middle East looks positive, there are a few issues that might slow down its growth. First, while children may enjoy the game, there is still a stigma attached to it in the country. Many people in the Middle East are not particularly welcoming of sports and gaming, particularly those that involve physical effort and an element of chance. Some individuals in the country may also question why a country like Japan would even want to get involved with a game that is traditionally seen as a leisure activity for the western world.
There is also the issue of TV rights. In much of the country, including the entire country of Lebanon, sports events are typically only available to be viewed live. This prevents people in the country from seeing matches and tournaments that they are not able to attend due to time differences, among other things. The country’s top league, the Lebanese Premier League, also does not have a TV contract, which effectively prevents it from being broadcast to the entire nation. Without the existence of officially recognized TV channels, the majority of people in the country may never get the chance to see a hockey game, let alone follow the sport.
It is also important to remember that in some parts of the country, particularly the northern regions around the cities of Aleppo and Damascus, snow may not be a guarantee for much of the year. This makes playing in the snow a bit more difficult, and the game may not be as appealing to kids as it could be. In other parts of the country, such as the southern regions around the cities of Doha and Abu Dhabi, the climate is more suitable for year-round hockey, with temperatures rarely dipping below freezing.
Despite these challenges, the growth of hockey in the Middle East is inevitable. The region’s young population, along with its growing thirst for entertainment, will continue to fuel the game’s popularity. There is still a fairly small group of individuals in the country who do not know what hockey is, which should not be a concern for anyone who cares about entertaining the region with international competitions.