Underwater hockey

Underwater hockey (also called Octopush ) is a team sport, try your hand at six equipped with a snorkel, mask and fins players per team to bring a lead puck using a paddle into the opposing goal at the bottom of a swimming pool.

The gate is a 3 m wide metal tray with a rear wall and a ramp at the front. The puck weighs 1.3 kg (± 0.2 kg) and is coated with plastic, which increases his grip and at the same time protects the tiles.

The team membership can be seen from the bat and cap Color: The blue team has black bat, the white team white. The caps are similar to those of water polo, have a ear protection and are marked with the player's number.

The equipment in addition to fins, mask, snorkel and cap are a protected with silicone glove and a short bat made ​​of wood or plastic. The racket may be up to 35 cm in length but is seldom longer than 30 cm. Striker mostly use small, manoeuvrable racket while defending prefer bulkier models.

A competition- compatible field is 21-25 m long, 12-15 m wide and 2.00 to 3.65 m deep (± 10 %, slight bevel allowed). In competitions held in 50 - meter pool can be set up (each with an alternating lane ) and a warm-up area often two playing fields. The referee then use different acoustic signals, eg Unterwasserhupe in Pool A, tone bar in pool B.

Underwater Hockey in Germany

It started with some of underwater rugby players of Giessen high school team to train started in 1996 Underwater Hockey. At the invitation of the French FFESSM (Fédération Française d' Etudes et de Sports Sous- Marins ) adopted in 1997 for the first time a German team at the European Championship in part. This participation in the European Championships in Reims was rewarded immediately with a seventh place.

Since January 26, 1998 Underwater Hockey is the official competition sport of the Association of German Sports Divers.

German teams have participated in the following European and World championships:

While pleased underwater rugby in German-speaking relative notoriety, underwater hockey is still largely unknown. Currently, underwater hockey is only operated on three German and one Swiss location as a competitive sport: Munich, Elmshorn, Laubach and Zurich.