Hockey is a team activity sport. It can either be played on ice or on the field. Although field hockey was the first to be invented, ice hockey is nowadays a lot more popular especially in the U.S and Canada. Understanding the game is quite simple even for beginners. Like most team sports it requires certain strategies in order to penetrate the defense and score points. The players have strategic positions that enable them to work together as a team. Each position has a designated task and requires a certain strategy.
Perhaps the most important of all hockey positions is the goalie. This player has to defend the goal net against the attacks of the offensive team. The defendant of the gate is a very important position in a lot of sports. He is the last hope when the rest of the team fails to protect their territory. He is the one that gives the team the confidence that they need in order to win a game. If a team has a bad goaltender they need to focus a lot of their actions on defense and are therefore incapable of engaging in daring offensive maneuvers. However when the players knows that they have a reliable goalie they can afford to channel their efforts into scoring points.
Including the goalie a team usually consists of 6 players. The rest of the five players are divided in forward and defensemen. The forward hockey positions are: a center, a right wing and a left wing. The wingers are physical players. Usually the left wing is a left handed which gives him a better shooting angle. They are each responsible for the wingers of the other team. Furthermore they need to be very good around the edges and should be able to get the puck out of corners as quickly as possible. The center needs to be a very creative player as well as a good shooter.
The defensemen are usually less athletic. Although their basic job is to protect the goalie it is not uncommon for a defenseman to adventure himself in the other team’s part of the rink. A lot of coaches believe that a good defenseman should be a balanced player who can anticipate when he is needed in defense but can also have the courage to lead the team when it is necessary. All hockey positions have a strategic importance. In order for a team to be balanced they must all have their individual skills but they must also be able to work together as if driven by the same mind.
