Yeah, That's Right. Underwater Hockey.

First, the look of confusion -- a look with which most of this group is familiar by now. The head cocks back, the eyes squint and gaze at you from the corners, and the brow furls. And then comes the inevitable chuckle-response -- the one that emphasizes the unmistakable incredulity, the astonished disbelief. "Did I hear that right?" "Are you serious?" and "What the #@*&?" are the most common responses. But underwater hockey is indeed a sport; heck, it's even recognized by the U.S. Olympic Committee. And though underwater hockey is not as popular as competitive swimming, water polo, or even synchronized swimming, it has a lot to offer an aquatic facility.

In the Beginning

In the early 1950s, scuba divers in Great Britain were preparing for the upcoming diving season when they realized that an underwater game of sorts was just what they needed to develop fitness and underwater skills. The result was Octopush, in which players, armed with what resembles a shuffleboard sticks, used two hands to push a lead puck across the pool bottom into goals at either end of the pool. The players -- relying on no supplemental oxygen -- wore a mask, snorkel, and fins. The first official Octopush game was played in 1954. From there the game, now called underwater hockey, spread overseas, arriving in the United States in the 1960s. Local or regional competitions were held annually, and in 1976 the first U.S. national tournament was held. Today, underwater hockey is a growing sport that is played in more than 20 countries on six continents. In the United States, it is played in about 20 different cities including Chicago, Boston, Miami, Charleston, Dallas, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Seattle, San Diego, and San Jose, each of which sends players to competitions held around the country. The game has most recently received attention from print and visual media such as ESPN The Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and KTVU-TV in San Jose.

Regulation Play

Although underwater hockey is very much like the original game of Octopush, building and combining swimming and free-diving skills, it has evolved into a very fast-paced and exciting game with strict rules and regulations. Regulation underwater hockey is played in a 12- to 15-meter-wide, 21- to 25-meter-long, 2- to 4-meter-deep pool with a minimum pool area of 300 meters. The surface of the pool should be slick to reduce abrasion injury to the players and to permit the puck to glide easily. A team consists of six players who try to score goals by putting the plastic-coated lead puck into the other team's trough-like, three-meter goal. Up to four substitutes per team may be on deck waiting to relieve those in the water. The puck may be moved along the bottom of the pool by pushing or flicking the puck with a stick. Today's sticks, unlike the old Octopush sticks, are held with only one hand and are about one foot long. A good flick may send the puck more than four meters across, and up to 19 inches above, the pool bottom.

Underwater hockey, a non-contact sport, has rules discouraging the use of bodies or free hands (the hand without the stick) to detain obstruct other players; there is no body-checking, barging, or screening tolerated. Instead of brute force, speed, skills, and teamwork are used to score goals. Because one person obviously can't hold his or her breath forever, a team must learn to work together. The play is controlled by passing the puck from player to player in a coordinated effort, members taking turns to breathe, recover, and reposition. A participant will usually stay underwater for about 15 seconds at a time, and no longer than 30 seconds.

A regulation game consists of two 15-minute halves with one one-minute time-out per team, per half, and a three-minute halftime. Three referees -- one on-deck for scoring and calling substitution fouls, and two in-water officials -- are present during regulation play. Play begins with the puck in the middle of the playing area and the teams lined up in the water at their respective ends of the pool. On a starting signal heard both above and below the water, the teams race to the puck at the center of the pool, attempting to seize initial control. There are no stoppages of play unless a foul occurs. If a foul is committed, control of the puck is given to the other team, and the offending player may be put in the penalty box for one or two minutes, leaving the other team with a power play. When a goal is scored, the puck is reset in the middle of the playing area, and play resumes.

Training is an important component when preparing to play underwater hockey at the tournament level. Most sessions begin with players completing a swim workout. In preparation for the 1998 World Championships, the U.S. team swam approximately 2,000 to 3,000 yards, four times a week, including a warm-up, surface and underwater intervals, and cool-down. Players would then practice stick handling, passing and flicking the puck, and maneuverability (underwater figure eights and other drills). In addition to individual skills, teamwork and strategies are stressed. In order to have the players work together as a team, weekend clinics were held every three months.

Recreational Play

Underwater-hockey participants range from those who are serious about regulation play to those who play for enjoyment, camaraderie, and fitness. In fact, the majority of players function at the recreational level. Instead of strictly designed tournaments and practices, recreational players tend to form a club in which play is much less regulated and structured. On an average recreational play night, players are divided into teams of equal skill levels and, after a session of informal skill development and warm-up, play begins. No referees are present; players tend to call fouls and regulate play themselves. Beginners are regularly stopped and given instruction, and play among the less-advanced players is much less rigorous. Strict time limits are not followed, either; instead, play continues until the scheduled pool time has lapsed -- whether it be 30 minutes or three hours.

There is also a difference in the equipment that recreational and regulation players use. The pools -- regulation pools are hard to acquire -- and goals -- goals have to be custom-made -- are different. When pools that do not meet regulation standards are used, club-specific rules are implemented. When playing in a pool with a slope, for example, teams will switch sides at halftime. When regulation goals are hard to come by, other items, such as weighted ropes, are relied upon. Whatever the lack in equipment, underwater hockey players make up for in improvisation.

Underwater hockey encourages participation from almost anyone, regardless of sex, size, or strength. The general forgiveness of water and the non-contact aspect of the sport inhibit brute force on the part of bigger players, while allowing smaller players to use skill, speed, and teamwork for proficiency's sake.

Organizations

Because of the increased interest in underwater hockey and the popularity of tournaments, participants have requested sanctioning by the Underwater Society of America (USOA). USOA, formed in 1959 by existing skin-diving councils, sanctions local, regional, and national underwater championships in scuba diving, free diving, underwater hockey, underwater rugby, fin swimming, and underwater photography. USOA is a charter member of the World Underwater Federation (CMAS), located in Rome, which played a part in underwater hockey gaining the recognition of the U.S. Olympic Committee. The USOA also provides underwater-hockey clubs with liability insurance of up to $1 million.

SJSU's Aquatic Center

The Aquatic Center at San Jose State University is the home of Club Puck, the local underwater-hockey team. Club Puck, whose membership includes computer engineers, cabinet builders, biologist, and stay-at-home moms, practices nine hours a week. The male:female ratio in the club is 3:2. Club Puck originated in the mid-1970s when a group of San Francisco skindivers searched for a new sport to fill the abalone-diving off-season. As interest in the sport grew, it attracted mainly ex-swimmers and scuba and skin divers. Membership has increased in the past by way of word of mouth; today it grows through the attention of television, newspapers, and the Internet. Underwater-hockey players from other parts of the country have relocated to the Bay area, in part for the higher level of underwater-hockey play.

Management at the Aquatic Center first became involved with underwater hockey in the fall of 1996, when it was propositioned by the director of U.S. Underwater Hockey to host the '97 U.S. National Tournament. A similar offer followed from the director of the '98 World Championship Tournament.

Because of the potentially large playing area, minimal grade in the desired depth, deck space, and cooperation of the management, the Aquatic Center's pool is the ideal local facility. However, the pool shell is plaster, which does not have the desired "slickness" for underwater hockey. Fortunately, Roger Fuller, director of the World Championship Tournament and a Club Puck member, taking inspiration from a local inline-hockey team, envisioned an artificial surface to lay on the pool bottom, one composed of interlocking plastic 12-inch squares. Thus, working without precedent, Sport Court (the manufacturer of the inline surface) and Fuller experimented to find a mat surface with the desired degree of "slickness." To become negatively buoyant, the square tiles for the pool surface needed to weigh more than 1.09 g/cm. Polypropylene, a material used in ice-cube trays, met the requirements.

In March 1997, a final product was ready for installation. All regulation boundary markings were hand-painted. The two surfaces, one for each playing area, encompassed 300 square meters and weighed 5,000 kg. The biggest challenge was to facilitate proper placement and installation of the underwater-hockey playing surfaces in the 60-meter pool. Four fire hoses were rented and, to encourage the mat to slide off of the pool deck and into the water, a hydroplane effect was created. Once the mat was in the water, it was gently pushed to the bottom of the pool and into its proper position. After the positioning of the surface, custom-made PVC walls were added around the perimeter. The walls featured removable corners and hinges so they could be in the "up" position for underwater-hockey play and folded down to accommodate other pool activities.

Preparing for a Championship

The World Underwater Hockey Championship in June 1998 included five days of practice tournament play, nine days of actual tournament play, and one day of preparation to return the facility to its mode of normal summer operations. Aquatic Center staff spent two days preparing the facility for the event and, with the help of Club Puck, moved starting blocks, lane-line rollers, water-polo cages, and swim equipment to a separate off-campus storage unit. Canopies and umbrellas for tournament officials were assembled and positioned. A floating platform, which has since been disassembled and stored on the pool deck for future events, was built, carpeted, sandbagged for ballast, and put into position for time- and scorekeeping. Bleachers were positioned for optimum spectator view. Divers with underwater cameras were located throughout the pool to provide spectators with real-time images on large-screen televisions. The snack bar was converted into a changing room for officials and storage space for hockey equipment, while the lifeguard and emergency first-aid room remained intact. To provide space for tournament concessions, custodial operations were relocated to the mechanical room. The facility was then deemed ready to host 500 athletes from all over the world.

The tournament began and ended with formal ceremonies. During the opening ceremony, representatives from each country proudly displayed their native land's flag as they walked into the auditorium. After each country's national anthem was played and the players' oath was given, the president of the CMAS declared the tournament open.

Fourteen countries participated in the tournament including Australia, Argentina, Columbia, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Italy, New Zealand, Philippines, South Africa, the United States, and Yugoslavia. There were 36 teams competing in four divisions: elite men, elite women, open masters (35 and older), and women's masters (32 and older). In the elite men's division, the French went undefeated in tournament play and won the gold medal. The South Africans won gold medals in the women's elite division, open masters, and women's masters divisions. The United States elite men's team placed sixth, while the elite women's team placed third, securing the bronze medal. The U.S. open masters' squad also took home a bronze medal. The U.S. women's masters won a silver medal.

The teams exchanged farewells as they entered the auditorium for the closing ceremony. Shortly afterward, the World Underwater Federation commissioner officially closed the tournament, and the official World Underwater Hockey Championship banner was given to Australia, the host of the 2000 event.

The Pros and Cons 

Underwater hockey has created new operational challenges for Aquatic Center management. The main challenge is coordinating the underwater-hockey surface with the women's college swim team. Although the surface does have swimlane markings, they do not match up sufficiently with the underlying pool surface and cannot be in place during swimming competitions. To solve the problem, Club Puck relocated the mat to a less desirable position, accommodating the swim team and allowing the regulation markings underneath to be seen clearly.

While basic challenges have been met, the benefits of sharing the pool with Club Puck are tremendous. For daily operations, the aquatic staff has access to equipment Club Puck has purchased including umbrellas, canopies, pool-deck chairs, storage units, and an underwater video-camera system. In addition, the facility has increased its revenue by approximately $1,200 a month from practice rental fees and weekend clinics; the fees for an underwater-hockey practice range from $3 to $5 per person. A particularly valuable aspect of the regular practice play is the fact that Club Puck and most underwater-hockey clubs around the country tend to demand pool times (weekday evenings) not practical for other aquatic activities. The rental fees for the 1998 world tournament equaled approximately $9,000 over a 14-day period.

Underwater hockey provides a spark for aquatic directors' operations and adds diversity, financial support, and media exposure to their facilities. If you are interested in starting an underwater-hockey team in your area, please e-mail the author at [e-mail] or call the USOA at [phone]. Information can also be found at www.geocities.com/ collosseum/arena/6300.

References

Kendall Banks National Director Underwater Hockey.

Carol Rose Secretary Underwater Hockey and CMAS Underwater Hockey

Jason Carling Product Development Manager

Sport Court Inc. 939 South 700 West Salt Lake City, Utah 84104

Rickman, Rick. 1998. "The Stanley Glub?" ESPN The Magazine (July) 16-17.

KNTV (produced by Stephanie Adrouny). 1998. June 12.

Kwan, Joshua. 1998. "A Long Tie Breaker in This Game Can Really End in Sudden Death." The Wall Street Journal (June): Section B: 1.

The author would like to thank Kirstin Albers, Aquatic Center supervisor; Sean Avent, 1998 Team USA; Mary Lewis, human resources specialist; and Marilou Moschetti, president of Aqua Techniques Consulting Group, for their help with this article.