ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of key developments within a team game which gained in popularity from the late nineteenth century onwards and can now claim a participation base spanning 135 nations. It begins by identifying how different approaches to play led to the foundations of the men’s Hockey Association (1886) and, in turn, the All England Women’s Hockey Association (1895).England is generally acknowledged as ‘home’ of the modern field game due to these initiatives, however, other organisations and nations are identified as also significant in making Hockey the global sport it is today. International developments in the men’s game could not have happened without French motivation to establish the Fédération Internationale de Hockey sur Gazon (FIH) in 1924. Similarly, co-operation between several women’s associations enabled the International Federation of Women’s Hockey Associations (IFWHA) to thrive from 1927 until 1983,whenfull amalgamation with the FIH occurred. Technology and styles of play as influential in the changing fortunes of Asian and European teams during the twentieth century are highlighted, as is the recent FIH strategy which seeks to raise the public profile and status of the sport by spearheading a twenty-first century ‘Hockey Revolution’.
