Hooked on Tufts Club Field Hockey
Do you like having fun? Not enough apparently, because you’re not a part of Tufts Club Field Hockey! A co-ed, non-try out team, there’s a place for everyone in the community; Just show up, grab a stick, and hop into some precision drills!
But what if you’ve never played before?
In high school, one of my closest friends was a (spectacular) field hockey player. She had urged me a couple of times to give it a shot but, due to the lack of any team at my school and my busy schedule, I instead put the idea into the back of my mind.
Suddenly, it’s December, I’m at Tufts University, and I’m looking for a sport to get into. I grew up with soccer but was never good at it; When my coach would put me at keeper, we’d lose 13-0. I liked the rules and mechanics of soccer (they were intuitive and easy to learn) but never had the foot technique to be competent at it. I figured I’d do some research on field hockey, and I immediately fell in love with its versatility. The game, in essence, is closely related to soccer, except you’ve got sticks and small, hard balls. I reached out to the president of the club, who was super encouraging and even gave me the date of the first practice!
Never having played before, I didn’t know what to expect. However, the community was incredibly supportive of me, a newcomer. Various people came up to me and introduced themselves, and I was taught the basics of field hockey. It’s very different from even its closest relative, ice hockey, so the technique (such as dribbling, which can only be done with one side of the stick) takes some getting used to. It also takes a lot of skill to know how to teach a sport, so the fact that they managed to teach it all to me in about 20 minutes and put me in a game was incredible. I’ll never forget the feeling of scoring my first (unblocked) goal, and how awesome it was to literally jump into the flow of things.
I have since bought a field hockey stick and practice regularly in anticipation of our Sunday night practices. The game is as simple or as complex as you make it; If you just want a hobby to kill time, you can borrow a stick during practices. If you’re more hardcore about it, you might start learning some techniques such the C Dodge, Pull, and Hook! Overall, I cannot recommend Tufts Club Field Hockey enough; It’s a blast and, trust me, you’ll be hooked from the moment you hold the stick.