It's Called Foot Hockey

Squizz over at Some Canadian Men Rappin’ About Handball* has posted a satirical piece today that talks about the CSA’s efforts to re-brand soccer as “Foot Hockey,” after a popular schoolyard game played throughout Canada (it’s four or five a side soccer, played with a tennis ball on a hard surface. The nets are usually the size of an ice hockey goal and goalies play much in the same way as an ice hockey goalie would – often with a ball glove as a trapper).

As much as the post is clearly a joke, like all good satire, there is an element of truth to it. It’s profoundly telling that Canadian kids refer to this game that is clearly a version of soccer as “Foot (or sometimes Kick) Hockey."

Squizz’ post reminded me of an anecdote from my childhood:

I was at a summer hockey (the ice kind) school when I was about 10. As part of the off-ice training, the coaches had us play soccer every day in an outdoor skating rink (so, indoor soccer, really). Soccer is actually a fairly common cross-training activity for hockey players, as the similarities between hockey and soccer are quite strong -- especially if you play it on a surface that emulates a hockey rink.

It wasn’t a popular part of the day. Most of the kids bitched and moaned about having to play soccer. It wasn't a real sport (“dad told me so”), it sucked, etc. We BEGGED the coaches to let us play a different game. We were desperate to switch up soccer for the oh-so-different Kick Hockey! (we called it Kick Hockey in Eastern Ontario, rather than Foot Hockey. Same game though).

So, the coaches replaced the soccer ball with a tennis ball, called it Kick Hockey and suddenly EVERYONE loved our daily off-ice Kick Hockey game.

Sadly, as stated, this is a true story.

Maybe Squizz is onto something after all...

*That's what it's called, right?