You could be forgiven for thinking that there is only one game of Hockey as it is a term that is used to describe two very different types of sport and depending on which country you are living in will depend on which one you naturally think of when the name is mentioned. The two sports are in fact Field Hockey and Ice Hockey and although both require a certain level of fitness, good hand to eye coordination along with great stick skills and players of both sports spend a lot of time training whether this is game skills or perhaps watching Hockey Training drills like the ones you can find at https://www.sportplan.net/drills/Hockey/Defending-Skills/Defence-the-circle-h5d04.jsp
Here are the ways that the two games differ:
Environment – as the two names would suggest the pitches that the two games are played on are very different. Ice Hockey is played on a rink whereas field hockey is played on a grass pitch that can be either natural grass or astro-turf. The goals are also of differing sizes with a field hockey goal standing at seven-foot-high with an entrance of twelve feet, an ice hockey goal is much smaller at four-foot-high and a goal entrance of six feet wide.
Duration – An ice hockey game consists of three twenty minutes sections and lasts a total of around sixty minutes playing time, field hockey in comparison lasts around seventy-five minutes (so a similar length game) but is played in two halves of thirty-five minutes.
Team – Ice hockey has less players on a team than field hockey with 5 players plus a goalkeeper taking to the ice making a total of 12 players on the ice during a game. Field hockey teams are made up of 10 player and a goalkeeper making 22 players on the field during any given game. This is most likely due to the limited space available on the rink.
Contact – Both games are highly physical and a certain amount of contact between players occurs in both, although ice hockey involves much more body checking than field hockey. You definitely come away with more bumps and bruises once you step off the ice.
The aim of both the sports is essentially the same with either a ball or a puck being passed from player to player until they reach the opposing teams goal where a shot on target is taken.