Penalty corner (field hockey)
Encyclopedia
Field hockey
Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
match.
Also called "PC" or simply "penalty", it is awarded to the offending team when the defending team committed a foul in its circle or a particularly bad foul in its defending quarter. The offending teams keenly seek after these penalty corners since they offer great scoring opportunities, similar to those offered by direct free kicks in Football (soccer)
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
.
When a penalty corner is awarded, all the defending players but five (including the goalkeeper) must stay behind the back line, while the six remaining defenders have to stay behind the centre line. The attacking team players place themselves around the circle with one player behind the back line with the ball. When he or she pushes out the ball to his or her team-mates, the defending teams may then step inside the field. Before a shot on goal can be taken, the ball must first travel outside the circle. If the ball is hit, as opposed to a flick, scoop or push, the ball must be below 460 mm before crossing the line to score a goal. If the ball raises above 460 mm in its flight, provided there is no danger(If there was it would result in a free hit to the defenders), and drops below 460 mm under its own accord before crossing the goal line (With no interference from the goalkeeper or defenders), it is still counted as a goal.
Whilst the Penalty Corner has always been an important part of the game, that importance has become more pronounced following the introduction of artificial turf
Artificial turf
Artificial turf is a surface manufactured from synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commercial applications as well...
. The former great penalty corner strikers like Paul Litjens, Ties Kruize
Ties Kruize
Ties Kruize is a former field hockey player from the Netherlands, who represented Holland at the Summer Olympics of 1972, 1976, and 1984...
and Michael Peters
Michael Peters
Michael Douglas Peters was an American choreographer.-Biography:Peters was born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in New York City to an African American father and Jewish mother. His first major breakthrough came when he did choreography for Donna Summer's "Love to Love You Baby" in 1975...
were successful due to the countless hours they spent in practice perfecting their skills and craft. Uneven bounce and unpredictability were ironed out when artificial turf was introduced. Hence the proliferation of penalty corner specialists during the eighties and nineties including Floris Jan Bovelander
Floris Jan Bovelander
Floris Jan Bovelander is a former field hockey player from the Netherlands, who was a member of the Dutch national squad that won the golden medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta...
, Jay Stacy
Jay Stacy
Jay Jason Stacy is a former field hockey midfielder from Australia, who participated in four Summer Olympics for his native country, starting in 1988.-References:* *...
, Carsten Fischer
Carsten Fischer
Carsten Fischer is a former field hockey player from West Germany, who competed at four Summer Olympics for his native country...
, Khalid Bashir, Craig Davies, Jim Irvine
Jim Irvine
James "Jim" Irvine is a retired field hockey defender from Australia, who was a member of the national team that won the silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada. He was also a member of the team that finished fourth at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.After his career...
and Seong Seo Kim were no doubt largely due to the evenness and predictability of the new surface. While these players are basically hard hitters of the ball, the introduction of the drag flick
Drag flick (field hockey)
In field hockey, the drag flick is a specialist scoring shot usually played as a set piece during penalty corners, that appeared in the 1990s. It was introduced to the outdoor game by Dutch international Taco van den Honert in the summer of 1992, after a change in the penalty corner rules...
provided another dimension to counter the goalkeepers who lie down during the hit. This new skill of drag flicking also introduced new exponents of this skill including Bram Lomans
Bram Lomans
Abraham Robertus Lomans is a former Dutch field hockey player, who twice won the gold medal at the Olympics: in Atlanta Abraham ("Bram") Robertus Lomans (born on April 19, 1975 in Roosendaal) is a former Dutch field hockey player, who twice won the gold medal at the Olympics: in Atlanta Abraham...
, Taco van den Honert
Taco van den Honert
Taco Hajo van den Honert is a former field hockey player from The Netherlands, who represented his native country in three consecutive Summer Olympics ....
and Taeke Taekema
Taeke Taekema
Taeke Wiebe Doekes Taekema is a Dutch field hockey player and drag flicker who won the silver medal with the national squad at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens...
, Steller (Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
) , Sohail Abbas
Sohail Abbas
Sohail Abbas is a field hockey defender and penalty corner specialist from Pakistan. He is the highest scorer of goals in Hockey breaking Dhyan Chand's record 274 goals for the most goals scored in international competition, with his current goal tally at 328...
(Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
), Sandeep Singh (India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
), Shanmuganathan Kuhan (Malaysia), Florian Kunz
Florian Kunz
Florian Kunz is a former field hockey defender from Germany. He was the captain of the side which won the 2002 Men's Hockey World Cup.-References:* *...
, Christopher Zeller
Christopher Zeller
Christopher Zeller is a field hockey player from Germany and the younger brother of Philipp Zeller. He was a member of the Men's National Teams that won the gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics...
(Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
), Calum Giles
Calum Giles
Calum Giles is a former Great Britain olympic field hockey player, who competed in the British squad at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney...
(England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
), Hayden Shaw
Hayden Shaw
Hayden Jonathan Shaw is a field hockey player from New Zealand, who earned his first cap for the national team, nicknamed The Black Sticks, in 2002 against Australia. He has played for HC 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands.Shaw is often involved in penalty corner set moves and can perform a drag...
(New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
) and Jorge Lombi
Jorge Lombi
Jorge Maximiliano Lombi Etulain is a field hockey player from Argentina, who made his debut for the national squad in 1991 in a friendly against Spain. He's the penalty corner specialist, who currently plays for Club de Campo in Madrid, Spain...
(Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
) who are the modern exponents of this lethal skill. They all have ability to whip the ball at speed up to 120 km/h. This technique has remained the favoured way to score goals on penalty corners.
History
The Penalty Corner was introduced in 1908 for offences by defenders in the circle. At a penalty corner, the Rules required the ball to be stopped before a shot at goal but this was not umpired rigorously; all defenders were behind the goal-line with attacking players outside the circle.In 1949 deliberate offences by defenders within the 25 yards area and persistent offences by defenders at corners were penalized by a penalty corner.
From 1961 at penalty corners and for long corners, a maximum of six defenders were to be behind the back line with the remainder of the defending team at the 25 yards line.
In 1975 with the publication of the first common Rule book for men and women further changes were made. The ball now had to be stopped dead by an attacker before a shot at goal; there was to be no latitude.
1987 saw a further reduction in the number of defenders behind the back line from six to five. This year also saw the introduction of a height limit on the first hit at goal, the ball should not cross the goal-line higher than 18 inches and if the ball traveled more than 5 yards outside the circle then the penalty corner rules no longer applied.
1995, following the introduction of rolling substitutes a few years previously, substitution was now allowed at penalty corners and penalty strokes. This led to the introduction of true specialists, brought on just for penalty corners.
In 1996 the stop was moved to outside the circle
From 1997 the rules required the prolongation of play to permit the completion of a penalty corner at half-time and full-time.
1998: Substitutions at penalty corners were no longer permitted except for an injured defending goalkeeper but were still permitted at penalty strokes.
2003: The requirement to stop the ball was removed, instead, the ball was only required to travel outside the circle.