Underwater hockey

Underwater hockey

Two players competing for the puck at the British Student Nationals in Bangor, 2009.
Highest governing body	CMAS
Nicknames	UWH, Octopush
First played	1954; 70 years ago (1954) Southsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England
Characteristics
Contact	Limited
Team members	up to 10 (6 in play)
Mixed-sex	Yes
Type	Aquatic
Equipment	Diving mask snorkel swimfins water polo cap stick or pusher protective glove exterior mouth guard underwater puck
Venue	Swimming pool
Presence
Olympic	No
Paralympic	No
World Games	No

Underwater hockey (UWH), (also known as Octopush in the United Kingdom) is a globally played limited-contact sport in which two teams compete to manoeuvre a puck across the bottom of a swimming pool into the opposing team's goal by propelling it with a hockey stick (or pusher).

A key challenge of the game is that players are not able to use breathing devices such as scuba gear whilst playing, they must hold their breath. The game originated in Portsmouth, England in 1954 when Alan Blake, a founder of the newly formed Southsea Sub-Aqua Club, invented the game he called Octopush as a means of keeping the club's members interested and active over the cold winter months when open-water diving lost its appeal.^[1][2] Underwater hockey is now played worldwide, with the Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques, abbreviated CMAS, as the world governing body.^[3] The first Underwater Hockey World Championship was held in Canada in 1980 after a false start in 1979 brought about by international politics and apartheid.