Inside the World of Underwater Hockey
Octopush or underwater hockey is an exciting sport. The game is played underwater at the bottom of a swimming pool, where two teams battle for the right to shoot a puck into the goal of the other team using their unique sticks. In fact, despite it being a specialized sport, underwater hockey has become increasingly popular across many countries (e.g., Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, France and the USA), thanks to its uniqueness, strategy and strict demands in terms of physical fitness of the players.
The history of underwater hockey began in the UK during the 1950s, when a group of divers created this sport in order to stay in shape over the winter. The game has since changed many times, but its basic premise, a team game under water, has not altered. Well, the great strength of underwater hockey lies in its ability to unite people of different ages and physical abilities on the principles of water and team sport passion. Let us repeat again that Underwater hockey is a lively and captivating sport that is played on the pool, whereby two groups compete attempting to strike a puck to the other team's goal using a special stick.
Konstantin assures us that no coward plays underwater hockey
The players don masks, fins and snorkels and breathe underwater on the attack or defense. Males in Perm wore masks and fins, took plastic sticks and dived to a five-meter pool bottom to. play hockey. As championship organizer Vitaly Mikhailov told Metro, the winner was awarded the "Stalker Perm" cup of the underwater hunting school. The tournament was held in Perm for the second time. Three teams arrived in all - aside from the first one, these were the "Alligator" and "Bobry Bodry" teams, - he explains. - The participants wished to play next time, even better prepared.
The rules of the game are simple - you just have to be the winner in the battle for the puck and fire it into the opposing team's goal. Each team is made up of four players, each in a diving tandem. One team is underwater while the other is resupplying energy at the surface. Players from underwater hockey employ T-shaped handles made out of plastic drainpipes. If you lose one from your grasp, it will float to the surface. The puck, nonetheless, always stays underwater because of the lead weight inside.
Underwater Hockey: General Information
The champion captain, diving instructor Konstantin Ermakov, told Metro that his team practiced for a year in preparation to take the cup. The tournaments are held in order to promote underwater sports," says Konstantin. "I've been playing for a long time, but we became champions only now. To be good at underwater hockey, you need to develop your breath-holding skill, have the pace to accelerate, and be strategic, says Konstantin. Meanwhile, unlike in conventional hockey, in the underwater version of the game, physical combat is prohibited:
Can't catch your opponent by the wetsuit, knock him back – it's a fair fight. Anything else is just like regular hockey – the most critical is to get the puck in.We play an adventure sport. We're diving deep, there could be barotrauma. Keeping your breath also is dangerous, you should know what your reserve is. The tournament was held in the Olimpia Sports Complex – and funnily enough, the new champions won two victories, defeating, among other things, the previous year champions, the Alligators team – 5:0. Ermakov was one of the best players at that match, as he scored two goals.
Moscow Championship
The Moscow Championship is a competition between professional sports schools (SDYUSHOR — sports children's and youth school of the Olympic reserve) and sports sections (DYUSH — children's and youth sports school). Pupils of CSKA, Dynamo, Spartak, aspiring to grow up to the adult team, and purely children's teams — Orbita, Silver Sharks and Maryino — play in one championship. Players are trained differently. SDYUSHOR is a sort of sports boarding school: training every day, constant matches and training camps. Professional players are trained there, so hockey indeed takes up most of the children's time. DYUSH — several trainings weekly and games at weekends.
Not all the players aspire to become professional. But some DYUSH are not inferior in level to SDYUSHOR. The tournament is divided into three divisions by team class: A, B and C. In each division, all teams play each other three times. Despite the name, not only Moscow teams participate in the Moscow Championship and Cup. In Group A, Yaroslavl's Lokomotiv and Lokomotiv-2004 and Moscow Region's Vityaz compete with CSKA, Dynamo, Spartak and Krylia Sovetov. Recently, Mikhailov Academy of the Tula Region has been picking up steam. A significant amount of graduates from these squads transfer to the Youth Hockey League.
Conclusion
This will be an individual championship, I am busy now composing the rules of the team game," Vitaly said. "The opponents dive under water, where there is a board with checkers placed, then everything happens as in regular checkers. The player who does not have enough air gestures to the opponent to surface. On the surface, they rest for two minutes and, on the command of the referee, dive again and so on until they win, or until the end of the match. When holding your breath underwater, the brain works completely differently, so the best-prepared player wins. “Bloggers continue to be threatened or arrested, as was the case with Otabek Sattori, founder of the YouTube channel Xalq Fikri (People’s Opinion).
In May 2021, he was sentenced to six and a half years in prison on trumped-up charges of defamation and extortion. Reporters who attempted to cover his trial were physically attacked or faced baseless criminal prosecution,” the report said. “The crackdown on reporters covering rallies in support of preserving Karakalpakstan’s constitutional status as a sovereign autonomous republic underscores the authorities’ determination to silence all dissenting voices, especially those from ethnic minorities advocating for equal rights.”
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