Street Hockey

Street Hockey

People playing street hockey in an outdoor rink.
Highest governing body	International Street and Ball Hockey Federation (International) American Street Hockey Institute (United States) Canadian Ball Hockey Association (Canada)
Nicknames	USA = ball hockey, dek hockey / Canada, Europe, Asia = ball hockey (some parts of Canada call it "road" hockey)
Characteristics
Type	Primarily outdoor, indoor
Equipment	Required = A ball or a puck (most players use a ball but a small percentage use a puck), a hockey stick, a net. Optional = shin pads, gloves, helmet.

Street hockey (also known as dek hockey, ball hockey, and in some parts of Canada "road hockey") is a variation of the sport of ice hockey where the game is played outdoors on foot, or with inline or roller skates using a ball or puck. Both ball and puck are typically designed to be played on non-ice surfaces. The object of the game is to score more goals than the opposing team by shooting the ball or puck into the opposing team's net. Street hockey in pickup form is generally played under the following guidelines, since there are no "official rules" for local pickup hockey:

In its most pure form, street hockey is always played on an outdoor surface (very often a street,parking lot, tennis court or other asphalt surface), thus the genesis of the name street hockey. Teams can be selected by various methods, but usually are selected by captains via alternate selection of available players. Alternatively, all the players put their sticks in a pile and the sticks are tossed out of the pile to opposing sides. In more organized forms, it is played in rinks which often were designed for roller hockey and can be indoor or outdoor rinks. There are also rinks built specifically for hockey played on foot, and these are referred to as dek hockey or ball hockey rinks. These rinks can also be used for roller hockey games.

It is believed that street hockey began when roads started getting paved in wealthier parts of North America around the turn of the 20th century. The term street hockey was thus started in Canada at some similar point, although a search of records both on the internet and in several libraries by fans of hockey in general has not turned up an exact year. The sport and thus the term street hockey eventually spread South to the United States. Most people who play the sport generally agree that no single person or entity invented the term "street hockey", but rather it simply invented itself just like the term "ice hockey" since it is describing a form of the sport of hockey. People would literally play the game out in the street, thus they had to ask people to play by asking them if wanted to play hockey out in the street.

As children and teenagers, almost all ice hockey players work on their skills and practice their games by playing street hockey, often alone in drive ways or out in the street in front of their houses. Throughout the history of organized hockey, many professional ice players participate in various promotional street hockey games and charity events, often appearing as part of the respective National Hockey League team's youth street hockey programs. Since not every ice hockey player can be on the ice at all times, the vast majority play some form of street hockey either for pure enjoyment or to better their overall hockey skills, or both.