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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: * Physical contact between players is extremely limited to avoid injury. * Minimal amounts of hockey equipment by the runners are worn depending on player preferences. * Players agree whether or not to allow slap shots and raising of the stick, both of which can incur serious injury to players since there is minimal equipment worn. * Players determine whether to use a ball or a street hockey puck. * There is no referee, except when agreed upon by both teams. 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. ==History of the sport== 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. Also, since the cost of smaller sized home ice rinks was too expensive for professional players, many would often play street hockey throughout the summer months to keep in shape physically. This also offered them a chance to work on various different aspects of the game in a cost effective manner. Before the era of big salaries, many semi-pro and professional players would play in pickup games with each other when they lived in neighborhoods within driving distance of each other. It wasn't until the early 1970s, when Raymond W. Leclerc, founder of the Mylec Corporation and the creator of the ''No Bounce'' orange ball, along with several prominent players in the Northeastern United States and Southeastern Canada, established rules for the more organized forms of the game. These rules were quickly adopted by most leagues in the area and then eventually spread throughout the US and Canada by means of a printed rulebook which people could purchase. After a few years of experimenting with all the dynamics, Mr. Leclerc built a model site in 1974 to play and advance the game in Leominster, Massachusetts. The site, Leominster DekHockey Centre, has 3 outdoor rinks all with modular sport court surfaces and is informally known as the "Home of Dekhockey". The organized version of street hockey with teams competing in leagues caught on with a large amount of players in Toronto, Montreal, Ontario, New York, Long Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Various leagues and tournaments soon were springing up throughout those regions. The game then spread South and West as the Northeast USA players relocated to different areas of the United States and Canadian players moved outside of the Ontario and Quebec provinces. In Canada, the sport was organized for tournament play on a provincial and national level in the late 1970s with the founding of the Canadian Ball Hockey Association. More formal organization of the sport quickly followed which led to provincial wide tournaments and then eventually the Canadian National Championships. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Street hockey」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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