Since being formally recognised by the Worldwide Hockey Federation (FIH) in October 2023, World Seashore Hockey has rapidly grown right into a dynamic a part of the worldwide hockey ecosystem. In lower than two years, sixty nations have registered with World Seashore Hockey, with an formidable goal of 100 by 2026.
This progress has been underpinned by main milestones: constructing a world construction mixing enterprise and hockey experience, launching focused social media to showcase the game’s advantages, securing partnerships with tools producers in China and India, and staging seaside hockey occasions worldwide. The game has additionally discovered resonance in numerous communities, from collaborations with indigenous teams in Australia to a current program in Ukraine introducing seaside hockey to warfare veterans.
A Distinctive Gateway into Hockey
Not like conventional hockey, which will be technically demanding, seaside hockey is designed to be protected, enjoyable, and straightforward to select up. Gamers, whether or not youngsters or adults, adapt rapidly, usually discovering a brand new ardour for the sport. A four-year participation research confirmed that many who first tried seaside hockey went on to play 11-a-side or indoor hockey.
To seize the creativeness of youthful and non-traditional audiences, World Seashore Hockey promotes the sport below the banner of Xtreme Seashore Hockey. With its vibrant seaside setting and fast-paced play, the format appeals to these searching for accessible and various sporting experiences.
Collaboration with FIH
Partnership with the FIH is central to seaside hockey’s imaginative and prescient. Early discussions with FIH President Tayyab Ikram and the FIH Board have targeted on mutual progress: placing sticks within the palms of first-time gamers and integrating seaside hockey into hockey’s broader growth framework. Potential areas of collaboration embrace occasion administration, teaching and umpiring training, joint seaside hockey activations at FIH tournaments, and alignment with FIH tasks equivalent to Ladies in Hockey.
Challenges and Options
As with all new format, challenges stay. Nationwide Associations (NAs) usually want steerage on find out how to combine seaside hockey into packed calendars. World Seashore Hockey is addressing this by working straight with the NAs to focus on the game’s recruitment potential. Infrastructure necessities are modest—sand courts will be arrange on seashores, indoors, or as standalone amenities. Taking inspiration from the success of seaside volleyball, the organisation goals to copy confirmed fashions of sand-based sport growth. Recognition, too, takes time, however robust social media promotion helps speed up consciousness.
Trying Forward
World Seashore Hockey’s fast focus is on rising the game as an inclusive, cost-effective group exercise for all ages. The long-term imaginative and prescient is daring: devoted nationwide, continental, and world championships, and eventual inclusion in multi-sport occasions such because the ANOC World Seashore Video games.
The momentum continues with a landmark occasion in Melbourne on 1–2 November 2025. The inaugural Melbourne Xtreme Seashore Hockey Cup will host 64 groups from throughout Australia and the world, with males’s and girls’s competitions on day one, adopted by youth tournaments for girls and boys aged 9–14 on day two.
As Greg Hill, President of World Seashore Hockey, emphasises: “The seaside is an excellent place to play hockey—you’ve gotten the solar, sea, and sand. We hope to make seaside hockey probably the most thrilling seaside sport on the planet.”
Supply: FIH.hockey
