Soccer vs Hockey

Majority of sports can be reduced to three basic elements; players’ physique, tactics and technique. In an exceedingly simplified form, this would be body, mind and skill. Soccer fits perfectly in the middle of this triangle and this would seemingly make it a more complete sport than Hockey, in terms of the basic elements. However, the differences between the two sports are as widely split as the fans that subscribe to either sport.

Physical
Physically, soccer requires players to have a lot of body strength and high levels of fitness because a soccer game entails many kilometers of running around the field. Hockey requires higher levels of complete athleticism, which is a combination of skating stamina and body strength, enabling players to hit their opponents on to the side boards.

Aim
The essence of the game in both soccer and hockey is basically the same: to score, albeit using different objects. In soccer players will try to score as many goals as possible by putting the ball behind the opponent’s goal post which is guarded by a net, while in hockey a puck is shot towards a smaller goal of the opponent.

Game progression also differs greatly. In soccer, a player uses his feet to move the ball forward towards opponent’s goal, making passes to teammates to maintain ball possession. Also, a player can dribble when he goes past opponents, although this requires a lot of personal skill. In hockey ,however, progression is made by skating and a hockey stick is used to pass the puck to other teammates during play. The passing and shooting here happens at great speeds of the puck so the goal keeper requires great levels of concentration to stop it.

Playing fields
Hockey is played on a not so usual surface of ice called a skating rink, and that is why it is mainly popular in those regions that are sufficiently cold for natural ice cover that can last a whole season. However, artificial ice rinks have made it possible for indoor games year round. Soccer on the other hand is played on a soccer pitch (field of play), which is essentially a rectangular field covered with leveled grass or an artificial turf.

Summary
1.Soccer is played on a grassy pitch while hockey is played on an ice rink.
2.Soccer requires more body strength while hockey requires more athleticism.
3.The hockey puck is shot at higher speeds than a soccer ball.
4.Soccer players use their feet to move the ball across a pitch while hockey players use hockey sticks to shoot the puck.