So, as I mentioned in the previous article, I'm looking at recruiting more Octopush players in York. Having started playing again a few months ago with the new formed York University Octopush Club (aka Yorktopush, and also on Facebook), it's reached that time of year when all the undergraduates clear off home for the summer. However, there's a few people playing with the club who are either post-grads or local residents, and quite frankly, we can't live without a fix of octopush until October!
As a result, we've started playing again. Unfortunately, there were only five of us last night, which resulted in a rather exhausting 3-on-2 game (along the full length of the pool!), and sharing the pool hire costs across 5 of us makes it a bit steep. What we really need is more players!
So, if you've played before, moved to York and have been disappointed that there's no local club, or if you've heard about octopush and always wated to give it a go please come along an join us.
Sessions are currently 7 to 8 pm on Sundays. Contact me for further information (eg leave a comment, or click on "Kev" immediately below this article).
We're also hoping that we may be able to get enough non-university players together to start a separate team. We'll probably still maintain close ties with the Uni team, but it could mean two training sessions a week in York, the opportunity for local friendly matches, and we'd be looking at joining the Yorkshire league and/or the new northern (or north-eastern) league that's getting up and running.
So, please, don't wait, get in contact today and come along next Sunday! (We should even be able to provide masks, fins and snorkels if you don't have them.)
As a result, we've started playing again. Unfortunately, there were only five of us last night, which resulted in a rather exhausting 3-on-2 game (along the full length of the pool!), and sharing the pool hire costs across 5 of us makes it a bit steep. What we really need is more players!
So, if you've played before, moved to York and have been disappointed that there's no local club, or if you've heard about octopush and always wated to give it a go please come along an join us.
Sessions are currently 7 to 8 pm on Sundays. Contact me for further information (eg leave a comment, or click on "Kev" immediately below this article).
We're also hoping that we may be able to get enough non-university players together to start a separate team. We'll probably still maintain close ties with the Uni team, but it could mean two training sessions a week in York, the opportunity for local friendly matches, and we'd be looking at joining the Yorkshire league and/or the new northern (or north-eastern) league that's getting up and running.
So, please, don't wait, get in contact today and come along next Sunday! (We should even be able to provide masks, fins and snorkels if you don't have them.)
Whilst wandering around the world of Octopush (or Underwater Hockey (UWH) as our international brethren refer to the game) in search of ways of recruiting more players in York, I came accross a link to an article on UWH stick design by Benson Taylor. It's a rather long and reasonably in-depth article (OK, it's very in depth - I'm being picky because he didn't discuss structural properties of wood versus plastic - ie limitations in design imposed by wood and it's grain structure - but that's about all he seems to have missed!), and looks at commonly used stick (or pusher) designs available commercially or hacked together by people like me in their spare time.
The article was rather timely, as we spent half an hour at last nights training session practising flicking. I took the opportunity to compare the various bats I have, and the britbats that the York University club has bought. The first thing to say is that having properly tried the Britbats (I've used them occaisionally before, but not done a back-to-back comparison with mine), I discovered that I hate them. I think it comes down partly to their lack of mass (so it's difficuly to impart energy and hence momentum to the puck), and partly the curved front edge which seems to end up dropping the puck off it, rather than propelling it forward. Maybe it's just me, or maybe I'm just used to my own bats, but I really, really couldn't get on with them. This got me to thinking it might be time for a trip to the local timber merchant, and asking if I can borrow my mate's bandsaw and make the club some decent bats. (They need goals, caps and gloves too - if anyone's interested in sponsorship or making a donation!)
Hence the article was rather useful. Armed with this enhanced knowledge, I'm at the very least going to experiment with making some more bats to try and refine my design (which I don't think Benson would approve of).
The article, as a 1 Mb PDF file, is available here:
The article was rather timely, as we spent half an hour at last nights training session practising flicking. I took the opportunity to compare the various bats I have, and the britbats that the York University club has bought. The first thing to say is that having properly tried the Britbats (I've used them occaisionally before, but not done a back-to-back comparison with mine), I discovered that I hate them. I think it comes down partly to their lack of mass (so it's difficuly to impart energy and hence momentum to the puck), and partly the curved front edge which seems to end up dropping the puck off it, rather than propelling it forward. Maybe it's just me, or maybe I'm just used to my own bats, but I really, really couldn't get on with them. This got me to thinking it might be time for a trip to the local timber merchant, and asking if I can borrow my mate's bandsaw and make the club some decent bats. (They need goals, caps and gloves too - if anyone's interested in sponsorship or making a donation!)
Hence the article was rather useful. Armed with this enhanced knowledge, I'm at the very least going to experiment with making some more bats to try and refine my design (which I don't think Benson would approve of).
The article, as a 1 Mb PDF file, is available here:
- Concepts of UWH Stick Design, Benson Taylor 2007.
It's also worth noting the site I found this on, Underwater Hockey World. I haven't had a very long look round, but there did seem to be interesting info on equipment and technique, and if you're that way inclined, the politics of UWH.
Edit: The original link to Benson's document is now broken. I've updated it with the last good link I have, but I've also stuck a copy on this site as well.
