A typical hockey puck consists of six ounces of black vulcanized rubber. Its round, using a three-inch diameter
and is also one inch thick. Youth players (Mite level, or 8-years-old and under) sometimes use blue pucks which weigh
four ounces so that you can aid in their early skill development. These pucks are easier to stick handle, shoot, and
lift for younger players. Additionally, there are training pucks which are ten ounces or even more, approximately two pounds. These may
vary colors, typically orange, and are accustomed to build wrist strength and puck handling speed. Street and
floor hockey make use of a large variety of colors, materials, and puck designs depending on the surface being played
upon or perhaps the rules of each game. All of these different pucks have something in common, however. Each of them evolved
from your same simple origins ages ago.
The initial hockey pucks were reported to be slices cut from tree branches. These pucks had no standard size or
diameter requirements. Ice hockey is believed to get evolved from few different early games, one of these similar
to field hockey, called hurley ball. Ice hockey and its particular precursors including hurley continued to utilize balls until
the late 1800s. The ball was later adapted in to a puck after the game gone to live in the ice. Players cut the ball on
both ends to form a flatter puck-like fit around increase the risk for ball more manageable on the ice surface. The initial
vulcanized rubber flat hockey pucks were chosen for 1886. These early pucks were more crude than modern pucks,
as they did not have the identical smooth, round circumference. Improvements to these first vulcanized models
continued through the years, until they reached the form we know today.
The foundation with the word puck is uncertain. Some think that the phrase is related to the verb ⤠to puck,⤠which can be
used to describe the action of striking or pushing a hurley ball. This word, produced from the phrase poke, could be
linked to the Scottish Gaelic word ⤽puc,⤠or the Irish word ⤽poc,⤠meaning to poke, punch, or deliver a blow.
It is thought that Halifax natives, a lot of whom were Irish and played hurley, may have originally introduced
the term in Canada. The initial known printed reference to the word puck was in Montreal in 1867, annually after
the initial indoor game was played there.
