Foot! | How to Apply the Rules of Hockey |  

Question. I attended a NFHS Varsity Girls Field Hockey game one evening. Here is what I saw and how the play unfolded. White sends the ball over the end line of Red. Red brings the ball straight up from where it went over the Red end line to the 16. Red attacker lifts an aerial ball into open space across the field. As the ball was lifted, no danger and as the ball is about to land there is no danger. In fact the ball is being fielded by a Red player with her stick in the horizontal position. There are no White players within five (5) yards of the receiving player. The ball comes off her stick and hits her in the head and then body. The Red player appears to be dazed in some way and never attempts to move to the ball, but just keeps walking across the playing field dazed. The umpire somewhere around 3 to 5 seconds after the ball strikes the Red player calls timeout. My call would have been to immediately call timeout and beckon the Red coach and trainer to the field to examine the Red players condition. In my opinion player safety is paramount. Once the Red player has left the field and play is to resume who is awarded to ball? I would award the ball to the White team because a player cannot advance the ball off their body. I would appreciate your expert opinion according to the rules of the game. Thank you.

When I read the rules this was also my interpretation, problem is everyone is so ingrained over here that if the ball hits the foot regardless everyone stops... 😅

Surely the history of these rule changes were attempts to prevent what for me is the worst "tactic" in hockey - running into the circle and slamming it into a defender's foot for a penalty rather than using skill to try to score a goal