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Throughout the year we'll hear from eight bloggers as they share about their family's time in the Riley Children’s Health Sports Legends Experience® and how it inspires them to explore these sports back at home.
This post was written by Children's Museum Blog Ambassador Jessica Nunemaker. Follow her posts on the blog or follow her at Little Indiana on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
If you don’t know much about hockey and are tempted to skate on by the Indy Fuel Hockey Experience at the sports experience, stop right there. You, my friend, are about to impress your family with your hockey know-how.
Yes, you.
Rules of the Game
Unlike ice hockey, you won’t find “official rules” for street hockey, but there are still rules to follow and general terms you should know. Sprinkle a few of these into the convo with your kids and you will be ready to hit the street and score a goal on the kids with your newfound hockey know-how.
Street hockey is a less bodily intense sport than ice hockey. There isn’t much physical contact, and no one really wears equipment, so you can leave the mouth guard at home.
Don’t worry about specific positions here. The goal of every exhibit at The Children’s Museum is to have fun! Slap the biscuit around (or ball in this case!) and feel the rush of scoring against the kids.
Street Hockey Terms
- Breakaway: More than a Kelly Clarkson song, a breakaway is the perfect scoring opportunity. Nothing blocks the player with the ball (or puck) except the goalie, so the player can scoot around to make the perfect play—at least until everyone else catches up.
- Biscuit: Your kids will giggle when you ask them to “pass the biscuit.” You know it better as the puck. Here at The Children’s Museum, it’s a ball.
- Crease: That rectangular area in front of the goal? It has a name.
- Hat Trick: If you score three goals on your kids in one game, drop this term into play.
- Interference: You know when you grab your kids and prevent them from making a goal? Maybe that’s just me? It’s an illegal move and, in a real game of hockey, would slap you with a penalty.
- Target: There's no bullseye in hockey. The target in this case is otherwise known as the goalie.
In our family of four, we like to play adults against the kids. When we aren’t at The Children’s Museum or traveling Indiana, it’s oh-so easy to bring the fun of the game back home.
We live in a cul-de-sac within a cul-de-sac, so there isn’t much in the way of traffic. Rocks mark our boundary lines. We have street hockey sticks.
When neighbor kids join in and deplete our reserves, broomsticks sometimes make an appearance. Since our oldest plays tennis, we typically use a tennis ball.
Decide how you want to keep score and what score will end the game. It's just that easy.
Hockey! Hockey! Hockey!
Keep your stick low to the ground, don’t treat the puck like a golf ball, and have fun in the street or in the mini "Fuel Tank" at the Indy Fuel Hockey Experience!
