What Is RH?
Rink Hockey (aka Hardball Roller Hockey) is a variant of Roller hockey and is one of the three most popular hockey variants, along with Field hockey and Ice Hockey. It is highly popular in Latin countries, with Portugal (15 World titles), Spain (12 World titles), Italy (4 World titles) and Argentina (4 World titles), dominating the sport since the early 1940s. Other countries, such as the USA, France, Brazil, England, Germany and Japan are regular international competitors, but rarely win over the traditional top competitors. Overall, it’s played in over 60 countries worldwide. Hardball Roller Hockey is referred to as Rink Hockey outside the United States.
Rink Hockey should not be confused with another variant of roller hockey called Inline Roller Hockey, or just inline hockey, which is played on inline skates. Inline Hockey also uses different sticks and rules.
Rink Hockey is a very fast sport, which may create a problem for TV transmissions, and new rinks are built using blue or white pavement to make the ball more visible on TV. It was a demonstration sport in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, where it was one of only two sports to sell out, the other being basketball featuring the “Dream Team”. The most important clubs in Europe (and, arguably, the world) are FC Porto, SL Benfica and Óquei de Barcelos from Portugal, FC Barcelona, Reus Deportiu Hockey and Liceo de Coruña from Spain and occasionally Primavera Prato and Bassano Hockey 54 from Italy.
The Game
Two five-man teams (four skaters and one goalkeeper) try to drive the ball with their sticks into the opponents’ goal. While stopping the ball with the foot or any part of the body except the hand is allowed, the ball can only be put in motion by a stick. The game has two 20-minute halves (for adults), with the clock stopping when the ball becomes dead. Each team has a one-minute timeout in each half.
Each team has a minimum of six players (a backup goalie is required) and a maximum of ten.
The Rink
The rink has usually a polished wooden surface, but any flat, non-abrasive and non-slippery material such as treated cement is acceptable. Likewise, it is allowed for rink owners to put advertisements in the playing area, as long as they don’t interfere with ball or skate motion, which includes both physically (must be at the exact same level as the remaining area) and visually (dark colors or any other pattern which can mask the ball).
It can have one out of three standard sizes (a minimum of 34×17 meters, an average of 40×20 and a maximum of 44×22) or any size between the minimum and maximum values that has a 2:1 size ratio with a 10% margin of error.
The rink has rounded corners (1 m radius) and is surrounded by a 1 m wall. The wall also has a wooden base 2 cm wide and at least 20 cm high. Behind the goals there is a 4 m high net, even if there are no stands (to avoid the ball bouncing back from a wall and hitting a player). If the ball hits the net, it’s considered to be out of bounds.
The markings are simple. The halfway line divides the rink into halves, and 22 m from the end wall an “anti-play” line is painted. The area is a 9 X 5.40 m rectangle, placed from 2.7 to 3.3 m ahead of the end table. It has a protection area for goalkeepers, a half-circle with 1.5 m radius. All markings are 8 cm in width. The goal (painted in fluorescent orange) is 105 cm high by 170 cm wide. Inside the goal there is a thick net and a bar close to ground to trap the ball inside (before, two extra referees stayed behind the goal to judge goal decisions), and 92 cm deep. While not attached to the ground, it is extremely heavy to prevent movement.
Equipment