I have read the comments about the reverse stick and the injuries with interest. I am sure that many more head or face injuries have taken place and not reported.
This is not only in the UK and am sure this has occurred all over the world. It is the duty of all the federations to report to FIH and then it is the duty of the technical committee to study and take necessary steps as soon as possible before a player dies on the field or is in hospital.
The FIH is responsible to make changes. When first they allowed the reverse stick hit (known as Argentinian hit) the players were not using it, but after years it was perfected and it’s too dangerous in my eyes.
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Penalty corner is the most dangerous punishment in international field hockey. Instead of players and goalkeeper standing inside to defend the hit and then blindly running, why not one player take a direct hit from top of the ‘D’ (the area where the ball is stopped after it is pushed inside) and only the Goalkeeper is present to defend the hit?
I think this is an interesting idea. There would need to be some sort of line on the pitch that the attacker would need to hit the ball from behind.
Another alternative, would be to have a Euro style shootout, but with (say) 6 seconds rather than 8, to tilt the field slightly in favour of the defensive team.
The obvious solution to the danger at short corners is to require that all shots cross the line below backboard height, regardless of hit, flick or attacking deflection. Adding more and more pads to defenders is not the solution
I think this would be too easy to defend though. two post players, and the keeper lies down. We’d be back to the days before drag flicking, but with better goalkeeping capability (ie. because of better padding).