A regular hockey puck is made of six ounces of black vulcanized rubber. It is round, having 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 in order to 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, up to two pounds. These could
vary colors, typically orange, and so are used to build wrist strength and puck handling speed. Street and
floor hockey make use of a large selection of colors, materials, and puck designs with respect to the surface being played
upon or even the rules of every game. Many of these different pucks have one thing in common, however. They all evolved
from the same simple origins hundreds of years ago.
The initial hockey pucks were stated to be slices cut from tree branches. These pucks didnt have standard size or
diameter requirements. Ice hockey is believed to get started out a few different early games, one of them similar
to field hockey, called hurley ball. Ice hockey and its precursors such as hurley continued to make use of balls until
the late 1800s. The ball was later adapted in to a puck following your game gone to live in the ice. Players cut the ball on
each end to form a flatter puck-like contour around make the ball more manageable on the ice surface. The very first
vulcanized rubber flat hockey pucks were utilized in 1886. These early pucks were more crude than modern pucks,
as they did not have the identical smooth, round circumference. Improvements about bat roosting first vulcanized models
continued over the years, until they reached the proper execution we know today.
The foundation of the word puck is uncertain. Some think that the word relates to the verb ⤠to puck,⤠which is
used to describe the act of striking or pushing a hurley ball. This word, based on the word poke, might be
related to the Scottish Gaelic word ⤽puc,⤠or even the Irish word ⤽poc,⤠meaning to poke, punch, or deliver a blow.
Its believed that Halifax natives, lots of whom were Irish and played hurley, may have originally introduced
the term in Canada. The very first known printed mention of the the phrase puck was in Montreal in 1867, a year after
the very first indoor game was played there.
