Four Reasons an Umpire Might Blow the Whistle During a Field Hockey Game

There are a lot of rules in field hockey that can often be difficult to understand to the untrained fan. One thing that often confuses people is when the umpire blows his or her whistle. This can be done for a variety of reasons, so it is important that you are able to figure out the reason why the play has been stopped. Some of these reasons include, but are not limited to, starting and ending the game for various reasons, calling penalty fouls, signaling that a goal has been scored, and the let players know that a ball is out of bounds.

The most obvious reason that an umpire might blow the whistle in the game of field hockey is to let players know when the game starts and ends. At the beginning of the first half, the umpire will blow his or her whistle to signal play has started. When the time has run out in the first have, the whistle will be blown again. The same set of events takes place for the next half.

Another reason why and umpire might blow the whistle that occurs often in game is to signal penalties. If a player commits a foul that will result in either a penalty stroke, free hit, or penalty corner, then the umpire will stop play and set up the signaled penalty. He or she will also blow the whistle if a player taking a penalty stroke is unsuccessful.

Yet another reason why an umpire might temporarily stop the game by blowing the whistle is to let players know that a goal has been scored. If the ball crosses the goal line in a legal manner, the referee will stop the game, award the goal, and get play ready to get started again.

Finally, the umpire will blow the whistle in instances that the ball is out of bounds. This occurs when the ball is completely out of play. This helps players recognize that it is completely outside of the playing surface and that they can no longer legally play it until play has been resumed.

Sources:

Planet Field Hockey
Field Hockey Sticks