Field Hockey Tip
Field Hockey for Beginners: Positions, Equipment, and How the Game Is Actually Played
Nike Sports Camps, provided by US Sports Camps
Turf shoes. The real cost item, generally $80 to $110. Running shoes wear out quickly on turf and offer poor lateral support.
Ball. Around $9.
Protective eyewear. Here is the part almost everyone gets wrong. Goggles were mandatory in US high school field hockey until the 2020 season, when the rule was changed to permit rather than require them. Many states, leagues, and individual schools still require them, so check locally rather than assuming either way. If goggles are worn, they must be stamped ASTM F2713, the field hockey standard. Lacrosse goggles are a different standard and are not legal.
Starter bundles that combine a stick, shin guards, a ball, and a mouthguard run about $55 to $90. A realistic first-year total, including turf shoes, is somewhere around $130 to $200 before optional goggles. That compares favorably to most youth sports, where families spend an average of $883 per child per season (Aspen Institute Project Play).
What Parents Should Know
It is a fall sport in most of the country, played on artificial turf, and often played in weather that makes a spare pair of socks a good investment.
It is a girls' sport at the American high school level. Fewer than 100 boys play it in US high schools. Internationally it is a completely different picture: men's field hockey has a World Cup, an Olympic medal event, and a professional league structure. For a family with a son interested in the sport, the honest answer is that US school pathways are limited and club and international pathways exist.
Skill transfers in both directions. Athletes coming from soccer already understand spacing, pressing, and defensive shape. Athletes coming from lacrosse already have stick sense. Both have to unlearn shielding.
Starting late is normal. Most American athletes pick up field hockey in middle school because that is where school programs begin. USA Field Hockey's introductory programs serve athletes as young as five, but a seventh grader with no experience is not behind.
Where Nike Sports Camps Fit
Field hockey is a hard sport to learn from a game. The rules that matter most, the flat side of the stick, obstruction, the circle, are the kind of thing an athlete has to be shown and corrected on, repeatedly, in the first weeks. Learning them from whistles during a match is slow and discouraging.
Nike Field Hockey Camps, provided by US Sports Camps, athletes work with knowledgeable coaches for several days of focused work on exactly those foundations: receiving, moving the ball on the ground, tackling, and the shape of the game. Coaches are selected based on experience, communication skills, teaching ability, and alignment with youth development best practices, with credentials serving as one of many factors considered.
For a new player, a week of camp before a first season front-loads the corrections that a season would otherwise deliver slowly, one whistle at a time. It also does the thing that matters even more at the start, which is making the sport fun before it gets hard.
For over 50 years, US Sports Camps has helped athletes of all levels grow their game, build confidence, and love sport through safe, fun, and expertly coached camps.
Find a camp near you at ussportscamps.com.
It Starts Here.