Back in the UK, during my teenage years, I got into field hockey in a big way. I spent several winters playing hockey on frozen grass pitches around the East of England. When I went to University I played a lot more (between the 2nd and 1st teams, this time mostly on astroturf), and thoroughly enjoyed myself.
Once I started working things became harder… I still managed to play a few times, but mostly ended up joining teams to play other sports: Field hockey just turned out not to be a sport I could play regularly, for one reason or another.
When I settled back in Switzerland in 2006 after some years away (I had first moved here in 1998, but went to the USA and then India from 2000-2005), I found a number of Autodesk colleagues were playing a sport called floorball or unihockey. It turns out it’s a really popular sport in Switzerland, and has as much in common with ice hockey as it does with field hockey (perhaps more, in fact). I started playing it and never looked back –…