First timer's recommendation – Not a sport to be taken up lightly. If you’re a fast, efficient swimmer who has a high aerobic capacity, it will suit you fine, but otherwise there’s a lot of components which you need to put together to have any chance of enjoying a game.
Enjoyment - 55%
Success - 25%
Will try again - No
It was a strange feeling leaving the pool after an hour or so of underwater hockey. As a first-time - another beginner and I received a really warm welcome, and one of the club regulars, who it turns out plays for the GB Masters team, spent about half an hour showing us the basics, which for me included learning how to snorkle properly, before we actually played a game.
This was definitely one of the toughest sports I’ve ever played, requiring high levels of aerobic fitness, flexibility and a strong, efficient underwater fly kick. The playing environment makes communication difficult, with the colour of your swim hat differentiating between the teams, and a dolphin-like communication system that I was oblivious to. Putting all these components together as well as trying to track a fast-moving weighted puck and hitting it with a small plastic stick meant this was one for the long term, not something you could dip or indeed duck-dive in and out of.
