Hockey is any of a family of sports in which two teams compete by trying to maneuver a hard, round disc, ball or hockey puck into the opponent's net or goal, past the goaltender or goalkeeper (often abbreviated goalie), using a hockey stick. hehe

The major forms of hockey are:

• Ice hockey, played on ice with a small,5-oz rubber disc called a puck. Most widely played in in North America and Europe.
• Inline hockey, played in an indoor rink with a ball or or a plastic puck.
• Street hockey is a version of ice hockey played (most typically) on residential streets with or without inline skates, on bare pavement. Games are usually informal with no referee and no set teams. Because the game is played in the middle of the road, it is often interrupted by traffic, at which point someone will yell "car" and players stand to the side of the road to allow the vehicle to pass.
• Floor Hockey is a form of hockey played in a gymnasium using a plastic puck and plastic sticks.
• Foot Hockey is played using a bald tennis ball and using only the feet. It is popular at elementary schools in the winter.
• Field hockey, played with a ball on gravel, grass, sand- or water-based astroturf.

The dominant version of hockey in a particular region tends to be known simply as hockey, other forms being more fully specified. For example, in North America, hockey refers to ice hockey, the finest form of the sport, whereas in the UK the same word denotes field hockey, which is regarded as a lesser version of hockey.

Ice hockey is played almost exclusively in the northern hemisphere and predominantly in colder regions such as Canada, Russia, the USA and northern Europe (particularly in Scandinavia). Some assert that the game was started in the early 19th century, in Nova Scotia, by Scottish immigrants to Canada, who played on Skinner's Pond with sticks and skates, using cow dung as the puck. Others argue that ice hockey started in Montréal, Québec. Today, Hockey Night in Canada, which first broadcast at the beginning of the wireless age, is roundly agreed to be the most popular show on Canadian television every Saturday night.

Field hockey is popular among women at U.S. colleges, men in East Asia, and both sexes in Western Europe and Australia. Field hockey sticks are smaller than ice hockey sticks. Modern ones have a hooked blade and are only curved right, whereas ice hockey sticks have a long blade that can lie flat on the playing surface when the stick is held upright and can be curved both ways. Rink hockey sticks have a curled "L" shape, and are about the same size as those in field hockey.

In southern European countries (such as Spain, Portugal and Italy) and certain South American countries, especially Brazil and Argentina), the dominant form of hockey is Inline Hockey.

Other games derived from hockey or its predecessors include the following:

• Mini Sticks is a form of hockey which is played in basements of houses. Players get down on their knees, using a miniature plastic stick, usually about 1 1/4 feet long. They shoot into miniature goals as well. This is popular throughout North America, though it has not yet made the jump to Europe.
• Indoor field hockey is an indoor variation of field hockey.
• Bandy is played with a ball on a football-sized ice arena, typically outdoors. It is in many ways field hockey played on ice.
• Floorball is played in sport halls.
• Roller hockey is a variant of ice hockey that is played on concrete, asphalt or (ideally) a roller rink using inline roller skates, and is often played by ice hockey players for training purposes when ice is not available. Roller hockey is also known as rink hockey and Inline hockey.
• Shinny is an informal version of ice hockey.
• Air hockey and table hockey are played on tables indoors.
• Underwater hockey is played on the bottom of a swimming pool.
• Street hockey is a version of ice hockey played (most typically) on residential streets with or without inline skates, on bare pavement. Games are usually informal with no referee and no set teams. Because the game is played in the middle of the road, it is often interrupted by traffic, at which point someone will yell "car" and players stand to the side of the road to allow the vehicle to pass.
• Ringette is an ice hockey variant that was designed for female players; it uses a straight stick and a rubber ring in place of a puck.
• Broomball is played on an ice hockey rink, but with a ball instead of a puck and a "broom" (actually a stick with a small plastic implement on the end) in place of the ice hockey stick. Instead of using skates, special shoes are used that have very soft rubbery soles to maximize grip while running around.
• Spongee is a cross between ice hockey and broomball and is most popular in Manitoba, Canada. A stick and puck are used as in hockey (the puck is a softer version called a "sponge puck"), and the same soft-soled shoes used in broomball are worn. The rules are basically the same as ice hockey, but one variation has an extra player on the ice called a "rover".
• Shinty is a Scottish Highlands game
• Hurling is an Irish game
• Gym Hockey is a form of hockey played in a gymnasium. It uses a plastic puck and plastic sticks.
• Sled Hockey is a form of ice hockey played by the disabled. The players sit on sleds, and push themselves up and down the ice with picks on the butt end of their shortened hockey sticks. The game is played with many of the same rules as regular ice hockey.