About us

What is Octopush?

Octopush - otherwise known as underwater hockey - is a fast passed anaerobic sport which involves two teams of ten (six in the water and four subs) competing over a puck known as a squid at the bottom of a swimming pool, normally 2-3m deep. The aim of the teams is to push or flick the puck into the opponent goal (known as a gully). This is achieved by the players duck diving to the bottom of the pool wearing mask, snorkel and fins to aid in their swimming and manoeuvre the puck with their pusher, which is a short stick (about 35cm long) by pushing it along, and/or flicking it. Octopush is a mixed sport and is frequently played over wide age ranges within a team (from young adults to seniors, all on an equal playing field). Teamwork is essential in this game, as you will require other players to help you move the puck forward up the pitch, especially when you come up against the opposition. After all you can only keep a hold of the puck as long as you can hold your breath. Although teamwork is such an important part of this game, communication can the tricky at times as you will have a snorkel in your mouth to breath and being underwater usually hinders your speaking ability - although some players still try. As this sport is underwater, it has a whole different dimension to most other sports, meaning that you can now use the depth of the field to your advantage by diving under someone to get past or just going over them and appearing on the other side of them opening up space to be passed too. Being able to play in 3D really opens up a lot more possibilities in the movement of the game. Unlike other sports such as football you are not able to just send the puck flying from one end of the pitch to the other; as it's travelling through water the distance the puck can be flicked is limited - this makes the game fast moving. You have to quickly move the puck around and pass onto someone waiting nearby while you surface to get a breath of air and come down again to help out your team. The rules of the game are pretty straight forward - no contact with other players, or the puck (except for with your pusher) just to name the simplest ones. A full set of rules can be found on the links page. Octopush truly is a unique sport and is great fun to play, and it has the bonus that it's a great form of exercise!

Equipment

In Octopush it may seem a fair bit of equipment is required which can put new people off, but it shouldn't! We will provide equipment to borrow per session for free, and frequently other players will often let you borrow spare equipment if the club cannot, giving new members the chance to try the sport without the cost of buying your own stuff when you're just starting. The key equipment for any player is a mask - this allows the player to have a clear vision of what is going on in the game. They come in a range of shapes and sizes but generally a low profile mask is a good choice as it won't get caught on anything and they often curve around allowing a wider field of view. The snorkel is also an important piece of kit as it enables players to surface and breathe without having to lift their head out of the water, meaning they can keep their full attention on the game and not lose sight of the puck. Another piece of vital equipment is a pair of fins, which enable the player to move rapidly through the water whilst turning and accelerating in all directions. There are many different types of fins each giving slightly different attributes. Some enabling powerful strokes producing fast movement and rapid acceleration but at the loss of agility and turning, whereas other fins are very quick to turn and make you very agile but tend to not be as powerful as others. Fins are a very personal choice and some players may choice different types of fins depending on what position they play or their style of play. The last and possibly most essential piece of kit is the pusher, pushers come in many various shapes and sizes, there are a few specific rules about the measurements of the pushers length diameter and curvature of its edges but apart from them they tend to vary in style and shape. Now more and more plastic moulded pushers are being made in different styles but originally players often made their own in wood, this had a tendency to make every pusher unique and suited to the users preferences. You will still see many different styles as people are always adjusting parts of their own pushers (even some of the moulded plastic one) possibly just trimming the handle down for a smaller hand or even drilling big holes in the main part of the pusher to allow water to flow through it more easily increasing its manoeuvrability. Pushers can make a huge difference to each player, some prefer the small thinner pushers allowing the user to quickly move the pusher around and doing some quick skills to avoid oncoming tackle, but they often have a tendency to leave your flick shorter then average. Whilst other players prefer a bulkier pusher, they usually move slower through the water but are ideal for blocking a puck and knowing it down if it is flying through the water, and then sending it away with the large flick the bulkier pushers often provide. Essentially the shape and style of the pusher is purely down to the player's preference and style of play.

As with all this equipment the deciding factor in what a player uses is what they are comfortable with, the most important point is the player can use their own equipment happily without any problems. It's better to have a piece of equipment that might not be as good but you can use and control frequently, and reliably then a piece of equipment that you constantly have to adjust and fiddle with or even injures you.

Other important equipment is the protective gear. These are hats, which have ear defenders and are also coloured (blue/black and white) so that players can tell who and where their team mates are. Gloves are also an important piece of equipment, each play should wear a glove on the hand they hold the pusher in as it protects their fingers from the puck or other pushers when going into tackles. Remember the puck is a heavy weight so may crush your fingers if you are not careful. Gloves also protect your fingers from any object or lose tiles on the pool bottom surface, as while pushing the puck along means your fingers will be rubbing against the floor.

Other non-essential bits of equipment include fin grips, these are just straps of rubber that help hold the fins on your foot, they are not essential but some people find them useful if their fins have a tendency of falling off. An old pair of socks is also a fantastic piece of equipment, they provide a bit of padding in your foot from the fins and help prevent them from rubbing if that is a problem - they can also be used to make the fins fit better if you find they are a fraction too big. Old socks are a great piece of kit to keep handy especially if you are borrowing club fins as you never know how they will fit.

History of Octopush

Octopush was founded in 1954 in the south of England by a diver who invented it to keep the members of the new diving club together over the winter while it was too cold to dive in the sea. The sport started with 8 players per team pushing the puck (hence the name octo-push) which at the time was an uncoated lead puck into the gullys (originally named cuttles). The following year the first tournament was held with 3 teams entering. The sport has been growing worldwide ever since with World Championships being hosted every two years and now up to 44 teams entering.

History of the Club

The club was founded in 2006 by Jodie Davies who was starting her first year of her PhD at the university. Jodie was first introduced to Octopush at Bangor University where she graduated and has been hooked on the sport ever since. The first year of the club was very successful with a lot of very keen new members, almost all having no prior experience in Octopush. The club was built upon a very friendly welcoming community which are always open to new and experienced players with an aim to spread the knowledge of Octopush and making it more widely available and still produce a strong competitive side. Since the first year the club has accelerated forward, with new members, entering two teams into a new Octopush league and also improving our position in the 2008 Student Nationals. The club aims to continue moving forward maintaining it's friendly and welcoming atmosphere.

In 2008, Jodie Davies and Kevin Whitworth set up the York Octopush club, which is primarily aimed at junior members to make Octopush more available to under 16's in York. The junior club and University club work very closely together. They share experience, equipment and pool time, with members of the University club frequently helping to train the junior club. Having both clubs working closely along side each other enables young players to progress from the junior club to a senior club as they get older (or by ability if seen as appropriate).