Box hockey facts for kids

Box hockey is an active hand game played between two people with sticks, a puck and a compartmented box (typically 5–8 feet or 1.5–2.4 meters long), and typically played outdoors. The object of the game is to move a hockey puck through the center dividers, of the box, out through a hole placed at each end of the box, also known as the goal. The two players face one another on either side of the box, and each attempts to move the puck to their left. If a player succeeds in getting the puck to exit the box through the goal, the player scores one point (or goal). The first player to score the predetermined number of goals wins the game.

Modern rules

• To start the game (and after each goal), the puck is placed under the center mouse hole. Each player raps the bottom of the box with his hockey stick and then taps his opponent's blade, repeating this three times. After the third tap, both players can go after the puck and play begins.
• Each player hits the puck with his hockey stick blade, attempting to move the puck through the holes to his left (see diagram) and out the hole at the end of the box (the goal).
• In addition to advancing the puck towards his own goal, each player can use his blade to block his opponent's progress or to steal the puck.
• It is legal to use the blade to block the goal from either inside or outside of the box.
• When a player succeeds in getting the puck to exit the box through the goal, the player scores one point.
• The first player to score 11 points wins the game.

Traditional rules

Box Hockey in the streets of Philadelphia 1930

• Each player stands on opposite sides of the box. Your goal is to the right as you face the box, and your opponent's goal is to the left.
• To start, and after each goal, the puck placed flat, centered, on top of middle wall for the face off. Each player taps the bottom of their side of the box with their stick and then raises it to tap their opponent's stick directly above the puck in rhythm, repeating this three times. After the third tap, both players try to knock the puck off the wall.
• Each player takes turns with two hits, and whichever side of the center wall the puck lands on determines who goes first. The player with the furthest distance to score goes first.
• Each player hits the puck with their stick, moving the puck through the holes to their left (see diagram) and through goal.
• To score, you must get the puck completely through your opponent's goal.
• Interfering with your opponent is not allowed.
• The dragging or carrying of the puck is not allowed.
• Pinning the puck in the corner is allowed.
• The first player to score 3 goals wins the game.
• "McPherson's Rules", also occasionally utilized at the "Waterworks" do not prohibit interference, but in fact, encourage it. Speed and interference are tantamount to finesse and aptitude while eliminating any need for prohibition of "dragging".

Modern equipment

The equipment needed to play the game is as follows:

1. Box. Approximately 8 ft long by 3.3 ft wide by 1 ft high (2.4 m × 1.0 m × 0.30 m) constructed with a plywood bottom and three plywood dividers (to create four sections in the box). Each divider has one or more "mouse holes" that are slightly wider than the puck.
2. Two hockey sticks, shortened. Each player uses one floor hockey stick (plastic) whose shaft has been shortened to 12–18 inches (30–46 cm).
3. One hockey puck. A floor hockey puck (plastic, hollow) is the best type of puck to be used in box hockey.

Traditional equipment

The equipment needed to play the game is as follows:

1. Box. Approximately 5 ft long by 2 ft wide by 4 in high (1.5 m × 61 cm × 10 cm), constructed like a suitcase with a plywood bottom and four wood sides, with two 1-inch-tall-by-2-inch-wide (25 mm × 51 mm) portals in the middle hinged divide and one portal, 1 inch tall by 2 inches wide, at centered on each end.
2. Two sticks. Each player uses one stick (wood) 3⁄4 inch thick, 1 inch wide and 24 inches long (19 mm × 25 mm × 610 mm).
3. One puck. Wood 1+1⁄2 inches in diameter and 3⁄4 inch thick (38 mm × 19 mm)

• Ella Gardner. Handbook for Recreation Leaders. Fredonia Books, 2002. ; pp. 46–47
• George Butler. Recreation Areas, Their Design and Equipment: Their Design and Equipment. National Recreation Association, A.S. Barnes, 1947; p. 75

Images for kids

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  Four-player box hockey being played in Miami, 1935