Hockey is a very popular, fun, fast and skillful team game. It is a stick and ball game with origins dating back thousands of years. It was traditionally played on grass, but is now increasingly played on synthetic surfaces. In a game of hockey, two teams of players compete against each other. There are up to 16 players in a team but only 11 (8 in junior hockey including a goalie) can be on the pitch at the same time. The remaining 5 players are the substitutes and they can be swapped in throughout the game.