Many countries have extensive club competitions for junior and senior players.
Despite the large number of participants—hockey is thought to be the field team sport with the second-largest number of participants worldwide (the first being football)—club hockey is not a large spectator sport and few players play as full-time professionals.
Areas referred to as the circles are marked inside the field around the goals and opposite the centres of the backlines.
When taking a short corner a female player must strike the first shot.
If at any point there are more than 5 outfield players of one gender the umpire can abandon the game and reward a 5-0 victory for the team not breaching the rules.