The federation comprises 32 provincial hockey associations, organised into 8 regions, which between them had 48,174 registered players in the 2013 winter season.

[4] Hockey in New Zealand started appearing during the early years of European settlement.

After that, many different associations were formed, and the earliest inter-club match recorded Kaiapoi Hockey Club beating Papanui Rovers 5-0 in 1895.

The Men's team participated for the first time in the Olympic Games in 1956 in Melbourne and ended on the 6th place.

In 1991, Auckland hosted the Olympic Qualifying Tournament for both men and women and counting 24 teams.

This was the largest tournament of its kind and both teams qualified for the Barcelona 1992 Olympics and both ended on the 8th place.