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The Game of Hockey

ISSUE 00110 AUG 2026WINDSOR, NS44°59′N 64°08′W

Index

Route index

Field manual · route map

Hockey Pitch: The Field Hockey Playing Surface

A hockey pitch is a rectangle of turf or grass, 91.40 by 55.00 metres, marked out in 75 mm white lines, with a shooting circle at each end and a goal centred on each back-line. Everything else — the surface under it, the paint on it and the equipment at the ends of it — follows from those four facts.

Field hockey, not ice hockey. If you came looking for a rink, this is the wrong sport: the pitch below is roughly three and a half times the length of an NHL rink.

Length
91.40 m
Width
55.00 m
Line width
75 mm
Circle radius
14.63 m

Every dimension in full — this page keeps the short answer only.

The pitch, at proportion

Drawn from the current rules at true scale: one unit of this drawing is one metre on the ground, and the painted lines are 75 mm here as well.

A full-size field hockey pitch seen from above A 91.40 by 55.00 metre rectangle with a centre line, two 22.90 metre lines, a shooting circle at each end formed from a 3.66 metre straight and quarter-circle arcs of 14.63 metres, penalty spots, external reference marks and a goal centred on each back-line.

Painted lines, 75 mm Recommended run-off

Where each subject is covered

Dimensions

Every measurement, in metres and yards

How long a hockey pitch is, how wide, where the 22.90 m lines fall, how the circle is set out from the back-line, and how much room has to be left around the outside.

Markings

The diagram and the line-by-line specification

What each painted line is for, which of them are compulsory, and the order a groundskeeper sets them out in on a surface with nothing on it yet.

Surfaces

Water-based, sand-dressed and sand-filled

What actually differs between the turf types, what each demands in upkeep and irrigation, and what that means for how long a set of lines survives.

Goals

Goal, boards and net dimensions

The 3.66 m mouth, the 2.14 m crossbar height, the depth behind it, and how the boards and nets are fixed so the ball cannot rebound back into play.

The groundskeeper’s order of work

  1. Measure Establish the centre line and one back-line, then square the field from them.
  2. Set out String the perimeter, the 22.90 m lines and both circles before any paint is opened.
  3. Mark Paint to the line centres at 75 mm, working the perimeter first so crossings are already owned.
  4. Maintain Re-mark on the same string lines; drag and irrigate to the surface’s own schedule.

Working out how much paint that takes is a separate job: the paint estimate does the arithmetic from your own coverage figure.