At What Age Should Girls Retire From Playing Field Hockey?

What is the proper age at which women should retire from field hockey? Is it 65 or 62?  It hardly seems necessary to suggest a retirement age for women, as the vast majority seem to reach that decision on their own by age 22, if not sooner.

Men who play the sport seem to have failed to buy into the field hockey retirement concept.

Is it a perceptual thing or do boys who play field hockey tend to stay with the sport way after age 22?  Have you noticed that a very high percentage of the boys who pick up a stick at an early age continue to not only continue to play in their thirties, forties, and fifties, and beyond; they also coach, umpire, and generally stay healthy their entire lives?  Being active in the sport seems to be their passion.

How is it these guys find a way to continue to stay active?  What are the reasons people stop playing field hockey?  Wouldn't those same reasons cause boys to put their sticks in the back of the closet?

What percentage of boys holding a field hockey stick at age sixteen will still hold a stick at age forty? It turns out that close to 40% of males continue to play into their 40s and beyond.  How many of the thousands of girls put their stick down when they graduate from high school? How many continue to play after college?

Perhaps it only seems this way.  Maybe the percentage of guys playing beyond age 22 is an illusion.

It probably isn't.  Possibly the fact that males have to struggle to find a way into the sport in the USA teaches them about tenacity.  When you have to overcome obstacles to get something you are less likely to just let go of your grip.  In the United States boys playing field hockey teaches life lessons.  

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of amazing women who play, coach, umpire long after age 22, but more could stay in the sport than do.  The percentage of those who will never pick up a stick or blow a whistle is sad.  It is a loss for the sport and a loss of the personal value of play in an individuals life. 

How is it that some families and some individuals find the passion to continue doing what they love? For some people, men and women alike, there is value in not ever retiring. You retire from a job, not from a passion.

Join USA Field Hockey and spread the game, share the fun of social hockey, competitive hockey,

umpiring, coaching, organizing, and running around a field waving a curved stick.  Do you know that
when you play hockey for an hour, whether your are playing indoor or outdoors, you don't have to look to see how far you have gone on a treadmill? The miles turn out to be about the same, just a lot less boring.  Imagine how much money you could save if you didn't have to pay for gym or yoga sessions? 

You don't have to be a girl to play field hockey.  You don't have to be a man to play field hockey after age 22.  Play hockey for life and you will have a happy healthy life.



Read More: The 84 Year old Woman and the 86 Year old Man who played Field Hockey