The University of Edinburgh hosts a vibrant and diverse array of sports clubs, spanning activities from archery to wakeboarding. Yet, among this extensive list, one of the most unique and niche clubs is Underwater Hockey (UWH), also known as Octopush. To learn more about this unusual sport and how students can get involved, The Student spoke with the club’s current president, Andrew McGinty, and treasurer, Richard Benney.
Despite only a few ever hearing about UWH, it is a globally recognised sport and is governed by the British Octopush Association. When asked to explain the rules, Andrew said that “it’s literally like you translated hockey onto the bottom of a swimming pool.” UWH is played along a flat pool that is (normally) two metres deep, with a puck that is weighted with lead to ensure that it does not float and is always along the bottom of the pool.
With regards to equipment, players use fins, a snorkel, and an UWH stick – this makes breath control and breathing incredibly important to the sport. According to Andrew and Richard’s explanation, each team typically consists of 10 players, with 6 of them in the water at any given moment. The game, consisting of 15-minute halves, involves rolling substitutions.
The club meets every Wednesday at 7:30 PM at the Dalry Swim Centre for a training session that lasts just over an hour but also organises socials that happen roughly every two weeks. This relaxed nature of the club tends to appeal to members of other sports that may have had “toxic competitive environments,” as described by Richard; he continues by saying that the club consists of “a lot of ex-swimmers who enjoy the casualness of the club.” Andrew also added to this by saying that UWH “is probably one of the most casual in the sports union.”
The two biggest events on the calendar are undoubtedly the Gowlands Cup and the student nationals hosted in January and February, respectively. Andrew described these two events as “one of the best bits of [the club’s] calendar,” with the weekend consisting of an intense day of competition, and a night out in cities like Aberdeen and Leeds. There are no trials for the competition and the club will bring everyone who applies. When asked what the biggest benefit of these competitions is, both Richard and Andrew agreed it was the amount of confidence members of their club gained from going to these events.
Andrew explained that as “UWH is such a strange, intimidating-looking sport, it’s easy to ask yourself, ‘Can I really do this?’… But when you bring new players to a competition, they play with so many teams that they effectively pack ten training sessions into one day and then you come back with such an improvement and … so much confidence.”
To get involved with their club, you can reach out to them through their email on the Sports Union website, or contact them through their social media (@edinburghuniuwh on Instagram). When asked what is required for a training session, Andrew made clear that all equipment besides a swimsuit is provided by the club; however, he did want to emphasise “that you don’t have to be able to swim well but you do need to be able to swim.”
Finally, when Richard was asked what they would say to prospective students who were considering giving UWH a try, he said that you should “try it once, just for the novelty of it, and say that you’ve done it and see whether you like it.”
Image By Niyah Lawrence