Octopush: How Underwater Hockey Works and How to Start Playing
Updated: 4 days ago
Picture ice hockey with the ice taken away and the whole game sunk to the floor of a swimming pool, with players holding their breath and using sticks the length of a ruler. That is underwater hockey, also known as Octopush, and despite how strange it sounds it is a real sport with national teams and a world championship run by CMAS, the world underwater federation. Octopush is the original British name from 1954, and it's still what most UK clubs call the game; everywhere else it's underwater hockey.
Key Takeaways
What it is: Underwater hockey (also called Octopush) is a six-a-side, limited-contact sport played on the floor of a swimming pool with a weighted puck and short sticks.
Breath, not lungs of steel: Players surface to breathe constantly, and a 2023 study found the average submersion lasts only around 9 to 12 seconds, so it rewards smart positioning over huge breath-holds.
A level playing field: It is genuinely mixed-sex at club level and rewards agility and teamwork over size and strength.
Cheap to start: A mask, snorkel, fins, a glove and a stick are all you need, and most clubs lend gear to newcomers.
Globally organised: The sport is run worldwide by CMAS, with world championships held every couple of years since 1980.
Easy to join, hard to leave: Clubs actively want new players and run taster sessions, and most people are hooked within a few goes.
Table of Contents
How to Play Underwater Hockey
Underwater Hockey Rules
Where the Name Octopush Comes From
Why Players Get Hooked
The Gear You Need to Start
How to Get Involved
Final Thoughts
Frequently Asked Questions
Underwater Hockey Quick Facts
First played: 18 November 1954, in Portsmouth, England.
Players: Up to ten per team, with six in the water at once.
Match length: Two 15-minute halves with a 3-minute break.
Governing body: CMAS (Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques).
First World Championship: Canada, 1980.
Sources: CMAS, Wikipedia: Underwater hockey
How to Play Underwater Hockey
Two teams of up to ten players face off, with six from each side in the water at any moment and the rest waiting to swap in. The aim is to push a weighted puck across the pool floor into the opposing team's goal, a three-metre metal trough at each end. A point starts with the puck in the centre and both teams touching the wall above their own goal, and a buzzer sends everyone in. Matches run as two 15-minute halves with a three-minute break, and substitutions roll on and off continuously, with the sin bin waiting for teams that put too many players in the water.
The defining catch is the breath. You hold it whenever you dive to the bottom, make your move, and surface to breathe while teammates take over, so good play looks like a relay of bodies dropping and rising. A puck can travel the length of the pool through five players without ever breaking the surface. It is a limited-contact sport by the rules, but a competitive match is genuinely hard on the lungs and legs.
Underwater Hockey Rules
Underwater hockey is played under the CMAS Rules of Play, the world federation's rulebook, now in version 13 from February 2025. National bodies such as Underwater Hockey Australia publish it for their players and run rules courses for new referees.
The basics of a match
Teams: Each team declares up to 10 players for a match, six in the water and four substitutes waiting in a marked substitution area.
Match length: Two 15-minute periods with a three-minute break, when the teams change ends. A drawn tournament match can go to overtime and then sudden death.
Starts and restarts: Players line up on their own end-line with at least one hand touching it, and the puck sits in the centre. Play restarts the same way after every goal.
The pool: Competition water is between 2 metres and 3.65 metres deep.
Fouls
Only the playing area of the stick may move the puck. The CMAS rulebook lists 24 infringements, and the ones newcomers run into most often are:
Handling the puck: touching or guiding it with either hand, including a finger or thumb.
Carrying the puck: lifting it or balancing it on the stick.
Obstruction: barging, blocking or shepherding an opponent who does not have the puck.
Holding: grabbing or holding another player.
Too many players: having more than six team members in the water during play.
Penalties
Referees in the water and on the deck match the penalty to the foul.
Advantage puck: the fouled team restarts with the puck while the other team retreats 3 metres, and it has five seconds to take possession.
Equal puck: a neutral restart that gives neither team an advantage.
Penalty shot: awarded when a foul inside the 3-metre goal area stops a likely goal.
Penalty goal: a goal awarded outright for serious fouls.
Time penalty: one, two or five minutes in the penalty box beside the timekeeper's table. The team plays short, because a substitute cannot replace the penalised player.
Dismissal: removal for the rest of the match for deliberate major fouls or repeated unsportsmanlike conduct, again with no replacement.
Referees can also let play continue when stopping it would hurt the fouled team, and they give a verbal caution for minor or accidental infringements.
Where the Name Octopush Comes From
The game was invented in Portsmouth, England, in 1954 by a diver named Alan Blake, who wanted to keep his sub-aqua club active through the cold winter months. He called it Octopush as a small joke, with eight players a side (the "octo") each carrying a short bat called a "pusher". The puck was a bare lead disc nicknamed the "squid" and the goal a "cuttle". Most of that vocabulary has faded, but "pusher" and "Octopush" survive, and Octopush is still the common name in the UK.
The sport spread through the 1950s and 60s to South Africa, Canada and Australia, and the first World Championship was held in Canada in 1980. Today it is governed worldwide by CMAS, with more than two dozen national federations and a World Championship held every couple of years.
Why Players Get Hooked
If you're picturing free-divers with enormous lungs, a 2023 study in Cureus should reassure you. The researchers measured dives from underwater video and found the average lasted about 12 seconds with the puck and 9 without. Earlier lab studies had simulated the sport with 45-second breath-holds, roughly four times as long as what players actually do. Underwater hockey is a breath-control game, not a lung-busting one, and most newcomers are surprised how quickly the breathing stops being the hard part.
It also rewards almost nobody for raw size. A lighter swimmer with good positioning and clever puck control will run rings around someone who is merely strong. That levelling effect is a big part of why the sport is so welcoming, because it's properly mixed-sex at club level, juniors start young, and plenty of people take it up in their forties because the water carries their weight. The other draw is the quiet, with no crowd noise and no whistle in your ear, just the muffled clack of pushers on the puck.
The Gear You Need to Start
One of the sport's best features is how cheap it is to begin, and you may already own half the kit if you swim. Almost every rule about the gear exists to stop someone getting hurt.
Mask, snorkel and fins: Use a low-volume diving mask with two separate lenses (the rules require this so a puck cannot punch through into your eye), a short wide-bore snorkel, and closed-heel fins. If you spend well on one thing, make it the fins.
A glove: Worn on your stick hand to protect your knuckles. It must contrast with your stick and must not be orange, which is reserved for referees, so blue is the safe pick.
The pusher (stick): Short, flat and coloured black or white for your team. It must fit inside a box of roughly 100 by 50 by 350 millimetres and be held in one hand.
A water polo cap and mouthguard: The cap protects your ears and marks your team, and the mouthguard protects your teeth. Both are mandatory under the rules.
Total outlay to look like you belong is less than a single pair of decent running shoes, and most clubs lend everything but swimwear for your first few sessions.
How to Get Involved
The one real hurdle is that you cannot teach yourself underwater hockey in your local pool, because it runs almost entirely through clubs that book pool time, usually in the evenings. The good news is that clubs actively want new players, since numbers keep them alive.
To find one, search "underwater hockey" plus your nearest city, or look up your national federation through CMAS, which lists affiliated bodies in most playing countries. We have pulled together a table below to help you get started. Email ahead and say you are new, and nearly every club will run a taster session and lend you gear. Then give it more than one go. The first session is mostly about learning to equalise your ears and clear your snorkel, but by the third or fourth something clicks.
In the UK, search "octopush" as well as "underwater hockey", because many clubs still use the old name, and GB Underwater Hockey's website hosts pages for clubs around the country.
Association Name | Country | Website |
CMAS | Global Governing Body | |
Underwater Hockey Australia (UHA) | Australia | |
British Octopush Association (BOA) | United Kingdom | |
Underwater Hockey New Zealand (UWHNZ) | New Zealand |
Final Thoughts
Underwater hockey is one of the most inclusive and inexpensive sports you can try, a fast, three-dimensional team game hidden just below the surface of your local pool. It asks for agility, teamwork and a little composure rather than size, strength or superhuman lungs, and it welcomes players of every age and gender on genuinely equal terms. If any of that appeals, your nearest club is probably more reachable than you think, and they would love to lend you a mask. For more games that sound invented but have real clubs and competitions, start with chess boxing or browse our unique and unusual sports.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: Is octopush the same as underwater hockey?
A: Yes. Octopush is the name the game's British inventors gave it in 1954, and it's still common in the UK; most other countries call it underwater hockey.
Q: Do you need to be a strong swimmer to play underwater hockey?
A: You need to be comfortable in the water and able to dive to the bottom of a pool, but you do not need to be a competitive swimmer. Confidence in the water matters more than speed, and the skills come with practice.
Q: How long do players hold their breath?
A: Less time than you would think. A 2023 study found the average submersion was around 9 to 12 seconds, because players constantly surface to breathe while teammates take over. It is a breath-control sport, not an extreme free-diving one.
Q: Is underwater hockey dangerous?
A: It is a limited-contact sport and injuries are usually minor, such as scratches or knocks. Mandatory gear like a two-lens mask, glove, mouthguard and ear-protecting cap exists to reduce risk, and referees monitor play closely.
Q: How much does it cost to start?
A: Very little. A mask, snorkel, fins, glove and stick cost less than a good pair of running shoes, and most clubs lend equipment to beginners so you can try before you buy.
Q: Where can I play underwater hockey?
A: Through a local club with pool time. Search for clubs in your area or find your national federation via CMAS. Most clubs welcome beginners and run introductory sessions.
