Octopush is a sport that is played in almost every English speaking country. It was started in 1950 when a group of sub-aqua divers decided that swimming up and down a pool was a boring way to keep fit. First they tried to push the puck along with their snorkels but this resulted in broken equipment. A puck is lead weights with a plastic covering and is a short cylinder about the size of a teenagers hand. Octopush has developed a lot since then and the Orkney club was started in 1991. I have been playing for three years.
             Usually, Octopush is played in a 25 metre pool with two teams and two goals. Equipment needed are flippers, mask, snorkel, hat, glove, bat and swimming gear. Most beginners start by pushing the puck along the bottom and that takes a long time to get to the oppositions goal. The bats are shaped so that it is possible to flick the puck through the water. This makes it possible to pass to someone a couple of metres away or to score a goal without having to swim right up to the goal. The object of the game is to get the puck into a gutter in the opposing goal.
             There are important rules to the game. No deliberate contact between players is allowed though this is quite hard to maintain in a game. When the puck is flicked it shouldn't go near another players head. If someone stopped a player from getting the puck when the were not in play e.g. standing on the puck, this is obstruction. The game has been humorously described by a journalist as "like a shark frenzy, only with less blood."
             Internationally, for example - New Zealand, they play in the sae, but luckily having a shark interrupt a game isn't a problem in Orkney.
             To play Octopush a person needs high fitness level and a high stamina, because having to keep playing for even 20 minutes can be quite tiring. Good Octopush players are usually fast swimmers but this isn't necessary to play Octopush. One girl in the Orkney club couldn&ap
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