Ice Hockey is a popular sport, and is as celebrated for its on-pitch fisty-cuffs as it is for its actual sporting merits. The sports antics have been immortalised on the silver screen in Slapshot, The Mighty Ducks and aspiringly at least, in Happy Gilmore. It is a game of passion, skill and ten tonnes of testosterone. Considering the history of ice skates, I consider ice hockey to be at odds with its past.

It seems to be a self-defeating strategy to purposefully have a penalty imposed on your team in ice hockey. After all, the punishments are designed to impair your team, 'rewarding' your bad behavior with reduced chances of winning.

However, sometimes a penalty in ice hockey, in Hong Kong and throughout the world, is actually a game-winning strategy.

Women's ice hockey is a sport of speed, endurance, and above all, toughness. The knocks, bumps and speed are legendary, and the skill on ice skates that is needed seems impossible if you have just discovered the joys of ice skating. However, a rare breed of females have helped make the sport the peak international competition that it is today - here we look back at where it all began, where it is now, and perhaps, where ice events like hockey are heading.

Ice hockey is an extremely popular sport in the US and Canada and its popularity is increasing in the UK too. There are an increasing number of ice rinks in the UK that are opening their doors to ice hockey teams enabling them to train and practice their skills. This means that more people are able to practice their skills and develop a love for the game that is similar to that that has gripped the US and Canada.

Ice skates were originally invented to help people save energy whilst they were hunting in harsh winter conditions. Early ice skates were made from the leg bones of horses, ox's and deer. The early versions of the skates were attached to the feet with leather straps and the people that wore them used a long pole with a sharp metal spike to help propel them along.

Ice hockey is a dangerous game. The surface of the ice is hard, the ice is full of players putting their full force into moving around the ice and the pucks can reach up to 100 mph when hit well and all of this is before a brawl kicks off. It is no wonder that there is a vast range of high quality ice hockey equipment that has been developed to secure the safety of ice hockey players.

Knowing the rules is especially important in hockey, because it is one of the few games in which players are provided with equipment that could injure an opponent. Both sticks and skates can be dangerous if players do not use them properly, as described in the rules. An understanding of the role of the referee is also an important component of the game.

Athletes for any sport cannot perform with his or her best without appropriate training. No matter how naturally gifted an athlete is at any game or sport, there is still an indispensable need to hone or improve those innate skills and acquire even more. Athletes for hockey are no different.

All the greatest players in the world underwent extensive training and incorporated their acquired skills with the talents they were endowed with.

The rinks are full of hockey players loaded with natural talent who know little and care less about being in top physical condition for their sport. They don't realize that you just cannot be a top hockey player unless you intelligently condition your body to the increasing demands you make on it.

About a month before the ice is ready, you should start on a daily exercise program that will improve your strength and stamina.

The game of ice hockey can get fierce and dangerous because you can get checked across the ice and even get into a fight and the refs allow it. Ice hockey is unlike any other winter sport. You glide across the ice on a pair of ice skates and try to hit a black puck that is heavy into a net.

Men and women play ice hockey along with teens and kids.