Page:Hockey, Canada's Royal Winter Game.djvu/49

 Hats are not needed if the hair is allowed to grow moderately long, in fact they are an unnecessary extra.

Gloves, thin enough to permit the player to retain a firm, sure grasp of his stick are used to prevent the hands from being cut on the rough ice, after a fall. It is advisable to wear shin guards and any other appliances that afford protection. Unless a player’s ankles are weak, or his boots too large, straps should not he used, because they are of no other value than to strengthen the ankles, which, with practice and well-fitting boots, do not, or should not need support.

The hockey stick is the requisite next in importance, but as it will be treated in chapter 4th no further mention of it will be made here.

2. Coolness, in hockey parlance, is the power and practice of taking time to think out a move. A player must be cool-headed to a degree that verges on slowness, because, so fast a game is hockey, that an expert player, an experienced team, should take advantage of every opportunity that the changing plays present, and this to do, even in the quickest rushes, the swiftest combinations, the fierest "mix-ups," it is necessary that one should remain as cool as the proverbial cucumber.