There are still some people in the Ice hockey world who do not believe that skater hockey is good for Ice hockey players. That some how, skater hockey teaches ‘bad habits’, that playing skater hockey somehow makes you less prepared for the ice game - What a load of Rubbish!

I assume that you are an Ice player and take your sport seriously. So, take skater hockey seriously, and you too could improve your game. Look at some of the better players playing ice hockey. The chances are, they have got good by playing skater hockey. Many of the current Oxford stars Senior team started out playing skater hockey- many for the Oxford Blues.

Ice time.
As an Oxford ice player you probably get 1 hour, maybe two, of training and 20- minute of game time a week. That’s just not enough. If you use our facilities, you could have 2,3 or more additional hours of quality training. Turn up to wheatley park on a Saturday evening and get another two hours of tough scrimmaging – for £2.50!

Oxford Blues would like to help the Oxford Ice teams. We want you to come and train with us. All we ask is that you join the club and behave responsibly and enthusiastically. There is no commitment to play league matches if you don’t want to.

Sport halls
We use sports halls that are available all week round at a fraction of the cost of an ice rink. Wheatley park, Marston Ferry, Blackbird lees all have excellent surfaces for our sport and have hockey markings and goals for our use.They have good spectator facilities and a 'spectator friendly' environment.

Skater Hockey vs IceHockey
Skater hockey is normally played with a ball instead of a puck (although there are die-hards who insist on playing with a highly modified plastic puck in sports halls – sad so and so’s!) . The ball is slightly lighter and faster than a puck. It is also bright orange! Once you get over that, you find that fancy stick handling is easier and more controllable with a ball. The ball is easier to lift off the rink, and tends to encourage play at faster speeds.

Inline skates are not that different from ice skates, except that they have a lot of sideways grip at all angles to the floor. Ice skates have sideways grip only when the edges dig in. Inline skates have grip all the time. This makes stopping relatively difficult on wheels. The roller blade stop is a much more wide legged affair, with the weight on the outside leg rather than on the inner, but once mastered is just effective as an ice stop. Roller blades tend to have grip all the time and have a smoother, rubbery, feel – like the difference between solid and pneumatic tyres.

Skater hockey is played in sports halls, that are smaller than a typical ice rink. Because of this, skater hockey is played with four outfield players instead of 5, it has no offside rule and no icing rule. The lack of an offside rule makes attacking team plays more straight forward and effective. Compared to ice rules, this makes the players play more as a team rather than individuals.

Skater hockey has the same rules about contact as ice, but they are more strictly enforced. In practice, this means that most checking that would not get called in ice hockey, gets called in roller hockey. Skater hockey therefore has less violent checking than ice hockey – same rules, different refereeing, less violence.

I had a discussion with an ice hockey parent about how hot roller players get and how dangerous this must be. Its true that roller hockey players get very hot, sweat a lot and need more re-hydration than on ice. But this isn’t a big deal. Roller hockey is not played inside during the summer months. No one has ever suffered heat stroke playing roller hockey, and if you’re not getting hot playing ice hockey, then you are not working hard enough!