What are the rules for taking a penalty corner?

Answer 1

A short corner or penalty corner occurs in Field Hockey. It is awarded for a foul inside the shooting circle or for a deliberate foul within the 23-metre line. The situation is very tactical and most teams will spend a long time practicing routines to try and score.

A short corner is played by having someone inject the ball from the correct line usually on the left side of the goal (looking at it) with a very forceful drag to a person on the top of the circle. The ball must pass outside of the circle before a goal can be scored. After the ball is in the right position a team might try a number of strategies including drag flicks, hard strikes, complicated passing routines and dummies to score.

When defending against one only 5 players (including the goalkeeper, if present) are allowed back and must remain behind the base line until the ball is hit. The defending players will usually wear additional defensive equipment such as face masks and thicker gloves for protection depending upon the role they play.

Certain rules applied during the corner are different from regular play, also.

If the first shot taken during a corner is a hit, then it may only enter the goal below the height of the backboard to be a legal goal. Flicks and deflections can get around this retriction, which is why they are often-practiced skills and also why those who can dragflick well score most often during corners.