Editing Field hockey (section)

====2009 experimental changes====
In February 2009 the FIH introduced, as a "Mandatory Experiment" for international competition, an updated version of the free-hit rule. The changes allows a player taking a free hit to pass the ball to themselves. Importantly, this is not a "play on" situation, but to the untrained eye it may appear to be. The player must play the ball any distance in two separate motions, before continuing as if it were a play-on situation. They may raise an aerial or overhead immediately as the second action, or any other stroke permitted by the rules of field hockey. At high-school level, this is called a self pass and was adopted in Pennsylvania in 2010 as a legal technique for putting the ball in play.

Also, all players (from both teams) must be at least 5&nbsp;m from any free hit awarded to the attack within the 23&nbsp;m area. The ball may not travel directly into the circle from a free hit to the attack within the 23 m area without first being touched by another player or being dribbled at least 5 m by a player making a "self-pass". These experimental rules apply to all free-hit situations, including sideline and corner hits. National associations may also choose to introduce these rules for their domestic competitions.<ref>{{Cite web |title=FIH-Rules of Hockey 2009 |url=https://www.fihockey.org/vsite/vfile/page/fileurl/0,11040,1181-195549-212772-148180-0-file,00.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240327055838/https://www.fihockey.org/vsite/vfile/page/fileurl/0,11040,1181-195549-212772-148180-0-file,00.pdf |archive-date=March 27, 2024 |access-date=February 27, 2025 |website=FIHockey.org}}</ref>