Bandy is played eleven a side with a ball and curved sticks, on an ice field roughly the size of a football pitch.
That size is the whole story. Where ice hockey squeezes six players into a rink and changes them every forty seconds, bandy spreads eleven over an area seven times larger.
The result is a sport whose positions are named and organised like football, played on skates.
- The Goalkeeper plays without a stick and blocks the ball with the hands and body.
- Defenders hold the area in front of the penalty area and clear the long ball.
- Halfbacks cover the middle of the ice and are the fittest skaters in the team.
- Forwards stay high and finish the long passes that come out of defence.
- There are no offside restrictions in most bandy rule sets in the way football has them, but a free stroke system shapes where players stand.
#1 Goalkeeper
The bandy goalkeeper plays without a stick, using padded gloves, leg guards and the body to stop a ball that is smaller and faster than a football. The goal is wider and lower than a football goal, which pushes the keeper into a crouched, spread position.
Distribution matters more than in almost any other winter sport, because the ice is so large. A keeper who can throw the ball forty metres to a halfback launches an attack before the opposition has stopped skating in the other direction.
Key Characteristics or Skills:
- Blocking with the body and gloves rather than a stick.
- Covering a wide, low goal.
- A long, accurate throw to start the counter.
- Skating well enough to leave the goal and cut out a through ball.
#2 Defender
Bandy usually fields two or three defenders in front of the goalkeeper. They mark the opposition forwards, block the shooting lanes into the penalty area and clear the ball long when the pressure comes.
The corner is where defenders earn their place. A bandy corner sends the ball to the edge of the penalty area for a shot, and defenders must line up on the goal line and skate out to block, which is one of the most physical passages in the sport.
Key Characteristics or Skills:
- Backwards skating at speed on a very large surface.
- A long clearing hit off both sides of the stick.
- Defending corners, which are the main scoring threat.
- Positioning rather than tackling, since the ice does not allow recovery.
#3 Halfback
The halfbacks are bandy’s midfield, usually three or four players covering the widest part of the ice. They win the ball back, carry it forward and are expected to arrive in both penalty areas within the same attack.
Nobody in team sport skates further. Bandy has no line changes as ice hockey knows them and the halves are forty five minutes long, so a halfback covers a distance closer to a football midfielder than a hockey forward, at skating speed.
Key Characteristics or Skills:
- Endurance over two forty five minute halves.
- Passing over long distances on a moving surface.
- Winning the ball without committing a foul that gives a free stroke.
- Reading when to join the attack and when to hold.
#4 Forward
The forwards stay high up the ice and finish. Because the field is so large, they are often left alone against the last defender, and the pass that finds them is usually a long one from a halfback or the goalkeeper.
Shooting technique is specific to the sport. A bandy ball is small and hard and the goal is low, so forwards shoot along the ice more often than they lift it, and the most common goal in the sport is a first time strike from the edge of the penalty area.
Key Characteristics or Skills:
- First time finishing along the ice.
- Acceleration away from a defender over twenty metres.
- Holding position for the long pass rather than dropping deep.
- Corner routines, which produce a large share of bandy goals.
Bandy Compared With Ice Hockey
The two sports look similar on television and are organised completely differently. The size of the playing surface explains almost every difference in the positions.
| Element | Bandy | Ice hockey |
|---|---|---|
| Players | Eleven a side | Six a side |
| Surface | About the size of a football pitch | A rink roughly a third of that |
| Object | A small hard ball | A puck |
| Positions | Goalkeeper, defenders, halfbacks, forwards | Goaltender, defencemen, centre, wingers |
| Match length | Two halves of forty five minutes | Three periods of twenty minutes |
| Substitution | Rolling substitutions, but no constant line changes | Whole lines changed every forty seconds |
| Boards | A low border to stop the ball, no body checking into it | High boards, checking is part of the game |
The football style structure is not a coincidence. Bandy and association football developed side by side in the nineteenth century, and bandy kept the eleven a side shape when it moved onto ice.
Hybrid Positions
Sweeper
A defender who plays behind the others rather than marking an opponent, covering the space the long ball is aimed at.
Corner Specialist
A player who takes every corner. Corners are the biggest single source of goals in bandy, so the role is a genuine specialism.
Rink Bandy Positions
Rink bandy is played six a side on an ice hockey rink. The halfback line disappears and the positions collapse into defenders and forwards.
Bandy is the missing link between football and ice hockey, and comparing the two ends of that line explains it best. See our guide to ice hockey positions and roles.
FAQ
What are the positions in bandy?
Bandy has a goalkeeper, defenders, halfbacks and forwards, arranged much like a football team. Eleven players from each side are on the ice, and the exact numbers in each line depend on the formation.
How is bandy different from ice hockey?
Bandy is played eleven a side with a ball on an ice field the size of a football pitch, in two halves of forty five minutes. Ice hockey is six a side with a puck on a much smaller rink, with constant line changes and body checking.
Does the bandy goalkeeper use a stick?
No. The bandy goalkeeper plays without a stick and stops the ball with padded gloves, leg guards and the body, which is one of the clearest differences from ice hockey.
Conclusion
Bandy takes the eleven a side football structure and puts it on ice the size of a football pitch.
The goalkeeper without a stick and the halfback line are the two things that mark it out from ice hockey immediately.
Distances are the reason for everything else: long passes, long clearances and forwards who stay high rather than drop deep.
Corners produce a large share of the goals, which makes defending them a position skill in its own right.
For a sport most of the world has never seen played, bandy has one of the most familiar position charts there is.
