In the early years of the GAA, there was no specific standard for the size or weight of sliotars. The man credited with initial standardisation of the sliotar is Ned Treston (1862–1949) of Gort, County Galway. He was selected to play in a match between South Galway and North Tipperary in February 1886 in Dublin. Prior the game, there was debate between the teams as regards the size of the sliotar. Treston made a sliotar at a nearby saddler, which was used in the game, and went on to be a prototype for subsequent sliotars. [8] The GAA Smart Sliotar project aims to ensure that approved Sliotar Licensees adhere to the Sliotar specifications set out in the GAA Official Guide and that approved sliotars perform on a consistent basis. The ball, known as a sliotar, has a cork centre and a leather cover; it is between 69 and 72mm (2.7 and 2.8in) in diameter, and weighs between 110 and 120g (3.9 and 4.2oz)

Leather Game Sliotars - These balls come in two different sizes; size five is used by men and size four by women (Camogie players) and kids.Northern California College Hurling Final 2009, archived from the original on 30 October 2021 , retrieved 22 August 2019 Soft Touch Soft Sliotars - These balls are more delicate and have a light weight. These are size 4 balls used by children up to 12 years of age and are used to develop better catching skills. Camogie-Hurling Rule Differences 2018-2021 (PDF). camogie.ie (Report). Camogie Association. September 2018. p.2 . Retrieved 2 September 2019.

But even at club level, if you want to be the best you can be then you have to start with your visual system and get that up to scratch. Everything else is secondary to that. If many players are struggling for the ball and no side is able to capitalize or gain control of it the referee may choose to throw the ball in between two opposing players. This is also known as a "throw in". No more than in pool where they added spots and stripes to balls to make it easier for those with colour-blindedness to identify the balls.” After a player has committed a foul, the other team may take a 'free' at the point where the foul was committed. It must be taken by lifting and striking in the same style as the "65".The officially approved yellow sliotars are identical in composition, size, and weight as the officially approved white sliotars produced by the same suppliers which have been used in the All-Ireland Championship in recent years.

From 1 January 2010, the wearing of helmets with faceguards became compulsory for hurlers at all levels. This saw senior players follow the regulations already introduced in 2009 at minor and under 21 grades. The GAA hopes to significantly reduce the number of injuries by introducing the compulsory wearing of helmets with full faceguards, both in training and matches. Hurlers of all ages, including those at nursery clubs when holding a hurley in their hand, must wear a helmet and faceguard at all times. Match officials will be obliged to stop play if any player at any level appears on the field of play without the necessary standard of equipment. [10] Duration, extra time, replays [ edit ] In fact, the subject matter of her Masters of Philosophy in Sports Vision was ‘The visual skills of Gaelic Footballers’. From a hurling performance perspective, it was critical that the NFC tag was so small it would not interfere with the playability and performance of the ball. For the manufacturer, it had to survive the process of the polyurethane mix expanding under high heat and pressure in the sliotar mould, while still staying beneath the surface. For the GAA, the tag had to still be readable after multiple high impact usage. It's exactly the same for hurling and camogie. Tennis and camogie are very comparable when you compare the size of the ball and the conditions they play in. Keenan, Robert Anthony; Riogh, Aisling Nic An; Fuentes, Adrian; Daly, Padraig; Cullen, Ivor M. (19 January 2019). "The dangers of hurling—genital injuries arising in the modern game". Irish Journal of Medical Science. 188 (3): 1087–1091. doi: 10.1007/s11845-019-01969-x. ISSN 0021-1265. PMID 30661175. S2CID 58609483.

Humphries, Tom. "Kilkenny Hurling". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 24 October 2012 . Retrieved 20 February 2020. Which suggests that if you're colour-blind it makes it much harder to reach the level required to be an inter-county footballer. Sometimes that might only show up when someone is dehydrated or under stress, under normal conditions they might be fine. But during a thorough sports vision assessment you can see if they have any underlying problems that could make a difference between performing to their best and under-performing. King, Seamus J. (1998). The Clash of the Ash in Foreign Fields: Hurling Abroad. pp.139–140. ISBN 978-0-9533513-0-5.

Hurling is administered by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). It is played throughout the world [ citation needed] and is a fixture of life in many parts of Ireland. Hurling has some popularity among members of the Irish diaspora in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Dubai and Argentina. [1] It has featured regularly in art forms such as film, music and literature. The final of the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship was listed in second place by CNN in its "10 sporting events you have to see live", after the Olympic Games and ahead of both the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championship. [2] After covering the 1959 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final between Kilkenny and Waterford for BBC Television, English football commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme was moved to describe hurling as his second favourite sport in the world. [3] Alex Ferguson used footage of an All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship final in an attempt to motivate his players during his time as manager of Premier League football club Manchester United. The players winced at the standard of physicality and intensity in which the hurlers engaged. [4] In 2007, Forbes magazine described the media attention and population multiplication of Thurles town ahead of one of the game's annual provincial hurling finals as being "the rough equivalent of 30 million Americans watching a regional lacrosse game". [1] Financial Times columnist Simon Kuper wrote after Stephen Bennett's performance in the 2020 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final that hurling was "the best sport ever and if the Irish had colonised the world, nobody would ever have heard of football". [5] The earliest existing sliotars were uncovered by the Queen's University Belfast's carbon-dating centre. Through their expert analysis and extensive research, an 800-year-old ball consisting ofmatted cow hair with a plaited horsehair covering was discovered and is now housed in the nation's museums under an exhibition titled: 'Hair Hurling Balls: Earliest Artefacts of Our National Game.’ There are three additional Smart Sliotar licensees which have passed the sliotar specification tests and are available for the U20 and Minor Inter-County Hurling Championships, in addition to Green Fields and O’Neills - From RTÉ Archives, Kilkenny's Eddie Keher shows some young stars of the future the art of lifting the ball in the Skills of Hurling series from 1976

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In speech, a score consisting of at least one goal and one point is read as simply the two numbers, so Tipperary's 2–13 is read "two thirteen"; the words "goals" and "points" invariably omitted. Goals are never "converted" into points; it is incorrect to describe a score of 2–13 as "nineteen". 2–0 would be referred to as "two goals", never "two zero". Likewise, 0–10 would be referred to as "ten points", never "zero ten". 0–0 is said "no score". So the Clare/Tipperary match score would be read as "Clare twenty points, Tipperary two thirteen".