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How can I get my midfielders' mentality right so they defend and attack in a game?

So I'm having trouble getting my young and inexperienced group of midfielders to flip the switch from defense to offense, and back, as we move up and down the field. They will often hang back and leave my forwards stranded rather than rush in to attack. Naturally, we are not scoring. Advice and drill ideas would be most welcome! J.G. Coach, Maryland USA

j gimpelCoach, United States of America

2 answers

Drills for attaching down the left

We seem to always have a player free wide on the left, but rarely use the space they are in. We need a drill for the midfield to get their heads up and turn to play the ball left.

Hockey CoachCoach

2 answers

Can you give me your ideas of a one test only assessment to split a large mixed ability group of players (20 to 60) into the right ability groups in less than 2 hours?

Here is one example I use.I put out this slalom as the test whenever confronted with a large group of mixed ability players that need to be put into equal ability groups to play a game or to be coached. The slalom incorporates lots of the aspects of the techniques required by the individual players to play the game of hockey. I.e. running with the ball, fast and controlled, changing direction with the ball pivoting, stopping the ball etc.I normally set up 2 - 4 identical slaloms, see attachment, and have 4 coaches or helpers with a stopwatch (mobile phones are great for this).To record the score I normally put a label on the stick of each player so they can write down their time. Once all players have recorded a time, ask the players to stand in time order on the sideline. Once the players are in order you can put the 10 fastest times to play a 5 aside game across 23 meter area and the next 10 in the next 23 meter area and so on up to 40 players playing on one full pitch. The last few changes you might now need to make are the players that perform better or weaker on any particular pitch (should not be to many).

Bram van Asselt, England

2 answers

I've never coached hockey - where do I start?

I am a new coach to be. Never coached hockey. Where do I start?

Hockey CoachCoach

1 answer

How do I teach my players to "think" hockey?

How can I teach my team of u/12 girls to "see" hockey or rather think hockey? It's if they can"t read hockey and are thinking with "netball brains" instead of hockey brains. I don't know if it makes sense to someone but it is very frustrating. I can teach them skills and practice practice practice but the moment they play a game they forget everything and can't seem to know what to do. Hope it makes sense for somebody.

carien Coach, South Africa

3 answers

Tournament prep -building fitness.

I have just returned from coaching my first high school hockey tournament. It was great fun but the girls really felt it by the end of the tournament. I want to offer guidance in the form of a fitness build up to the girls for next season but am not sure what my expectations should be. How fit should you be looking to get if you are preparing to play 7 50min games over 5 days? And what types of fitness should I be suggesting? Sprinting and Intervals along with Swimming are things I feel that could be introduced. Ideally it needs to be accessable (not expensive or require special equipment), self managed (to an extent) and let it fit in with their daily rountine as best possible to give them the best chance to commit (i.e. I feel like suggesting they power walk to school rather than get dropped off will work better than asking them to join a gym to do the pelaton classes) Any ideas? Or things that have worked in the past?

Hockey CoachCoach

3 answers

Ideas for sessions to teach skills and game awareness?

as a new coach am looking for a plan of 10 sessions to coach a new team giving progression of skills and some game awarenessâ¦is there such a scheme?

Teresa SmithCoach, England

1 answer

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