Field Hockey: stick skills

What's your favourite field hockey drill?

Individual drills for players to do outside of team training times to improve their ball feel and control etc.

Which stick brand is your favourite? How's Malik? I'm looking for a new stick

What are the best conditioning skills to practice with a junior high team? (12-14 yrs) We are limited the first few days to indoor practices in a small space. They are not in shape, so we are starting from scratch. Our first game is in 3 1/2 weeks.

Hi all,I've got my level 2 assessment coming up on Sunday and I just wanted to quickly check whether there's a 'recommended' structure to the session plan.Btw, this is a level 2 practical assessment and is with juniors (U14s).One coach has suggested a 3 part approach:1) techniques and skills required2) unopposed 3) opposedThe theme I'm choosing, which is a bit of a generic one, is defending in a channel (as I'm a defender and it's pretty straight forward).I'm not really looking for info on what exactly to include (i.e. theme specific) but rather general structure or whether E.H. have an approved structure to sessions?My session's on Sunday, so a quick reply would be awesome.Thanks,Gary

How can I help my u/12 girls to attack? At the moment they are running beside the opponent but not attacking the players.

At home, inside my small basement, I don't have a huge space to practice field hockey. I have cones, an equipment ladder (for agility), and a rebounding board. I have basically been practicing dribbling, passing against the rebounding board, and dodging "defenders" (cones). After a little while, I run out of creativity for drills, and I feel that I may not be getting the most out of practicing. Do you have any drills that will improve my ball skills greatly that are okay for one person?

Why wont this session open for me when i log in its not there ??

Any idea's on new pre game drills? We are now playing the '5' just passing and the last one shoots, but after a few months it got bored. So looking for new drills! Any suggestions?

Hi all, after "volunteering" at the last minute to coach last season, I'm looking forward to coaching again this season but would like to be a bit more organised starting the season. Last season I used drills from here (thank you contributors) and put together a practice plan each week addressing what I thought were our weakness from the game just played. This got us through the season, we were promoted after grading and finished the season in the top 4 playoffs for our grade.I wonder if there is some kind of guide to putting a more coherent training plan together for the season.I'm coaching a boys secondary school team, aged 12-18. What kind of skills should they have mastered?What should they be attempting, working towards mastering (individually and as a team)?I last played as a collage boy on grass fields, the change to turf pitches has obviously obsoleted (along with age) much of what I knew as a player.Any pointers appreciated.David

Hi,I perhaps naively, expected to have most of our team from last year carry over and only have a few new comers to integrate and get up to speed with the rest. However meeting the team at our first practice last night i find I have five players still at school from last year and the rest all new comers, most of whom had not held a hockey stick at all till practice.This being only my second season coaching (year 9 to year 13 boys) has left me feeling a little blindsided, and feeling quite unsure how to prepare practices that target both groups of boys. Do i lump them both groups together, keep them separate? What drills/exercises to best bring the new comers up to speed.I don't want to neglect either group, keep practice worthwhile for the experienced boys, but also bringing the new comers up to a level were they can mix in with the others and learn organically from them while practicing as a team. David

I'm new to coaching and i'm coaching a team that barely knows how to even hold a stick properly. Where can i start with improving there skills and hockey kowledge ?

Hello! We are looking for good drills for our new U14 team evaluation practices. We will have three practices of evaluations before team placements and want to make sure we measure conditioning, stick skills, field sense, shooting, position knowledge, etc. Any drills you may have could you send them my way, I would greatly appreciate it! - Kelly, Maximum Velocity Field Hockey Club Director

Does anyone have good drills for players to progress their individual ball skills and stickwork from medium to advanced

Share your top tips on how to move faster with the ball in a game, in preparation for the upcoming season!

tackle how to approach the person in control of the ball

Hi,I perhaps naively, expected to have most of our team from last year carry over and only have a few new comers to integrate and get up to speed with the rest. However meeting the team at our first practice last night i find I have five players still at school from last year and the rest all new comers, most of whom had not held a hockey stick at all till practice.This being only my second season coaching (year 9 to year 13 boys) has left me feeling a little blindsided, and feeling quite unsure how to prepare practices that target both groups of boys. Do i lump them both groups together, keep them separate? What drills/exercises to best bring the new comers up to speed.I don't want to neglect either group, keep practice worthwhile for the experienced boys, but also bringing the new comers up to a level were they can mix in with the others and learn organically from them while practicing as a team. David