Hockey: 1 v 1 positional practice

The player with the ball starts on the half way line and has to try and go through the area with the defender in and have a shot at goal. The defender is only allowed to defend in the coned area.

The aim of the game is to try and score goals from about 2m out.

The length of the game is approximately 2-3 minutes long and starts on the first whistle and stopped on the second whistle.

When the game is stopped it is important that there is a winner on each pitch. In the case of a draw the winner is decided on the throw of a stick (flat or round). Once every pitch has a winner all the winners move up one pitch (so if the player is on pitch 6 he moves to pitch 5). The losers do the opposite, they move one pitch down. The winner on pitch 1 and the loser on the lowest pitch have nowhere to move so they stay on their pitches.

Once everyone has moved the game can start again.

Set out cones on lines creating lanes across or down the pitch, each lane approx 2m wide. The player with the ball runs diagonally across the lanes, while the defender has to try and get in front of the player with the ball. Whenever the defender gets into the same lane as the player with the ball, the player with the ball has to change direction and run diagonally across the lanes in the opposite direction. Once the players get to the end of the lanes, the roles reverse.

Two attackers run together at the same time with a ball each. Attackers can dribble through any of the three goals. The defender has to choose which player to tackle.