Field Hockey: coach

Hi all- I am 37 years old. I played field hockey for 3 years only (in high school). As you can imagine, I'm not very good/experienced. I was a competitive soccer player which made me good enough athletically to play field hockey but anyway, the point is: I never played field hockey at a high level.I now find myself in a head coaching position. (Long story-I did coach some field hockey some years ago and had a blast but it was a while back). Anyway, I have three assistant coaches who aren't much more experienced than I am. Our high school program is VERY weak and so nobody really steps up to coach there.Basically, my question is: what do I do? I have some girls who have played but not much. Then I have girls who literally don't know how to hold their stick and are quite I athletic. We barely have enough girls to field a team. As for drills, I'm trying to use this site but if you were in my position, what specifically would you be doing with these girls so they don't lose 7-0 every game? Right now, I'm focusing on body control and comfort with the ball- (we are playing possession and they are so uncomfortable they just hit the ball away because they don't have the skills to hold). Any help you can give is greatly appreciated!Brooke Asked using Sportplan Mobile App

I've been persuaded to coach a women's veterans side (+35). I haven't coached hockey before but have good experience coaching soccer at youth level. Any suggestions on a training plans? How close do soccer tactics align with hockey?Any help is welcomed.ThanksMichael

Do I have to have a degree or diploma to coach in schools?

is there any diploma course for becoming coach? if yes i want to know the details regarding location, duration,fee structure etc...

Anybody got any ideas on how to get 14-15 year old girls to treat a first time coach as a coach and not just a friend?

I have been intrigued by some anecdotes of a coach using tennis balls in a session “that did not pick up a stick for an hour”. It developed hand brain and eye co-ordination and went on to give the feel of the movement of shoulders and hips for the Indian dribble, or at least moving a ball in a figure of 8…anyone heard of this or am I the victim of a wind up? It sounded great and a novel way to ring some changes in a junior session.

My daughter plays U13 hockey in the position of right wing.She gets different advice from her school coach and her club coach.I want to make sure that she is getting the right advice as she is passionate about her hockey. Firstly, exactly what is the full function of a right wing at this level of hockey (she will be going to U15 club hockey and U14 school hockey next season) She has a good understanding of the game and appears to me to read it well (I only played school level many years ago and things change) When her team is in the offensive position in the “D” she mostly waits at goal post to deflect ball into goal.  She appears to not be involved.  Comments from spectators have been made as to why she just stands there. There is a very skilled player in her team who hits the ball EXTREMELY hard.  I believe that at this level of hockey these extremely hard hits/passes do not achieve anything, they just keep going out. However, please can you advise on how to stop and control these very hard passes (that is if one can get to them) in order to move on with the game. Lastly, can you send some drills/exercises to get her eye in as well as positioning her body correctly for goal shooting.  The “hard hitter” and my daughter seem to be the main goal shooters of the team. Many thanks Lynne

Hi I am a first timer coach, my team is u/11 year old girls. Some of the girls are first timers too.. how can I have a productive practice of one hour?

I am looking to add an assistant coach to my team. Will they be able to assist with creating coaching plans with this access, or do they have to have their own membership? We are trying to keep all of our videos and practice plans in a centralized profile, so it would be helpful if they coudl create from my profile as a team member.

Hi, I would like to change my account from coach to player as I selected the wrong one. How do I do this?

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 just became the head coach of a middle school field hockey team and would like some pointers on how to coach. I have experience with goal keeping and defensive drills, I was a keeper, so I would like to learn more about offense as well. Any help is appreciated!!

I really have a big problem with my u/15 girls.  They just can't play as a team. Any advice please. There's always a fight between someone. Mariette

I have taken over a club as head coach this year and inherited a captain. She is a good player but is not my ideal captain and is used to communicating almost exclusively by email. I had a successful meeting setting objectives for the 1st team last weekend and following that meeting received lots of feedback for how well it was received. My captain yesterday sent a long email about her thoughts on the meeting and where we are and what the players should be doing in order to progress from her perspective. It is a long rambling email that I think has no objective or point to it that I think is completely inappropriate, now I know her heart is in the right place but this is really stepping on my toes as a coach as it is my place to do these type of emails. I am looking for advice on how I should be dealing with this, I am happy to pull her up but as she is very unconfident about herself I feel this might push her back into her shell even more and then she might do something daft like send another email apologising to the team! I am not sure if I should just ignore it as I wonder if it undermines me? Thoughts?

Hi all just wondering if there are any coach's that have any good tip for a new coach like me. I am coaching under 6/8yr olds and find they get bored very easy. How do you keep them from getting bored and what fun drills do you use? Cheer James first time coach

hi allI'm currently coaching 12 and 13 yr olds and the team has a massive problem with shape and being disciplined positionally.Any tips, ideas, drills etc for helping with / teaching this?many thanks,Gary

What fun warm ups can I use with a group of 7-11 year olds with and without hockey sticks? Many thanks xx

I really struggle to make practice fun and useful for the GKs. My attention is naturally focussed on the outfield players, meaning most of the time I simply have drills finishing with a shot on goal to keep the GK involved. Pretty boring for them. Any ideas how I can involve them more? Thanks, Charlie

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?

I have a midfielder that wants to practice defending against lifted balls in a 1-2-1 situation, any ideas for drills that will assist with this?