Field Hockey: speed drill

drills to switch sides of field

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.

I have a u16 womens team. They are starting to get a little lazy in their passes, moving to the ball. I would a drill where they have to constantally move with speed. I want them to get a good hard cardio workout. suggestions?

This is my first year coaching field hockey and I am coaching beginners, a U8 team. Any drills geared towards beginners?

What are the best methods to teach Junior 8 aside hockey players their positional roles and responsibilities?

need info on training the goal keeper.

I am looking for 6 a side hockey formations. We have been playing 3-1-1-1. Worked very well, however sweeper was so good, goalie never touched the ball. I want to move sweeper to goalie/ sweeper but our mid field player is too good to just play right. What to do? 2-2-1-1 or 1-3-1-1?     

How do you encourage positional play and spreading out on hockey field U9 girls level?

I help coach around 30 players, they are of completely differing abilities and ages. For a while I have been using the same first drill/warm up of getting into groups of 4/5 players and having cones in a line in front of them which they have to use different methods of getting the ball to and then passing back to the rest of the team from the 1st cone, then next time from the 2nd cone (and so on) I find this works ok but would like a new/more fun way to get them ready after our run and dynamic stretches. Any help/suggestions gratefully received.

Any tips or drills for improving 'soft hands'?

How do I improve ball skills in s small space indoors? Are there any drills or practice plans that you feel are helpful?

I would like some drills for the new long corner rules and the free hits outside the D. Thanks

hi. i recently started playing hockey again after 7 years and looking for drills me and my brother can do to help get my technique back. like first touch and shooting dribbling etc. i am a striker

is there a drill where i can allow the team to learn about leads and running of the ball and that switching is vital for wings as well as bursting speed to receive the ball

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

Have any other coaches got tips, advice or drill ideas on how i can improve my team's ability to counter attack?

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 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?

Whenever i have the ball, and i'm moving up the field, everytime a defender comes and tries to take the ball, they always succed. This is a big problem of mine, i almost always lose the ball to a defender when i'm moving, and i usually can't recover (not that i literallyy CAN'T, the defender is just to far past me to be able for me to get the ball back)and get back the ball, and i feel really dumb because i'm a very talented player, but i'm alwayse afraid to take the ball mainly just because when i move fast and a defender comes, i try to lift the ball and it just doesn't work, and i normally can't pull the ball far enough either cause the grass is thik. PLEASSEEE help me adn give me some advice on recovering and better techniques on how to get by a defender while moving very quickly.

How to speed up the game on indoor hockey?