Field Hockey: the slap

How do you disguise the slap hit?

I'm looking for suggestions on set plays for free hits going into the circle. High school rules in the US now state that all players (attack/defense) must be 7 yards from the ball. What plans will work for drawing corners and goal scoring opportunities?

Penalty corner plays for offense, any suggestions?

What are good practices to get players to hit a flat ball, instead of bobbling around

I am just starting to coach adults after 3yrs of coaching juniors. Should I keep to the same drills or find more complicated drills?

Hi, When I add power to my slap hit the ball tends to be hard but quite bouncy. Any ideas on what could be causing this as it stops me using it as a pass. If I "stun" the ball (i.e. use an abbreviated follow through) the ball tends to stay flat but obviously loses a lot of power. Also, if I deliberately choose a contact point much higher up the stick that also seems to keep it flatter but power is also lost here too. Any help appreciated. Mark

Are there any drills to force players to stay low

What are the basics that need to change when taking a team from playing on grass fields to playing on astro turf??? Malcolm in SA

im twelve, i play for my school team and i am going for a trial at southgate hockey. I  play up front, and i can shoot pretty well but i cant lift it over the keeper. any tips would be much appreiciated

Playing field hockey on real grass not turff. Any advice as to good tactics, more running with the ball rather than passing game?

could someone comment on the 5 yard rule when entering the scoring area? There always seams to be a lot of wrong information regarding this rule.

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

How do you disguise the slap hit?

Hi, When I add power to my slap hit the ball tends to be hard but quite bouncy. Any ideas on what could be causing this as it stops me using it as a pass. If I "stun" the ball (i.e. use an abbreviated follow through) the ball tends to stay flat but obviously loses a lot of power. Also, if I deliberately choose a contact point much higher up the stick that also seems to keep it flatter but power is also lost here too. Any help appreciated. Mark

Recently been working hard developing the use of the dish around the back to create space. Working great but would now like to develop this with more drills.We have discussed decision making, leading runs and movement but I'm now looking for ideas of exercises that will develop these thoughts amongst the guys. All ideas for exercises we could use at training gratefully received

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 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?

I'm looking for suggestions on set plays for free hits going into the circle. High school rules in the US now state that all players (attack/defense) must be 7 yards from the ball. What plans will work for drawing corners and goal scoring opportunities?

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

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