Field Hockey: team talk

I am a new coach and very young, how do I earn respect from my players?

Hello all, im coaching a ladies first team and im trying to motivate them to take it a lot more seriously then they currently do. They want to train hard but are afraid of making mistakes defensively. Instead of getting back behind the ball when they make a mistake they almost seem embarrassed and stand there with their arm up. I give them as much encouragement as possible without following them round with a pillow!! Also only 2/3 of the squad come to training which is frustrating as both forwards never attend training but the captain wont drop them and come saturday, they have no clue as to what we have been working on. So im having to take 15 minutes out of my pre-game warm up with the rest of the ladies to explain whats going to happen. I get paid to coach them on Tuesday nights but i do saturdays for free. It is frustrating to say the least and i would love any help you can give pleeeaaasseee!!! Mike

How do I get my girls to show more consistency at the beginning of a game? The longer the game goes the better they get.

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?

What is a good warm up for a professional hockey team?

Have a team of older group of ladies who need to learn to pass the ball back, any good drills for this?

Hi all,I coach a school boys teams, ages 12-18.Late last season after a disappointing loss, one of the younger boys made the comment 'Its all xxxx's fault that we lost'. This was made at the end of the game while I was packing away our gear and most, but not all, of the boys had already departed. XXXX wasn't there to hear the comment. Being dumbfounded by this comment, I let it go at the time and have stewed on it during the our off season. I'm of the opinion that this type of comment is unacceptable and should result in disciplinary action of some kind. My thinking at the moment is that I would be remove the player from the game ( if made during the game, even if it leaves us short), pass them on to the school for whatever punishment is deemed appropriate with a request to remove them from the team. Am I being too harsh or unreasonable in my thinking? Are there any strategies that I could employ to stop this kind of commentary? I'm going to discuss it with the school when we get back together before the season starts.

i often feel like i dont play to the best of my abilities. during practices im almost at the top of my game but come the match my skills, confidence and abilities seem to take quite a tumble. i want to please know how to keep the pace on and off the field.please please, hockey is my life!

We need to talk about the basics of hockey but any advice re coaching them on not bunching and drills to help with this would be much appreciated. Thank you.

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 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

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

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've got some girls aged 11-14, basically made up from two different clubs. We're playing 7 a side and have a squad of 12. One club dominates in terms of numbers (75% of the squad) and although they are not doing anything 'wrong' at all, the 9 players are accustomed to their own company and there's a bit of a divide that has emerged. I can't understand why the players aren't just getting on with things but I'm getting some reactionary behaviour from some players, because of this 2 camp scenario. Any tips?Thanks.

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

hi there I'm using 4-4-2 and on sometimes 3-1-4-2 with a lower level hockey team.I've chosen this over other formations, simply because the hockey experience and ability of my players is not of a high level (and most people have an approximate understanding of 442). Also, I believe that one must choose a formation based on players traits and what they can deliver. For example, I'd ideally prefer to have 3 forwards, to help with more height and width but then would have to either play 3 in the middle or 3 at the back... and my player strengths don't permit this. In short, I simply don't believe I have a strong enough CH / CM to handle 3 in the middle and I'm not convinced that the off-the-ball support from other players is strong enough to allow 3 in the middle. OFFENSIVE PLAYS Anyway, I'm not 100% where to get my centre mids to stand when we have a 16 yd hit to take (i.e. our possession). Obviously one of the CMs comes deep to offer a potential direct outlet from the centre backs or offer an overload option if the ball goes out to the sides (which is more likely, since I've pretty much banned the high risk play of releasing up the middle - we've had far too many turnovers in our final third or quarter because we tried to play up the middle). My players are 'aware' of posting up and leading runs. However, I'm not sure about the 2nd CM. On the one hand I'd ideally like the 2nd CM to come deep as well, in order to potentially help break up the opposition press but by doing so, I distort the midfield and if we do manage to get the ball to one of the CMs, he won't have the 2nd CM in a higher position to release to, etc. DEFENSIVE POSITIONING Can someone suggest, again, about midfield positioning using 4-4-2 or 3-1-4-2, when we are setting up a general press? I have traditionally encouraged man marking, simply because our general positional awareness is weak (which makes zonal play a no-no IMO) + our tracking and attitude to committed defending (i.e. you don’t give up if one tackle fails) could be better! However, looking at suggested presses on Sportplan, some zonal positioning seems a necessity and I think if I can help my players make the step, success will come because they've been forced to become more aware of their pitch positioning, etc. Also, looking at some of the presses, it looks like the midfield can go 'flat' to create a barrier... and as I encourage a diamond shape in midfield, I need to explain to my players what to do and when. Sorry for the wordy question. I hope this all makes sense. Regards, Gary

How to be the best captain for your team?

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?

we started the season 5-1 and now mid-way it seems we are fading? we have lost our last 3 games - what are some good drills to get them focused again and pumped for the rest of the season and to get them over the hump -to the next level. thanks

I'm trying to become a captain for my team.What are good qualities you would always look for in your captains's?