Hockey Session (Senior): Didsbury L1's TS#4

Flat triangle, defensive positioning

Essence:

- To work on gaining a better ball body goal line position.

Structure:

- Create a yellow strip line 2 yards in front of the penalty spot.

- Put 2 tyres or a similar box/end zone near the edge of the 25.

- Both the players on the 25 yard line will be passing the ball to each other until the pass becomes available to the attack. (For the fluidity of the exercise, allow maximum 5 passes)

- The defender has to stand on an angle so she can see the passer and the attacker when they move.

- If the defender intercepts the ball she can try to score in the tyres. Once she picks the ball all 3 players can join to stop her and then attack if they win the ball.

Technical Points:

- For the defender, it is really important that they stand on an angle to see both the passers and the attacker. The reason for this is so that she can have split vision to make an interception.

- Get them to understand the different pivots depending on where the ball and attacker is.

- The blue line represents the flat triangle. Use visual demonstrations to highlight this along with the split vision.

Attack/defence in and around the circle

Essence:

- To improve the players communication, vision, decision making and elimination skills.

Structure:

- There are 6 gates around the circle (2 red, yellow and blue) These gates are 1 and half yards apart.

- The drill requires a minimum of 7 players and 1 keeper.

- The coach is at the top of the circle 3-5 yards from the top.

- The coach will hit the ball towards the keeper.

- The keeper will rebound the ball to pass the ball to the player in the centre by the penalty spot.

- The coach then shouts a colour and this indicates which gate that player needs to drive through. Both gates are active and the players on them work in a 2v1 to win the ball and put the ball on target with a shot.

- If the player in the centre drives the ball through a gate they get a free, uncontested shot on goal.

Variations:

- If you think the players are good enough with the verbal shout. Lift up a coloured cone and that becomes the active one. Progress from verbal to visual.

- If its too easy for the defenders use spare players to make it a 2v2.

- You could also advance this further and reduce the space b holding up 2 colours so 4 players on the gate become active. This also increases the number of attackers parallel.

Technical Points:

Attacking:

- The player by the penalty spot, make sure she is facing the goal before and during the hit of the ball towards the keeper.

- Make sure the second she receives the ball she is facing outwards to see which gates she needs to attack (if you use visual learning)

- Make the player  aware of where the space is and which gate is free.

Defending the gates:

- If they recognise that the attacker is heading to one gate, the other defender can jump in to create a 2v1 instead of a 1v1.

- The second the gate players win the ball, try to score with a short grip hit to reduce the time the keeper has to be ready. Furthermore, they could look for the second player to be on a post for a deflection. 

Goal keeper:

- Make sure that they are constantly communicating with the attacking player, telling them which gate to attack at the beginning and which gate is free during the attack.

Turnover game

Essence:

- Put into practice the techniques we have trained.

Structure:

- Set up cones on an angle so they can dribble through them.

- If the defending team dribble through the cones they can turn and immediately attack the circle.

Technical Points:

- Focus on defending in pairs

- Attacking while making combinations and movement to create passes and overloads.

- Quick shots when in the circle.