Hockey Session (Senior): Attack/defence in and around the circle

20 minutes

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 a half yards apart.

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

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

- The coach will hit the ball towards the keeper.

- The keeper will rebound or pass the ball to the attacker in the center by the penalty spot.

- The coach then holds up either the blue, yellow or red cone to indicate which gate the player has to get the ball through.

- The cone the coach chooses, the players on those cones will try to stop the attacker going through those gates, if they tackle the attacker and win the ball they are allowed to try and score. However, the attacker is still live and can try to win the ball back.

-If the attacker gets the ball through the gate, he is allowed to have a free shot on goal.

Variations:

- If you think the players intially arent good enough you can shout which colour of the gate. Then gradually progess to using the cones as a signal without calling.

- If it is too easy for the defenders, you can put more attackers in and make it a 2v2

- You could also use advance this further and reduce the space by holding up 2 colours so 4 players on the gate become active (also increase the number of attackers parallel) dependent on number of players you have for the drill)

Technical pointers:

Attacking:

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

- Make sure the second he receives the ball, he is facing outwards so to see which gates he needs to attack.

- 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 the 2v1 instead of the 1v1,

- The second the gate players win the ball, try to score with a short grip to reduce the time the keeper has to get ready. Furthermore they could look for the second player to be on a post for a deflection, this can be seen or heard through communication.

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.