Field hockey is a great team sport to get involved in. It helps to promote teamwork and is a great physical workout. As with any sport, the more you practice, and the more skills you can master, the more effective a player you will become!
Passing is one of the most important parts of field hockey as teamwork is essential to scoring. Different positions should focus on different types of passing maneuvers that most benefit their needs. Defenders should work on fake slapping or overhead passes, a midfielder might want to work on lifted passes into space, and a striker may work on one-touch passing
First touch, or trapping, involves receiving the ball with control and moving in the direction of where the space is. Having a good first touch can give you more time to survey the field to see what you should do next.
Working on your ability to receive the ball from multiple positions can give you an advantage. This allows you to play from any angle or location on the field which opens up more playing options.
Hitting seems like something that would be easy to succeed at, but in reality, there are many layers to mastering this skill. There are a lot of different factors to take into account with hitting. Foot position, head and body position, hip rotation, swing and grip are all things that affect your hitting skills. Effective hitting is important to maintaining possession and having a good offense.
All field hockey players should be able to make a clean flat stick tackle. Bad tackles can cost your team good positioning and possession. Bad tackles can be caused by poor body position, or committing too early and can result in free hits or being carded and/or suspended from the game.
If you need to guide a player to a less dangerous area, you can accomplish this by keeping your stick down and forcing them to move out wider. This helps to close off the direct route to the goal. Being patient and waiting for the right time to make your tackle is important to having an effective defense.
A jab tackle is used to put the player who has the ball under pressure, and make them change the direction that they are moving. It forces the other team to move into different areas of the field, potentially making it more difficult for them. You do not even need to jab directly for the ball as it is sometimes enough just to put your stick into their space
A V drag is a great elimination skill that can be used by most field hockey positions. It can be used by defenders looking to get out of tight situations, or a striker looking for more space to be able to take a good shot. To execute this move, you should pull the ball back, with a “V’ movement, and then burst forward at an angle to beat out the defender,
One thing that field hockey players can definitely benefit from is using VukGripz field hockey tape on their sticks. VukGripz offer players ore grip and control while they are playing,
There are other skills that you can learn if you want to excel at field hockey, but these are some good basic ones to get you started. As with any sport, you should always focus on the basic skills before you venture into more complex maneuvers.
