Principle Based Offensive Strategies and Tactics - Putting Theory into Practice

featuring Shiv Jagday,
FIH accredited coach;
former Canadian and USA national team coach, coaching national teams in the Olympic Games, World Cups and the Pan Am Games

In recent years, field hockey has become more and more of a power game. As such, some of the subtlety and beauty has gone out of the game. In this video, you'll learn how to recapture that beauty as Shiv Jagday zeros in on some overlooked skills and ideas that can raise your players to the next level.

Coach Jagday gives you fundamental offensive strategies and tactics, based upon proven principles. These principles are illustrated with specific game situation examples taken from the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games, plus other international tournaments. You will clearly see the rewards when these principles are honored diligently, as well as the penalties when they are not.

The Theory of the Game

Hockey is a simple game. But, the number of tactics and strategies is almost endless. Coach Jagday begins by revealing the core offensive principles that you need to focus on to win more games. In this section, you will learn about:

• The importance of shape when attacking
• The importance of space awareness when attacking
• The Seven Laws of the Game
• Types of attacks you can run
• How to anticipate various defensive strategies

The Importance of Footwork and Stance

Players from the Punjab Institute of Sport demonstrate how to pass and receive the ball correctly in the midfield triangle. Jagday emphasizes the importance of correct footwork and stance to the performance of fundamental skills while demonstrating how to give precise corrective feedback to athletes.

To this midfield triangle, Jagday progressively adds more players while focusing on the basics of footwork and stance, as well of the core attacking principles of width, depth, support and penetration. He also shows how to use opposition to a drill to add an element of pressure.

Game Sense and How to Coach It

You'll learn how to use mini games to develop game sense and teach complex ideas. Jagday shows how to use simple games like 3v1, 3v2, 4v2, 4v3 and 4v4 to improve your players' ability to read the play in front of them and develop effective patterns of play.

He stresses the importance of:

• Scanning to see the forward passes before the ball arrives
• Correct leading patterns and timing to make the most of the attacking space
• Giving early penetrating passes

Space Awareness

Coach Jagday demonstrates the importance of space awareness to effectively exploit defenses. He uses a 5v1 situation to teach the power of overlapping and freezing up defenders in 2v1 situations to create quick attacks.

Teams Within Teams

You'll see Coach Jagday use a coaching board to walk you through the mini teams within a field hockey team and the roles and responsibilities of:

• The back four
• The midfield triangle
• The forwards
• The right and left side triangles

You will also learn how to build various types of attack and how to manipulate defenses to create attacking opportunities.

As Coach Jagday says, "little things make big things happens." This video will show you how to make more big things happen by zeroing in on the little things that are often overlooked.

114 minutes. 2018.