Beth Gottung teaches you drills that will ignite your team's competitive spirit. Using whiteboard diagrams and on-field demonstrations, Coach Gottung shares practice drills that will challenge your players and improve their performance.
The fundamentals of ball control, hitting, passing and receiving are covered in these drills, which also add an element of competition to show players how to deal with the pressure of game-day situations. In addition to presenting a series of drills structured to encourage competitiveness, Coach Gottung also continuously reinforces the basic skills that will build a better field hockey athlete.
The presentation opens with a warm-up drill designed to get the players moving. Called "Our House," the drill is a possession game played in a limited space using a limited number of athletes. This is a great way to get players thinking about their specific skills. Defenders learn to communicate in order to force the ball away from the offense. The offense learns to concentrate on passing and field position in an effort to maintain possession of the ball.
To recreate the pressure of game-speed shooting while simultaneously encouraging each player to deliver 100 percent in ball handling and sprinting, Coach Gottung presents "Under Pressure Shooting and Fitness." This is an outstanding drill with built-in motivation guaranteed to bring out your athletes' maximum effort! This drill is easily scalable and can be customized to concentrate player's competitiveness where you feel they need it most.
The "1v1 Lane" is one of those rare drills that allows you to create the specific defensive situation needed to practice while still providing the game-speed competitiveness your attack players need for their skill development. By creating a defensive start that simulates a "re-defend" situation, coaches can help their athletes develop the skill of defending from a defensively disadvantaged position. Another problem that the re-defend often creates are defensive penalties. Being able to focus efforts on this specific setting helps defenders improve body positioning and footwork so that they can defend successfully without drawing penalties.
Coach Gottung highlights the importance of making competitiveness a high priority during practices. She does a good job of highlighting the specifics skills that are needed for teams to be competitive within each of these drills she presents. Finally, she demonstrates the importance of moving seamlessly from one drill to the next one using the skills that have been presented.
Beyond a doubt, the drills demonstrated in this video will improve your team's ability to perform better under pressure in game situations.
94 minutes. 2013.