Field hockey practice plan template

Turf time is booked by the hour

Most field hockey teams share a turf, and the next team is waiting at the gate when your hour is up. A list of drills does not tell you that the passing has run long and the game is about to be cut. A plan with a start time beside every block shows you at a glance, with time left to decide what to drop.

So this template is a run sheet. Each block has its length and the minute it starts, counted from the first whistle, with a tick box to mark it done and the coaching cue printed under each drill. It prints on one page, with lines at the foot for notes.

What is in the plan

It is the plan the practice plan maker opens on for field hockey:

• a five-minute team talk;
• a fifteen-minute warm-up of easy laps and dynamic stretches;
• push pass and receive in pairs, a flat push pass that stays on the ground and a receive that takes the pace off it, on the open side and then the reverse;
• leading and receiving, a lead away to take the marker, then a sharp check back into the space, arriving as the pass is made;
• a water break;
• a twenty-minute scrimmage;
• a cool-down.

It runs eighty minutes. For a one-hour turf slot, shorten the warm-up and the scrimmage by ten minutes between them, and the start times on the sheet still tell you where you should be.

The cues that matter in field hockey

Most of the ball a junior team gives away is lost on the first touch, so the pairs drill comes first. The cue is push, do not hit: feet set, the ball swept along the ground to the target, and a receive with soft hands and the stick low and angled over the ball. Every reverse-side receive is made with the stick turned over, because the ball may only be played with the flat face and the edges of the stick, and playing it with the rounded back is a foul. A push along the ground also never breaks the rule against a dangerously raised ball.

Leading is the legal answer to obstruction. A player standing with their back to an opponent who is trying to play the ball, shielding it, gives away a free hit. A player who leads away and checks back into the space arrives free, side-on, and able to see the pitch. Junior formats such as Rush Hockey, Hookin2Hockey and 7-a-side add their own limits on hitting and lifting the ball, so check your association's rules for your age group.

Changing it

On paper, cross a drill out and write yours beside it, keeping its minutes so the later start times still hold. On screen, the edit button opens the practice plan maker with this plan loaded. Swap either drill for any of the field hockey drills in the library, such as the give-and-go or the penalty corner, change the minutes, and print it again with every start time worked out. It is free and needs no account.

For match day, the rotation maker for field hockey shares out the playing time fairly across your squad and prints the substitutions on one page.