The full press, drawn where it actually happens
Field hockey · Defence · 10 of your players
Ten outfielders pressing high: two on the edge of the shooting circle, three behind, three across midfield and two holding. The keeper is in your own half, off screen.
Opens on a field hockey pitch with the shape already drawn. Free, no signup.
What the press looks like
Ten players and no goalkeeper on screen, because a full press puts your keeper 60 metres away in your own half and drawing them here would be a picture of something that never happens. The two front pressers stand just outside the shooting circle, about fifteen metres from the goal line, angled so the defender in possession cannot pass square. Behind them three supports on the 23 m line, then a midfield three about thirty metres out, and two cover players near halfway.
That is roughly twenty-five metres from the first presser to the last cover — deliberately tight, because the press is not the two at the front. It is the twenty-five metres, and it fails in the gap between the supports and the midfield three, not at the point of contact.
When to turn it on
Use it from an attacking free hit, from a long corner, and in the two minutes after you score, when the opposition are still deciding what to do. It is also the right answer against a side whose keeper cannot hit the ball 40 metres: force the outlet wide, take the trap, and you have a circle entry without having to build one.
Do not press like this for a full half. Ten players pressing thirty metres from their own support is a bet, and the payment for losing it is a three-on-two. Nominate the moments, and give your two cover players permission to drop the moment the ball goes over the front five.
The habits that make it work
- The angle of the front two. Drag one of them two metres and animate the outlet. The press is decided by which pass they are showing the defender, not by how fast they run.
- Draw the escape. Put an opposition team on the pitch and draw the pass you are inviting. If it is the pass that beats you, the shape is wrong before anyone has run.
- Two holding, always. Mark the cover pair and leave them. Every press that ends in a goal against has them fifteen metres too high in the picture.
Load the press, add the opposition where their outlets really stand, then animate the first two passes and see whose shape survives.
Also known as
- press
- full press
- high press
- turnovers
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Put the Full press (2-3-3-2) on a pitch
It opens with the shape already drawn. Move the players your team does differently, drag the runs, and send your squad a link that animates.
Open in PlaymakerPage updated · Field hockey play designer · All templates