The penalty corner, set up the way the rules make you
Field hockey · Set piece · 10 of your players
Injector on the backline ten metres from the post, trapper and striker at the top of the D, both slips and both post runners outside the circle waiting for the whistle.
Opens on a field hockey pitch with the shape already drawn. Free, no signup.
Who stands where, and why it is legal
Ten outfield players are drawn, and there is no goalkeeper on the pitch: at an attacking penalty corner yours is back in your own half, which is where this template leaves them. The injector stands on the backline exactly ten metres from the post. The trapper is at the top of the shooting circle, the striker a couple of metres behind them, and the two slips and two post runners are spread either side — all of them, every attacker but the injector, with feet and sticks outside the 14.63 m circle, because that is what the rules demand and a routine drawn illegally is a routine you cannot run.
Three more sit outside the 23 m line as your rest defence. They are not spectators. A corner that breaks down is the cleanest counter-attack in hockey, and those three are the only reason it does not become a goal against.
What to use it for
Every routine you own starts from this picture, so it is worth being pedantic about it. The straight version is inject, trap, flick. The variations all move one player: the slip stepping in front of the striker for a deflection, the trapper pushing square for the opposite slip, the far post runner arriving late on a rebound, or the injector coming inside after the ball has gone.
It is also the picture to load when you are choosing between two flickers, or when your trapper keeps taking the ball a metre too far to their forehand and you want to show them what that does to the angle rather than tell them.
Getting the timing right
- Time it, do not draw it. Move the striker forward and animate. A routine that looks good frozen falls apart when the ball takes half a second longer to reach the trap.
- The post runners leave early. Draw them entering the circle on the injection, not on the shot. Arriving with the ball is the whole job.
- Draw the first defender. Add one opposition player charging out of goal and see which of your options they take away. Every corner is really a race against that person.
Pull this template onto the canvas, put your own flicker at the top of the D, and draw the variation you have been describing at training instead of describing it again.
Also known as
- penalty corner
- short corner
- set piece
- drag flick
- injector
Shapes to look at next
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Put the Penalty corner attack 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.
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