Talkinghockey.net

Thanks George,
Good advice, and gives me a place to start. We've done the classroom bit, so people are at least aware of the new rules.

I will admit to being a little bit obsessed with how we play when we don't have the ball under the new rules, in particular the situation when the first (probably fouling) defender is taken out by a quick thinking attacker, requiring the next defender to step up and the first to adjust and help either by switching or tackling (hopes that makes sense). We weren't great at it before, I am worried that now we will be exposed much more.

Thanks

I am coaching my clubs ladies tonight as the regular coach cannot make it. I am starting with a little passing on the move practice followed by a tactical session involving some very simple 5m from D FH and Long corner set pieces that England used to good effect in the EuroHockey championships. Some of our girls played the new rules in summer league but most did not so it gives them a chance to try them out. An example routine I am using is a 5m hit top right of the D (about 4 o'clock from the penalty spot - 12 o'clock being centre of goal). Hard push pass or hit into the D about 5m out from the backline (about 11 o'clock for the taker). Attacker inside the D runs out to collect the ball BEFORE it enters the D and is a foul. They either spin and enter the D before playing the ball back to the taker top(ish) in the D who takes a shot or pass it from outside the D back to the taker who has stepped inside and shoots with receiver backing up on keepers pads. You can then upgrade the number of players in the routine to make it a more realistic scenario and add a couple of defenders. Having to run out of the D to collect the ball should ingrain the rules for 23m hits onto their brain.

Also be aware that many "league" umpires I have not yet practised the new rules either so big smiles in your pre league games!

Oh I forgot to mention; one of the more effective set pieces in the attacking 25 with the ?ball must travel 5 metres? rule before it can go in the circle, is if a team-mate can deflect a driven ball before it does reach the circle. We know the rule change was to stop the amount of balls being driven into the circle from hits inside the 25 to make the playing environment safer, we also know everyone must be 5 metres from the ball in that area.
Teams have started placing a striker starting just inside the circle (greater than 5 away from the hit) and then leading back along the line of the location of the hit and the goals to deflect a flat firm-hit ball centimetres outside the circle to either post for another deflection or onto a defending foot for a corner.
This play is far more direct as most teams will look to move the ball laterally and backwards off free hits inside the 25 to gain circle entry therefore it becomes a very effective attacking change and brings back some direct threat along the line to goal from these situations. It also plants a seed of doubt in defending minds as to which then become the greater threat; the lateral pass or the direct drive that is touched before entering the circle; space then starts to open up laterally because the direct route to goal is always considered the most important area to defend.

A drill to practice this is obviously getting someone to hit firm balls into the circle for a leading striker to deflect just outside the circle for forwards leading towards the net for scraps and their own deflections.

I disagree, actually it may be ugly I?ll give you that but used in the right circumstances it is extremely effective especially if the movement patterns are well rehearsed and timed correctly as the hit comes.
I have a stat team of four people that watch the tapes of our games and present the findings in four categories. I?m not sure if you?ve ever taken stats of a whole game, but it can be an amazing revelation. Any thinking like ?that won?t work because half will go this way or over the backline? only holds you and your team back from going forward unless you know exactly what percent of the time it should work and hold the unit accountable with KPI?s. The only way to work out this is through taking stats.
I?ll give you our example; the idea came through a player who had seen it when playing abroad, I then go over it with the leadership group who are responsible with me for coming up with the criteria for recognising when it will work and we then educate the squad of the criteria their group decision making for starting the movement pattern should based on.
Preseason we established the move had a 45.45% success rate in attaining a positive result at training on what we deemed to be a good angle towards net. We sat down ironed out some of the movement patterns and worked on the hit itself and refined the criteria further for the group decision making that leads to all players knowing the set piece is on so it can be recognised easily without any verbal cues. That increased the success rate to 55% by the time the season had stared.
In our elimination semi-final this year we had 39 inside 25 entries, 16 of those were circle entries through either passes that resulted in possession being kept or dribbled into the circle. 11 resulted in free hits in the attacking 25 area; of those 11, we performed a drive set piece 4 times and we were successful in gaining a goal and two corners of which we scored from 2 flicks, the remaining twelve 25 entries resulted in turnovers, and the 4th drive attempt resulted in a turnover due to an attempt outside of the recognised and agreed upon set angle perimeters looking at goal.
On that day the drive had a 75% success rate in gaining a result from either a goal, or possession kept, or a corner. The season average was 61.44% from 83 attempts; our penalty corner success rate was 78% for the season. In this light, used at the right moments we were quite successful with a drive.

Hi George, you've taken me out of context; the situation i was explaining was in part relating to the OP question in regards to quick restarts where defenders are inside the 5m, the phrase you've quoted left out "if the attacker runs directly at you", and you happen to be within the 5m, this action in itself should be a penalty against the attacker as per the rule but rarely is given. What we have been doing is retreating in a passive capacity until 5m from the infringement if in this situation and only then becoming active.
It is impossible to retreat 5m from an attacker who has restarted quickly and tries to continue straight through you but the refs arent blowing these against the attacker so the last thing we should be telling our defenders is "you've been eliminated, get out of the way so someone else can step up" because they can be very much still in it as long as they can be seen to make the effort to retreat the 5 as hard as they can and then become active once they are 5 from the place where the self-hit occurred, thats the main thing I want to get across you dont have to get 5 from your opponent if he self-hits and comes straight at you if you can't, you only need to make the effort to get 5 from the place of the self hit, if your opponent is right next to you in possession when you reach 5 from the self-hit mark then you can challenge him for possession but obviously like any tactic, you need to play within the match rules. Match rules and the rules of hockey are very different. Every umpire has his own interpretation and you should make it a priority to find out what the interpretation will be with each umpire every game.

Also side note George on second quote, I was just meaning all defensive challenges off a self-hit on the dotted line in the attacking 25m, should be made outside the circle, I'm not condoning delibrate fouls or encouraging them, just saying if you meet your opponent inside the circle and attempt a challenge that infringes, it's a corner, if you meet him outside and fail you have given nothing away assuming the infringement wasn't delierate becasue he has to go backwards to the dotted line to restart, if it is a deliberate foul then yes expect a corner.
It just takes a mental awareness with this especially considering the OP's season is just starting with the new rules, he will find his players can and will go to sleep on this occassionally being the first season with this rule and the opposition walk into the circle unchallenged and get a shot or force a corner because the guys temporarily had a lapse of concentration, we actually had to train this to get them off their haunches and in the face of the attacker before he entered the circle, you'd think this would be an obvious thing for players but for some reason it wasn't.

Dyl, one of the first 10 minute yellow cards I saw given for the attack driving the ball towards the defender less than 5m away was against Waseem in the final game of England v Pakistan. What made that a bad decision was that Waseem was about 10m from the original offence, but an England player stopped the ball travelling back to that spot and quickly took the hit directly at Waseem. I agree that the England player deliberately caused Waseem to foul and should have been penalised for it, but my point is don't rely on the umpire getting the technical interpretation of the Rules correct. The same goes for my second point you are hoping you have a good umpire who is aware of all of the technical nuances of the Rules which isn't always the case - even at the very highest levels.

Also as ChrisH has said elsewhere umpires only have a split second to make up their minds and in both cases the actions of the defence might easily be misinterpreted - especially the tracking the ball carrier scenario, which umpires are instructed to consider as a deliberate foul worthy of a yellow card.

If you can get away with it, go for it, but I'm merely pointing out that the consequences of getting it wrong can alter the course of the game.

George

I was interested in your comments about the penalties being dished out to those who have been channelling or shadowing a player who has taken a self free hit, as I have also watched this action being totally ignored by umpires throughout the European Championships. No consistency there!

I am also unsure why the player is being penalised once everyone has moved five yards, as this particular activity is not mentioned, as far as I am aware, in the rule book in relation to the self free hit. Yes he is clearly breaking the intent of the rules but is he actually committing an offence under them?

I agree that this can be an offensive term, but I think we have to look at the context in which it is used and if you do, then there is little reason to take offence unless you subscribe to over political correctness, which I personally don't. It is after all been used as an abbreviated term to describe the members of a national representative team from Pakistan and not as a generic term to describe people of Asian origin.

My Apologies Mani, I did not mean to use the term as a label, merely an abbreviation for the Pakistan Hockey Team.

UHL: Are you able to clarify what you mean by breaking the intent of the rule? As far as I've seen in this situation it is the attacker who breaks the intent of the rule by deliberately engaging someone who could not  get 5m.