Quick answer. A player who has checked out is rarely just lazy. More often the environment has stopped giving them a reason to invest, so start there. Hand ownership of their development back to them, make sessions meaningful and genuinely enjoyable rather than merely busy, and show real belief in what they can become. Effort tends to follow when a player feels responsible, trusted and glad to be on the pitch.
That is the surface answer, but the coaches featured on The Hockey Site would tell you not to stop at running the group harder or having a quiet word on the side. The more useful question is why the investment has drained away in the first place.
Coasting is usually a signal, not a character flaw. In his masterclass on Coachability, New Zealand’s Shea McAleese argues that coachability is not a personality trait but a decision about who is responsible for your own development. Players who coast, he suggests, often have not yet learned to look in the mirror, because for a long time it was easier to make progress someone else’s job. Treating the behaviour as information about ownership, rather than proof of a bad attitude, changes what you do next.
Hand responsibility back rather than fixing everything for them. McAleese warns that quietly solving every problem for an athlete can hold them back, because it teaches them to wait for the answer. He describes small habits that flip the load onto the player: asking them to explain a point back to the group, putting them on the spot to coach a teammate, and getting clear buy-in early. Align with your leaders and key players first, he suggests, and that ownership filters down and speeds up across the squad.
Protect enjoyment, because it is the engine and not the reward. The Hockey Site article Fun lights the fire treats enjoyment as a performance variable rather than a reward for good behaviour. A squad that wants to be at training will chase more, risk more and stay longer than one turning up out of obligation, and that gap shows up in how quickly they improve. A positive, loose atmosphere widens attention and improves decision making, while a tight, fearful one narrows both. Enjoyment is not the soft option. It is one of the levers that decides how fast a group develops, and its absence is often the first thing a disengaged player is reacting to.
Design sessions that mean something, not just sessions that keep people busy. In his masterclass on feedback and learning environments, Andreu Enrich argues that the difference between a busy session and an engaging one is intentionality. Design the session around the specific behaviours you want to see, then build the conditions where those behaviours emerge naturally. When players understand why they are doing something, and can feel the connection between the drill and the real game, engagement becomes close to automatic. Small-sided games are one dependable route there, active by design and full of touches, decisions and natural pressure.
Belief changes what a player is willing to give. The masterclass on The Pygmalion Effect, with Andreu Enrich and Australia’s Ric Charlesworth, explores how a coach’s expectations quietly shape performance. Raise the bar and show a player you believe in what they can do, and they tend to rise to meet it. Expect little, and they tend to shrink to fit. For someone who has drifted to the edges of the group, being told clearly and honestly that you see more in them can be the intervention that reopens the door.
Confidence is a behaviour a player can choose, not just a mood they wait for. Performance psychologist Katie Warriner, in her masterclass Confidence: a choice and a skill, points out that behaviours are far more within our control than feelings, and the feelings often arrive after the behaviour rather than before it. With a checked-out player that reframes the ask. Rather than waiting for motivation to return on its own, invite the behaviour first, the communication, the body language, the willingness to have a go, and let the feeling catch up.
Your own energy sets the tone before you say a word. In his masterclass on emotions, energy and engagement in team talks, Mati Vila makes the point that the energy a coach brings is itself the message. Players read your state before they process a single instruction, so if you go through the motions, they will too. Tin Matkovic, in his masterclass on fostering creative players, adds that playfulness is the engine of creative play, but it has to be fuelled by a coach who is still genuinely curious. Bring something real to the pitch and the room shifts with you.
Lean on culture for the players your words cannot reach. Not every disengaged player responds to a one-to-one conversation. McAleese notes that a truly coachable group is built when senior players hold the standard and younger ones are expected to contribute in small group meetings before the whole squad gathers. When the environment itself keeps pulling people back in, you are no longer the only source of motivation in the room. That is slower to build than a rousing speech, but far more durable.
None of this is a script to run. These are starting points from coaches who have worked at the very top of the game, offered so you can test them against the group actually in front of you and keep what fits. The masterclasses below go a good deal deeper than any single article can, and they are worth an evening of your thinking time.
Go more in depth here
Read next: Team. Trust. Culture., Connections Before Tactics, The 4 most powerful words in talent development: “I believe in you”
More coaching questions: How do I build confidence in field hockey players that survives mistakes?, How do I help a field hockey player let go of a mistake and reset?, How often should my players train before I’m overcooking them?, How do I keep juniors coming back without letting the standards slide?. All of them are in Field Hockey Coaching Questions.
The experts mentioned in this article
Shea McAleeseFormer New Zealand international player. Member of the coaching staff for the Black Sticks of New Zealand these days.
Andreu EnrichFormer Spanish international player coaching in Germany. Author of many field hockey books.
Ric CharlesworthAustralian coach. Former international player in both hockey and cricket. Olympic gold winner. World cup gold winner.
Katie WarrinerPerformance psychologist for team GB
Tin MatkovicCoach from Croatia, currently coaching in GermanyJoin us for more on this
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