McLeod’s answer is mixed, and he explains why: hockey tactics move in slow cycles rather than sudden leaps, so ideas from the 80s and 90s keep resurfacing in new variations. At Rio only a handful of teams, Belgium, New Zealand and Argentina among them, defended zonally while most played man to man. Since then the man to man sides have shifted towards zone with man-marking elements, and the zonal sides have gone the other way. The area teams still struggle with, he says, is lifted 3D play along the baseline. Watch the full Coach Chat: AMA with Shane McLeod.
Four phases make up the game in Enrich’s model: attack, defence and the two transitions, which he says deserve growing attention in training. Every task should contain all four, because they feed each other; a drill that ends the moment defenders win the ball strips out the game’s natural essence. How you attack even shapes your defensive transition, since a long-ball style leaves nobody near the ball to press after loss. Watch the full masterclass: Small Sided Games.