Tests tell you roughly where a player sits, but the Scottish squad had been training to improve their beep test score rather than to carry that fitness into matches. Moreland’s line is that if the training is right, the test scores follow on their own. What he cares about is whether a player can express that physical capacity in the game, which is what the technical coaches actually need. Watch the full masterclass: Pre-season Physical Programme.
Squatting is two-footed, planted and fixed, while the game puts a player on one leg, flexed, rotated and absorbing violent force. Moreland is not against the squat, he just treats it as a base rather than the whole of the preparation. At some point the work has to move onto one leg and into rotation and anti-rotation so it carries onto the pitch. Watch the full masterclass: Pre-season Physical Programme.
Every muscle and joint works in three planes of motion at the same time, and hockey is played across all of them. Strength work, though, tends to sit in one plane: plenty of squatting, which does build lower limb strength but leaves the transfer undone. Moreland wants activities alongside it that carry that strength into rotation and three-dimensional patterns. Watch the full masterclass: Pre-season Physical Programme.
Nobody is trying to build bodybuilders, so Moreland trains patterns rather than isolated muscles. No bicep curls for the pump, no chasing shapely quads: the movement patterns should suit hockey and suit where that particular player currently is. He pairs it with the point that one programme rarely fits everyone, so group players into buckets by what they most need. Watch the full masterclass: Pre-season Physical Programme.
Coaches jump to sport-specific work too early, Moreland argues, without checking whether the athlete is ready for it. His paired rule is that the athlete earns the right to progress to the fancy stuff. With the Scottish squad the movement screening gaps were wide enough that mechanical resilience had to come first, with energy system work built around it. Watch the full masterclass: Pre-season Physical Programme.
The seven rules run: athlete-appropriate before sport-specific, train movements rather than muscles, remember every muscle and joint works in three planes at once, simplicity yields complexity, slow the process down, make training connect to the game, and never train to get better at tests. Moreland adds that the athlete earns the right to the fancier work, and that function comes before force, speed or volume. Watch the full masterclass: Pre-season Physical Programme.
Moreland’s wrap-up comes down to three things: know the gap between you and the teams above you, know your destination and how long you have to reach it, and set a clear intent with markers that tell you whether you are on track. He wants each pre-season to build repeatable excellence rather than a one-off win. Even a table-topping side still has gaps worth finding. Watch the full masterclass: Pre-season Physical Programme.