Rather than bolting keepers onto outfield work, McLeod suggests making them the central point of a couple of sessions: decide whether they need shot frequency, circle dominance or game balance, then design the master session around that. Even with three coaches his staff run separate specialist keeper sessions, and he recommends a weekly plan linking individual, match and team training. Watch the full masterclass: AMA with Shane McLeod.
Asked about his philosophy, McLeod compares it to constant computer updates with the occasional big reboot. The biggest came after New Zealand, where he concluded he had failed a group with more potential than it achieved by letting his staff overtrain a willing, hard-working squad into big events. He now works from a much better understanding of loading before an Olympics or World Cup. Watch the full masterclass: AMA with Shane McLeod.
Lockdown cut a squad used to full-time contact down to one on one calls, but McLeod’s players kept their programme running: sponsors supplied basic home gyms and the group followed a strict running plan. With little hockey to load them, the staff used the window to develop speed and agility, and the extra year simply shifted the group’s focus to Tokyo in 2021. Watch the full masterclass: AMA with Shane McLeod.
Programme planning starts from the end for McLeod: fix the pinnacle event, then work backwards through the phases needed to reach it. One exercise he offers is asking how the team wants to be seen at the Olympic Games, then converting each descriptor into work, so being physically impressive becomes gym quality, running programmes and executing skills at speed. Watch the full masterclass: AMA with Shane McLeod.
To build connections McLeod diagrams the sets game, a 2v2 building into 3v3 that he brings out when a team regroups after a break. Points reward corners, goals and defensive turnovers, but the coaching detail matters more: receiving blind and taking the ball away to get eyes up, shifting a defender while waiting for eye contact, then timing the lead. Timing, he says, is what puts speed into attack. Watch the full masterclass: AMA with Shane McLeod.
Both defences in that World Cup final delighted McLeod. You could count on one hand the chances and saves either keeper or defence had to deal with, he says, and he credits the Netherlands with managing Belgium’s threats extremely well. Producing that standard of off-ball work in Belgium’s first World Cup final, under that pressure, is what he rates most. Watch the full masterclass: AMA with Shane McLeod.
One on ones happen all the time in McLeod’s programme, for two reasons. They show him where each player is at, the individual pieces beneath the collective IQ of the team, and they push players to own their development: one coach cannot get around 24 athletes, but 24 athletes managing themselves with the staff as a resource is far more productive. Watch the full masterclass: AMA with Shane McLeod.