Spotify Youtube Linkedin Facebook-f Envelope-open Instagram

Tag: SSG

How do I build field hockey fitness without taking players off the ball?

Quick answer. Yes, you can build most of your field hockey fitness inside stick and ball work. Design games and drills so the running is high enough to matter, keep the ball involved for as much of the session as you can, and only step outside for the foundation strength and prep work that ball drills cannot cover.

That surface answer is comfortable, but the coaches on The Hockey Site would not want you to stop there. Conditioning inside drills only works if you actually control the intensity, monitor what a session is costing your players, and keep a small amount of off-ball foundation work in the plan. Here is how a few of them think about it.

Start by keeping it simpler than you think. In Hockey Conditioning Made Simple, Glenn Turner makes the case that hockey is first and foremost an aerobic game, so the ability to keep running matters more than a big number on a squat or bench. He warns that overcomplicated gym programmes and heavy lifting have ended careers rather than built them, and argues coaches should back themselves to use simple bodyweight movements, squats, lunges, push-ups and pull-ups, that can be done on any field. That is good news for anyone worried about time on the ball, because it frees you to put the running load where the ball already is.

Make small-sided games your main engine. The Small Sided Games masterclass with Andreu Enrich is built on the idea that reducing numbers and space forces more touches, more decisions and more repeated efforts per player. The same tool that teaches basic skills and off-ball principles is also a conditioning tool, because you can dial the physical demand up or down through pitch size, player numbers, rest between rounds and the rules you impose. A tight four-versus-four with short recoveries asks a very different physical question than a spread-out seven-versus-seven, and both keep sticks and a ball in every player’s hands.

Integrate the physical work rather than bolting it on. In Physically game ready, Mick Beunen, physical performance coach for the Belgian men, describes running small-sided games above 85 percent of maximum heart rate with limited rest to reproduce match intensity. His principle is that strength is the foundation but is never trained in isolation, it is always combined with speed, movement and game context. He also leans on dual tasks, pairing agility and running with decisions under pressure, so the movement is stored alongside the hockey rather than separate from it. For club teams with only two sessions a week, his advice is blunt, integrate physical skills into the hockey session and keep short strength routines on the side.

Condition through game scenarios, not just fitness tests. That thinking runs through Smart Pre-Season Planning with Russell Coates, who encourages coaches to reach match fitness through targeted hockey activities and game scenarios rather than isolated running drills. When the conditioning stimulus is wrapped inside a pressing game or a transition drill, players get fit while rehearsing the exact actions they need on a Saturday, which is a far better return on limited pitch time than laps of the field.

Sequence the week so the load lands where you want it. Conditioning inside drills can quietly overcook a squad if you do not plan the rhythm. In Practice Session Design, Fede Tanuscio treats session and week design as a deliberate act, deciding which sessions carry the highest physical demand and which pull back. If your Tuesday is a high-intensity small-sided block, your plan needs to know that, so the harder ball-based conditioning arrives on the right day and eases off before a match.

Measure it so it is not guesswork. Mastering Physical KPIs in Field Hockey with Wouter Blondeel is a useful companion here, because conditioning through drills only stays safe when you know what each drill actually costs. Whether that is sprint counts, explosive metres or simply honest intensity cues you can read off the group, having a KPI in mind turns a fun game into a controlled training load. Beunen makes a similar point about monitoring roles differently, midfielders on combined sprint and explosive distance, attackers on explosive metres.

Keep a little off-ball foundation in the mix. Not everything can live inside a stick and ball drill, and Injury Reduction Training Methods with Matthew Eyles is the reason why. Robustness, tissue tolerance and the prehab work that keeps players available are best handled with dedicated foundation strength, much of which Turner shows can be simple bodyweight work. That is the honest limit of conditioning inside drills, it can carry your aerobic base and your repeated-sprint quality, but it works best sitting on top of a small, non-negotiable block of foundation work.

Put together, the message from these coaches is reassuring, you rarely need to choose between fitness and the ball. Build small-sided games that run hard, integrate the physical demand into game scenarios, plan the week so the load lands well, keep an eye on what each session costs, and protect a little foundation work on the side. The masterclasses below go far deeper than any single session plan, and they are worth an evening if you want to design this properly.

Go more in depth here

Hockey Conditioning Made Simple

Glenn Turner
Hockey Conditioning Made Simple

Watch on demand

Physically game ready

Mick Beunen
Physically game ready

Watch on demand

Small Sided Games

Andreu Enrich
Small Sided Games

Watch on demand

Read next: Periodisation for Club Coaches, Pre-Season Training, Injury Reduction Training Methods.

More coaching questions: How do I get field hockey players fit for the real demands of a game?, What is the best field hockey warm-up to get game-ready and cut injuries?, How often should my players train before I’m overcooking them?, How do I know if my players are actually fit, and what’s a good score?. All of them are in Field Hockey Coaching Questions.

The experts mentioned in this article

Join us for more on this

Free coaching ideas from the world’s best, straight to your inbox.

Subscribe for free

Want the full on demand library?

See all of our on-demand content in full.

Get a Coach subscription

Lisa Letchford about the differences between boys and girls in SSG

Boys are more competitive and, if the game is set up well, will think their own way through it, while girls listen more and want to know the why, so Lisa adapts her style slightly for each. Both love the games. Up to under 14, before boys hit puberty and become faster and stronger, she rates mixed groups as a genuinely good thing. Watch the full masterclass: Basic skills through Small Sided Games.

Lisa Letchford about the S in SMART

Specific is the part of SMART Lisa leans on hardest. Coaches go wrong when they slip into what she calls hockey 101, talking about passing, receiving, tactics and defending all at once until players have heard fifty things and kept none. Instead she names one skill, tied to a tactic where relevant, her example being the centre forward’s closing lines when cutting the pitch, and watches only for that. Watch the full masterclass: Basic skills through Small Sided Games.

Lisa Lechford about options to set up SSG

Six decisions shape every game Lisa sets up: space, time on the ball, numbers, reward or penalty, where on the pitch, and constraints. She is firmly a reward coach, using bonus points for the target skill or the mystery contents of Linda the lion, her prize bag. Constraints like two touch or reverse-only teach players when a skill fits, and overloads such as 3v1 give a new skill room to appear. Watch the full masterclass: Basic skills through Small Sided Games.

Lisa Letchford about loud parents and the M from SMART

Shouting parents get put to work in Lisa’s sessions: she hands them the M in SMART, a measuring job. Give them something to count during the game, how many long passes, how often the centre forward cuts the pitch successfully, whatever the group is working on. Higher up the game she’d use video for the same purpose, though she keeps it away from the little ones. Watch the full masterclass: Basic skills through Small Sided Games.

Lisa Letchford about SSG vs drills

There’s no fixed ratio for Lisa, who thinks in stages rather than age groups. Her preference is to start with gameplay because it shows the why, break the skill down in isolation only when the game isn’t improving it, then put it straight back into a game, roughly thirds if you had to split the time. A typical plan holds three or four different games, never one all session. Watch the full masterclass: Basic skills through Small Sided Games.

Lisa Letchford about differentiation in SSG

Differentiation, for Lisa, means everyone moves from A to B in a session, just with those points set differently per player. Her levers are space, task, equipment and groupings, and she often lays out three versions of a skill, say basic receive, cushion receive and receive across the body, then lets players choose. In her experience kids almost always pick the level that’s right for them. Watch the full masterclass: Basic skills through Small Sided Games.

Lisa Letchford about SSG without stick and ball

Swap the hockey ball for a tennis ball or a basketball, Lisa suggests, and keep the same ideas going: still hunting 2v1s, still working on leading. She likes opening a session that way, and rates frisbee or kicking a football as options too. For little ones the multi-sport exposure matters, especially in Belgium where children rarely play anything outside their club sport. Watch the full masterclass: Basic skills through Small Sided Games.

Lisa Letchford about timing for youth in SSG

For eight and nine year olds Lisa suggests 40 minutes to an hour, with anything beyond the hour starting to turn tiresome. Within that she caps a single game at roughly 20 minutes, often switching after 10 if play is fast flowing, and keeps an A, B and C plan ready with isolated skill work to drop in when the game isn’t showing what she’s after. Watch the full masterclass: Basic skills through Small Sided Games.

Lisa Letchford about her favourite SSG

A continuous 3v1, or 3v2 for stronger groups, is the game Lisa reaches for most. Three attackers come on with the ball, and the defender only needs to touch it to force a turnover, which stops the attackers playing into contact; fresh players then enter from the opposite end so play never stops. From there she varies the numbers, the pitch size and the constraints. Watch the full masterclass: Basic skills through Small Sided Games.

Lisa Letchford about active vs passive coaching in SSG

Even Lisa catches herself talking too long and has to get off the pitch again, so she accepts the balance is hard to find. Her markers: don’t stay in tell mode, use open questions and peer feedback, and keep every intervention on the one thing the session is about. Pure observation bothers her just as much, a coach who only stands back, or worse checks their phone, isn’t moving anyone forward. Watch the full masterclass: Basic skills through Small Sided Games.

Lisa Letchford about hitting practice in SSG

Hitting is one of the hardest skills to reach inside small sided games, Lisa admits, because it needs space. Her answer is a continuous 3v1 where every pass must be a hit, giving attackers time against a single defender. She then reinforces the parts of the technique separately, hands together, ball near the left foot, head over the ball and kept still. Watch the full masterclass: Basic skills through Small Sided Games.

Load More