Lisa’s fix for poor listeners is positive reinforcement: catch the child doing something even slightly right, jump on it immediately, and they will usually tune in the next time the group comes together. She adds a practical trick, stand with your back to the most boring part of the pitch so the players face you rather than watching the action behind you. Watch the full masterclass: Basic skills through Small Sided Games.
Small sided games do nearly all the work here. Sessions open with rondos, 5v2 or 6v3, where the point is constant movement rather than passing alone, and isolated drills are largely dropped in favour of competitive formats. Technical demands get built into the game instead, along with kit like deflection boards, heavy balls and egg balls, and feedback delivered to individuals as play continues. Watch the full masterclass: Receiving skills.
Hockey is complex, variable and unpredictable, and Enrich’s argument is that you cannot expect to play a complex sport well if you train it under simplified conditions. Small sided games respect that internal logic: no situation ever repeats exactly, and the same game played a month apart produces different behaviours and results. That, he says, is precisely why they work. Watch the full masterclass: Small Sided Games.
Constraints are the coach’s levers, and Enrich works through them: field shape and zones, densities, playing time and rhythm, scoring systems, technical and tactical rules, goal placement, even the umpire and the players’ senses. His favourite paradox concerns width: make the pitch wide and flat and players run straight at goal, but make it narrow and they naturally start using the full width to progress. Watch the full masterclass: Small Sided Games.
How many small sided games in a two hour session, and how long should each one last? Enrich’s answer: as many as you can, with length set by intensity. An 8v8 can run 12 minutes, a 4v4 no more than 4, often played in two-minute sets with equal rest. Past 15 to 20 minutes on one game, players switch off. Watch the full masterclass: Small Sided Games.
A typical Enrich session starts with a playful small sided warm up, sometimes not even hockey, then splits the squad across two or three micro games, each focused on one principle or dimension, with every player rotating through all of them. From there the session builds from micro to macro, ending around 6v6 or 5v5, with one day a week reserved for a big 8v8. Watch the full masterclass: Small Sided Games.
Goalkeepers are the forgotten players in training design, Enrich says, and he offers fixes. If a game gives them few actions, hand them a separate attentional focus such as organising the defence. Better still, involve them: play inside the circle with two goals, let a goalie join the other team’s attack with their feet, or put them into big possession games so they learn to read situations. Watch the full masterclass: Small Sided Games.
His advice for winning over sceptical colleagues is practical: run small sided games for a week, then ask the players what they prefer, because they will always choose to play. Beyond that, point doubters to the research, since the approach rests on published study rather than personal taste, and Enrich expects the shift to happen across the sport anyway. Watch the full masterclass: Small Sided Games.
Unmotivated players get one prescription from Enrich: more playing, because everyone likes to play. He recalls watching 12-a-side games in India with one-metre goals that finished 1-0 after 25 minutes, and asking the coach what would happen with 10 or 15 metre goals instead. More goals, more fun. Design games so players actually score, and the motivation looks after itself. Watch the full masterclass: Small Sided Games.
Positional play fits micro games through its principles, Enrich explains, above all body orientation, facing the play so your position responds to the ball, teammates and opponents, plus maximising field of vision through scanning and peripheral sight. He points to Barcelona under Guardiola, who progressed from rondos, essentially micro small sided games, to positional plays with fixed occupied zones, and then on to free games. Watch the full masterclass: Small Sided Games.