For Ben, character means the good teammate who is coachable and will do anything for the team, and he wants a critical mass of them in a squad. His example is Thomas Briels: left out of the original Tokyo selection, he stayed ready, played seven of the eight games, and threw himself in front of a shot for a deflected goal. That selflessness rubs off on teammates. Watch the full masterclass: Off ball skills.
Hierarchy is something a coach has to manage deliberately, Ben tells Tim White: know who the alpha dogs are, pull the 400-gamer aside so a 20-gamer can speak in meetings, and hand rookies defined leadership portfolios, such as scouting how other sports do things. Tim adds Shane McLeod’s observation that Belgium’s senior Olympians were happy to let the young ones take on responsibility. Watch the full masterclass: Off ball skills.
Culture starts with the environment, Shane says. Belgium built an Olympic Room lined with photos chosen to show their players dominating Holland, Germany and Australia, then ran simple trust exercises such as speed dating rounds of structured feedback. He also facilitated an open conversation between two players over a lingering Indian league grievance, arguing that issues discussed honestly deflate, while those swept under the carpet resurface in pressure moments. Watch the full masterclass: Ask Me Anything with Shane McLeod.
Both, is Cheesman’s answer: generic team principles and specific player roles work together. Principles guide how you want to enter the circle, while roles put your difference makers where their strengths count, which is why the player with the best delivery should not be the one standing on the ball, since a long corner cannot be passed straight into the circle. Everything starts from knowing what your team and individuals can actually do. Watch the full masterclass: Unlocking Long Corner Tactics in Field Hockey with Darren Cheesman.
A team has a life of its own, made of roles, norms and relationships. Formal roles bring clarity, but the informal ones that emerge matter just as much for efficiency. Norms are the unwritten rules; setting values at the start of the season turns them into explicit guidelines. Relationships hit performance directly, so Joy points to Moreno’s sociometry, a secret questionnaire mapping who connects with whom, as a tool for picking a starting line-up. Watch the full masterclass: Building a powerful team.