An outdoor field hockey team is made up of eleven players. Ten of them in field positions and one goalkeeper. The general fitness needed to play hockey well include a good overall level of fitness, speed, agility and an amount of flexibility. All of these skills can be learnt and can be enhanced throughout your time as a player. Hockey Drill Videos by Sportplan.net are a good way to improve and further expand your playing skills.
The positions played in hockey are either of an offensive or defensive nature and can be split into the categories of the midfield, the defensive, the fullbacks and the goalkeeper. Knowing what skills and attributes are needed to be successful in each of these positions means that you can make the most of your athletic skills as well as those of your team mates and it also makes it easier when looking at hockey drill videos to know which ones to focus on.
- Midfield – this includes the positions of inners and centre half. These players move around the entire field and they are positions that involve lots of running, especially as a standard hockey field measures 91.4 metres by 55 metres (or 100 yards by 60 yards).
- Defensive – this area is made up of the half backs, full backs and the goalkeeper. All of these players usually stay in their playing position areas and defend the goal area against the wingers of the opposing team.
- Fullbacks – These players remain in the defensive area of the field and
- Goalkeeper – as a specialist position on the field this player often stays in the goal circle area. It is in this area that they can use their body to block the ball as well as their stick etc, but they can not use their body in any other part of the field.
There are a number of general skills that are needed by each player in the game including pushing, hitting, trapping, dribbling and tackling. The amount that each skill is used and needed varies depending on the playing positions.
- Strikers – this includes the wingers and centre forwards. These players will be tasked with shooting goals and need to display quick skills with the hockey stick as well as excellent speed and overall good athleticism.
- Midfield players are known to be playing in the hardest position on the field this is because not only do they need to have good shooting, dribbling and passing skills to be able to assist with the goal scoring but also to have excellent marking and tackling skills to be able to help in a defensive manner and prevent the opposition from breaking through and achieving a goal themselves.
- Defensive players – their overall strategy is to keep the opposition from scoring and as such their key skills are excellent stick control as well as effective tackling skills.
- Goalkeeper – as a specialist position responsible for being the last line of defence of the goal keeper, this individual needs to have great speed, hand-eye coordination, flexibility and the confidence to face the fast-paced balls that inevitably will come flying in their direction.
