The Women's Side of Sport

The Training Ground Quick Overview: If you win the ball and hesitate, did you win the moment?

Players: As many as you feel comfortable with in a 25-yard space.

Space: Half-field; 25-yard space to start with.

Equipment: cones, goal, ball

Flow/Rotation: Have multiple teams ready; can have the team that scores stay on or sub off, depending upon your objective.

Focus:

Winning the moment of transition, to either attack or defense.

Game Transfer:

How can you train your players to identify transition moments and communicate, run, and execute to win the few moments of chaos before your opponents recognizes and gets organized?

Steal & Strike: How to Run it

How to Play:

In this example, the white team has possession. They receive a point for every three consecutive passes they make without a defensive touch on the ball. Blue is doing their best to defend and win the ball from them.

When blue wins the ball, the game switches from possession to transition. Blue quickly attacks the goal, while white must do their best to prevent them from scoring. All normal rules of hockey apply; umpire as such.

Players must be encouraged to control the chaos of transition and get organized as quickly as possible. Play ends when the team defending the goal win the ball and carry or pass to a teammate above the 25 yard line.

Rotation:

You can decide what happens when a goal is scored, and how many points players get. The team(s) off come on when a goal is scored – for the team who scored? Or the team scored upon?

Coaching Cues:

This is a game that builds over time. Teams get better at communication and expectations for players. Encouraging players to utilize their principles of play to get organized quickly is important. You should naturally see the team playing the possession game at the beginning start to keep a player or two on the hotline as a “counter cover” player after the opposing team streaks directly to goal on a turnover. Some teams will even keep the ball up near the 50-yard line to force the opposing team to play through that full space when they win the ball (so they can’t get to the goal before they do). It’s interesting to see how the gamesmanship develops.

Depending on the level of your team, you can force them to organize in live play, or you can give them debriefing time every 5 minutes or so. Better teams should be forced to do this on the fly (the most game like) with minimal input from coaching staff aside from questioning and encouraging. Less experienced teams will likely require more support and less challenge initially.

What this Drill Actually Teaches:

The game teaches the players some of the roles they need to be aware of very naturally. Coaches may need to ask them whether or not they notice it initially, but the recognition will develop.

This also gives the players ownership of their defensive roles within their defensive team structure and principles. Ask them to play it as true to your game play as possible.

Transition to Attack:

Can we go immediately to the goal?

How can we get behind their defenders quickly?

Where can we create attacking overloads?

Transition to Defense:

Can we protect the hotline?

Are we able to cut the field in half?

Who is applying ball pressure?

How can we slow them down?

Where does our goalkeeper want us to force them?

Steal & Strike: How to Coach It

A – Key Coaching Points

• Depending on your training emphasis (attack or defense), stop play if that group is consistently unsuccessful in executing your team’s plan.
• Remind them of your principles, where you want them to attack, how you want them to force, what their first look should be, etc. repetition may seem boring but that is how you get the most “ah ha” moments.
• Do your best to let the game teach them. It will tell them if it’s going well by the amount of success they have. It will also feedback anything they are not executing well. When you see it, give them one more attempt, then lead them to the problem with your question(s). Encourage them to solve said problem on their own once you help them become aware of it.

B – What to Watch For

• are players carrying or looking to pass first?
• are decisions early or late?
• is anyone pressuring the ball, or is everyone dropping initially?
• are they able to organize quickly? Why or why not?

C – When to Step In

• Freeze the play and ask them what they see after you’ve led them to the problem a few times. Catching it in the moment and delivering concurrent feedback can lead to more “ah-ha” moments.
• Questions that lead them to the answers help them learn – don’t be afraid to ask those.
• Strike a balance between moments when the drill does the teaching, and when you need to show them/help them find the problem.

Common Breakdowns: What Goes Wrong

Some common coaching frustrations in this drill

• players play too fast without seeing what’s in front of them (opponents, GK’s, ball off endline, into stick lane, etc)
• players win the ball and pause; transition is best when it’s QUICK
• Off-ball movement is reactive instead of intentional; teammates don’t know where or how to run through to support the ball carrier and challenge the defense.

Ways to Increase Learning

• Constraints: goals don’t count until an attacking player touches the baseline (forces stretch and challenges the defense); the player who turned the ball over has to touch the 50-yard line before they can defend (forces teammates to step to ball); first look must be a lateral or through pass before anyone transitioning to attack can carry (eyes up; find the deep player).
• Ask them how they’re cutting the field in half, and how they’re communicating the plan when transitioning to defense.

Example prompts coaches can use:

• “where was your space to attack? why didn’t you use it?”
• “what about that play made it the right decision?”
• “what did you see before receiving?”
• “how did you know to pressure and step to force them that way?”

Progressions & Adaptations

• If your team initially struggles with this concept, try a constraint like, “a goal in 3 or fewer passes is worth triple” so they look to pass first. You can also give the team in possession one less player so the team transitioning to attack can go to goal with numbers.
• If this is easy for your team, you can add a time limit or again the # of passes constraint to force them to be smart about their passes. You can give the team playing possession a number advantage so in defensive transition they can double the ball, making transition to attack harder for the other group.
• You can also always change the objective – again depending on your training focus for the day. Add a neutral player who represents a free player waiting in the circle, etc.

Game Transfer

This drill forces your players to organize and plan their transition moments. A team who can manage the transition well on both sides of the ball is difficult to beat. Consider how you can tie this drill to your transition principles to truly get the most out of your players.

This is another moment where while the drill does much of the teaching, it is still important for the coach to highlight the technical and tactical aspects that either need work or are successful. The small moments within the drill make the biggest difference on game day.

The Bigger Picture

Grabbing drills is great, but if you’re not being intentional about what and how you’re training, your players won’t become strong decision makers.

If we want our players to perform in transition, we have to train game-like transitions.

“Steal & Strike” does exactly that—it puts players in the moments that decide games and asks them to figure it out.

That’s the Modern Coach Toolkit:

less control from the coach, more ownership from the player, and training that actually looks like the game.

Grab your copy of the full version here: