Alan Brahmst announced as Canadian Men's Coach

As part of Field Hockey Canada’s (FHC) strategic roadmap and in consideration of achieving the near term objective of winning the Pan American Cup in March, 2008, FHC has appointed Alan Brahmst (Toronto, Ontario) as the interim coach for the Men's National Team. Alan will bring with him a proven staff with tremendous experience and varied expertise to continue the team's significant progress, which had been engineered and led by Louis Mendonca during the past 2 years.

'I feel confident in our capacities to further develop the tactical and technical capabilities necessary to continue our rise in world rankings. The coaching staff has begun to collaborate on a number of opportunities to introduce leading game strategies and has implemented new and innovative practice components. We have full confidence in our abilities to design and execute a successful tournament strategy in Santiago'. Alan further stated that 'the progress in our player development has paid dividends and with limited retirements since the Olympics, we have a strong pool of players from which to build a dangerous team'.

Alan Brahmst has been an assistant to Louis Mendonca since 2007 and was most recently part of the coaching staff at the Beijing Olympics with the responsibility to develop the tournament's tactical plan. With a 15-year career with the national team and 178 internationals, Alan was an integral part of the Canadian men’s team that ranked as high as 8th during the 90s.

Alan's appointment is in line with Field Hockey Canada's commitment to an innovative 'Made in Canada' approach for developing the sport by leveraging and building on the existing expertise of our Canadian resources.

Source: Field Hockey Canada

Paul Revington new professional coach of Ireland men's team

The Irish Hockey Association is delighted to announce the appointment of Paul Revington to the position of National Men’s Coach.

South African born Revington was appointed by the selection committee, which included representatives from both Sports Councils, a retired senior athlete, the High Performance Director, Chair of the Board and Chief Executive, after a rigorous interview process against internationally recognised coaches from around the world and Ireland.

Revington brings a wealth of experience to the role but in particular from his three years as Head Coach of the South African Men’s Team where under his reign they moved from 14th to 10th in the world rankings, qualifying and competing in both the 2004 Olympics and 2006 World Cup.

Chief Executive Angus Kirkland was clearly excited about the new appointment “On behalf of the selection committee, I am delighted to introduce Paul Revington as the new Men’s National Coach. Having coached the South African Men’s team qualifying them for the 2004 Olympics and 2006 World cup he is well placed to lead Irelands Men to the next Olympics. He will take over a team that is shaping up well for 2012, thanks in large part to the hard work Dave Passmore has put in over the last four years. Passmore becomes the High Performance Director, a role he has been doing in a dual capacity with the Head Coach. It is an exciting time for Irish Men’s Hockey as we move forward with a world class coach and for the first time a fully complemented High Performance structure.”

Revington, who will officially commence the position early in the New Year will have an opportunity to see his new team in action against Scotland later this month, commented earlier on his appointment “It is an honour for me to be appointed as the new Irish Men's Senior Hockey coach. I have watched the Irish Team and Irish Hockey grow consistently over the years and am excited to become a part this organisation. There is fantastic talent and existing strengths within Irish Men's Hockey and I look forward to creating a dynamic environment that enhances this talent and strength."

Passmore who will now have the opportunity to focus solely on his role as High Performance Director was keen to express his thanks as he know steps away from the Senior Coaching role “I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those athletes and management that have committed so much to the program since I arrived four years ago. We can look back on the fact that we have made significant progress and laid the foundations for this group to now go on and get the results we came so close to achieving. Trying to establish an elite sports environment as amateurs requires real dedication and commitment. The athletes have sacrificed so much over the past few years as have the staff, many of which are volunteers. I hope they have enjoyed the journey (the highs and lows) as much as I have, and I look forward to watching the team achieving greater success moving forward.”

Source: Irish Hockey Association

THE position of head coach of the SA men’s hockey team is available.

Courtesy of Jon Cook
SA Hockey Association (Saha) general manager Paul Richards sent out a statement Friday that the successful applicant is required to “take our men to the World Cup in 2010″.

Saha president Dave Carr told Weekend Witness Friday that this new development doesn’t mean the national hockey body is firing the current coach, Gregg Clark, who took SA captain Bruce Jacobs’ side to the Beijing Olympics last month, where they finished 12th and last.
“Gregg has a one-year contract that expires at the end of this month and in terms of legalities and a professional approach there is a requirement to advertise the post once again,” said Carr.
“Clarkie has indicated to Saha that he is considering applying for the job again, while it is also in SA hockey’s interest that we take this opportunity to cast the net in order to look at the quality of candidate that would be interested.”

In answer to a question as to the future of SA women’s head coach Jenny King, who took captain Marsha Marescia’s team to the Olympic Games in China, where they finished 11th out of the 12 countries who qualified for hockey’s quadrennial showpiece event, Carr said the situation was different. “Jenny has a four-year contract that expires after Hockey World Cup 2010,” the Saha president said.

One of the requirements of applicants is to explain what they, as SA men’s head coach, can bring to the role and how they would set out about achieving this.

There could well be a number of leading coaches in KZN who would be interested in the full-time position, which has a negotiable remuneration package.
They are invited to apply to Saha coaching portfolio head Lennie Botha at lennie.botha@hp.com by October 14.

Pullilng the ball to the right

Had an interesting discussion with 2 junior hockey coaches last night with regards to the ability to pull the ball to the right hand side.

Because the majority of hockey players are right handed / right hand dominant the natural instinct when running with the ball, is to pull the ball hard to the left to go round an opponent.

Much of this is attributed to not developing these muscles and body mechanics early on as a youth player.

Youth players need to be coached to move the ball to the right - it is a physical skill that takes practice and the earlier they learn it, the stronger they will be at it when they get older.

Create entire exercises that focus on movement to the right.

It is important also to not let players simply pivot on their right foot and then still pull to the left. That is defeating the object and is as predictable.

The pull must be a genuine controlled movement to the right hand side...

Basics in coaching

Many coaches (particularly at higher school and club levels) seem to forget the value of coaching basics to their players.

Instead the interest seems to be on developing horrificly complicated short (penalty) corners or set pieces.

While these do have some merit (when they can actually be executed properly), many sides suffer from not having good solid basics that allows them to pick up a ball on either front or back (weak) sticks.

Until your players can make and receive 5-10 metre passes, your chances of being consistent and being able to execute many of the expansive set pieces you have developed will be nullified. Focus on the basics and you will open up your level of play and success enormously.

Spend time during practice, irrespective of level of player, reinforcing and demanding a high level of basic hit / stop / pass execution while static and then on the move. When these skills are developed, then you can start looking at the set pieces.

Welcome to the Hockey Strategist

Welcome to the Hockey Strategist blog

I'm a South African sports enthusiast who is involved in hockey, cricket and rugby at different levels.

Field Hockey in South Africa, while relatively well established, lacks a lot of resources and exposure to take it to the next level and make it genuinely competitive on the international scene. At club level, many of the coaches lack formalised training and you see the same ex players being rotated amongst the clubs.

New coaches wishing to join, don't have resources to exchange ideas and spread the knowledge. For this reason, I've decided to try and create a platform from which South African coaches and administrators can interact with international counterparts, list clubs, coaching opportunities etc and try and take advantage of the power of the internet to build their hockey skills.

We invite comment from coaches around the world on various positions, tactics, teams and tours to try and turn this into a thoroughly interactive site.