This is twelve years now since I started playing hockey and I realise that indoor hockey is a fast game that requires team work. The space does not allow any good player to be selfish. To play indoor means that you work altogether. Six players whose aim is to build the best strategy to score efficiently and quickly.
Of course, it is even easier if your team is full of very good players. However, I believe that if you know how to play and if you respect each others role then you can play very good hockey.
This article aims at looking at the basics of indoor hockey concerning the position of the players or basic tactics.The first situation we can look at is a free hit outside the D.
This is not the best tactic but it works if it is applied strictly. The keeper should not stay on his line, it is too easy to score.
In example 1, the keeper and two players try to reduce the angle of the player with the ball by forming a wall. They must ensure that there is no hole in the wall. The three players remaining will have their stick on the ground and will be placed as follows, one on the line, one marking his man and the last one ready to counter attack but keeping an eye on any option.
The aim of the attacking team will be to move this defence. The best way to do it is to play towards the back. Then the defending team should follow the ball. Pace and skills will enable the attacking team to go round the defence in order to score.
In the second situation, we look at the position of the defending team. Three players (the two wings and the centre-mid) will form a triangle that I call funnel to prevent the other team from passing the ball or give as little solution as possible. They should all move together in case the call is passed on one or the other side of the pitch.
Indoor hockey is a very good game to practise defence skills or triangles.
Another important thing to remember is that defenders do not mark their man strictly.
There is no point for the defenders to follow their man. They have to organise the defence so that everybody knows (the other defender and the keeper know) who is behind who, it takes time and practice, but it works if it is well organised. To mark your man would create a "no man?s land" in the centre which would allow any good player to score.
If the first wall acting as a funnel fails to get the ball, the fact that the players at the back are not marking their man gives them a better chance to get the ball more easily and counter attack.
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