Learning Hockey:
Increase the odds of winning with effortless pass and run

So you’ve read about pushing and passing the ball, but does that mean you’ve mastered the passing game just yet? Passing is very much at the heart of field hockey, keeping the ball in play, setting up goal-scoring opportunities, eliminating defenders, and what not.

The passing going forward in twos is a technique related to this. Two players with a ball keep passing to each other while running forward to a point and then come back. The player on the left passes the ball to the one on the right using the reverse stick, with the pass angled to the front of the other player. A deceptive version of the pass is to pull the ball to the right and immediately pass to the left, or vice-versa.

The players need to be slightly bent forward while running with the ball, giving them partial vision ahead, mainly from the top of their eyes. They should be about a metre apart as they move forward, continually passing to each other. This distance can be increased as they get more comfortable with the passing. This will help them improve the accuracy of the pass. One other thing to note is that the ball needs to be in front of the players, and not to the left or right. The players need to ensure this by controlling the tap on the ball.

To increase the difficulty level for this passing practice, you could add a defender and make it a 2 vs. 1 exercise, with the objective being to try and eliminate the defender. This same passing while moving forward can be done with additional players as well. Continue reading to know more about passing going forward in threes.