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Several years ago my daughter decided she wanted to play a fall sport and opted to give field hockey a try. Not knowing too much about it she asked her coach for advice as to what position she should play. Bound by necessity the coach totally endorsed the position of goal keeper. To see my little girl's face peeking out through a mass of leather and wire was quite comical. Her pads could pass as rejects from a samurai's wardrobe. The game was very interesting. Lots of fast action and lots of whistles. It seemed that the whistle was being blown at every exhale of the referee. My daughter didn't face many shots in her early games but that would change dramatically during the 6v6 winter season.
During the winter months members of the team played in a 6 vs 6 league held in Topsfield. The game was the same but it was played indoors, was much faster and much more intense. This would be a good place to hone her newly developing skills. There was at least one game every week sometimes more as she would fill in for the goalies at the higher levels. My respect and admiration for my daughter soared during those games. There were times when she seemed to be a target at an NRA convention. She let in a lot of goals but she was improving. On one occasion I had to comfort her with some strange but true facts. She had let in fourteen goals, but had faced over one hundred shots during the 50 minute time span of the game. All things considered I thought she was doing quite well and she was determined to be as good as she could be. Her skills did improve and by the end of the 20 week season she was posting shut outs. I was quite the proud dad in the stands listening to all the people rave about her. She is the goalie pictured and now plays at Eastern University in Pennsylvania.
As I watched her week to week, I was eventually drawn to this great sport. I began to help out as a coach and began reading everything I could get my hands on. Having been a football coach for over 20 years at the high school level, I knew how important position and communication was on a playing field. I also knew the importance of speed and a well thought out plan of attack. Therefore I was quite bewildered to find that in field hockey the strategic and tactical level of play was very low compared to sports that had not been around as long. After much research I began developing a system which will help increase the level of play, speed up the game and allow the players to play to the full extent of the rules. While none of the theories and techniques revealed here are new they may be new to this sport. The women, young and old, who play this game are extremely skilled and hard working athletes. This website is dedicated to the sport of field hockey, a sport, which deserves much more respect and attention than it gets compared to other sports.
