IceHockey Coaches and Wooden Balls - South African UniHoki is Alive and Well

i recently got involved in the running of the inline hockey club where
we play our UniHoki
the club is small and seems to be in not the greatest shape in the world
and if they should close down, we'll lose the kewlest UniHoki 'rink'
(http://gallery.unicyclist.com/South-African-Uni-Hockey) in the world
and that wouldn't be kewl

during a recent comittee meeting (oh how i hate those things), a
possible coaching clinic was discussed
to be run by a young man who's studying Ice- and InLine Hockey coaching
in Finland
he's back in south africa for a short visit and they tried to put
something together at fairly short notice
due to the short notice, they couldn't get enough people together to
make it viable
i was quite keen on getting involved as im sure there must be sufficient
simmilarities between the various hockey disciplines to be able to get
some benefit from such a course
i decided to give the guy a call and invite him down to the game
yesterday 'just to have a look if he could add something to the way we
play the game'
that was really the full and final extent of my intention at the time
well, we got the bargain package
he watched us play for a 'first to 10' game
('The Dark Side' (we always play in black t-shirts) kicked the crap out
of the other team 10-2)

then Lawrence jumped on the rink and proceeded to take us thru the best
part of a 2 hour coaching session
focusing on the basics of cycle-control, riding forwards, backwards and
making sharp turns
he was also oddly keen on us being able to move laterally, which seemed
rather quaint at first, but when used to close down an attack, proved to
be a rather interesting move

he introduced us to the wonder of wooden balls
they are 40mm in diameter (a touch more than an inch) and are fairly
light
they're used in Ice-and InLine hockey coaching
since u're not supposed to strike the ball with the head of the stick,
but rather move it around in a sweep-like movement (and simmilarly
receive the ball with a reverse of the sweep movement), there should
never be ay audible 'TOCKING' when passing the ball to and fro
the wooden balls make it very obvious when u're not doing this
properly
these balls are also very quick and may well become our ball of choice
with the bevelled corners and the chest-high wall around the rink, these
balls make it possible to play 'rim-shots' (all drummers, relax) where u
can be riding back in defence and play the ball back down the wall,
around the back of your own goal, and right onto the stick of your team
mate who's calmly waiting on the other side of the pitch
there is waaay less chance of an opposing player intercepting this pass
than a traditional square pass

Lawrence also pointed out that it was very obvious that we didn't
practise very much as we tended to all chase the ball, much like under8
soccer players
this he adressed by introducing more than one ball in a practise game
and by splitting the teams (we were playing 4-a-side yesterday) down the
middle and limiting each pair to one half of the field only

he also took us thru some basic zonal play and a couple of basic
'break-out' plays for use when u restart the game after conceding a
goal

we played a game after the coaching, and the difference was immediately
apparant

if u're serious about your UniHoki, try n find an Ice- InLine Hockey
coach and see if u can arrange for a couple of coaching sessions





--
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