Happy Friday!  I hope you’re gearing up for a great hockey weekend, getting started with this week’s Playbook.  

As any of the players who have played for my teams over the years will attest - the subject line of this email is a regular scream / shout that emanates from the sideline I am occupying when coaching.

As a coach I know I am certainly not alone in this endeavor - playing & exploiting the right hand side in hockey is an adage as old as time.  In hockey as in life there can be polar opposite views with how we interpret and deal with ‘age-old wisdom’.

On one hand our world is a dynamic, fast changing environment and never more so than in 2026. Our sport of hockey has changed more than most in the last 20 years; the emergence of backhand/reverse side skills, 3D skills & overheads, the evolution of the drag flick.  We are playing almost a different sport from the 1980s, the last time Great Britain won Olympic Gold 😪

And therefore many of these ‘old ideas’ of how to play are surely irrelevant?  

Or maybe not.  Ideas thought of as ‘old fashioned’ or archaic can actually be the first principles.  They can be the unmoving bedrocks and foundations of a particular discipline.  Those laws that remain constant even when everything else seems in flux, like gravity itself - and therefore should ALWAYS be considered.

In my humble opinion - PLAYING RIGHT is hockey’s equivalent to gravity.  It is a fundamental principle that every team and coach should be maximizing for, ignore it at your peril!

Continuing to analyze the latest, December FIH Pro League matches England Men’s 4-1 victory over Germany is a great reminder of this principle.  England’s first two goals showcase some classic right side principles that all players should be aware of, both to exploit when attacking and to try and mitigate when defending.  Let’s dive into both.

‍

Goal One

Let’s start with the fun side, with the ball.  Williamson, the English right sided defender starts this move with a classic, high level receive.  He lets the ball roll across his body and then attacks the space behind the German forward with his first touch infield, giving him space from the sideline in a strong protected carrying position but also with good vision downfield.

This is one of the many components of ‘right-side advantage’, you can protect the ball with your body and also see downfield towards goal.  This allows players to play meaningful passes forward quickly - without as much risk of being tackled.  On the left side, you can’t do both at the same time.   You either protect or you open up your body and with it risk ball security, to be able to play downfield - you can’t do both.

I digress, back to the game, Williamson sends a great pass through the inside right channel which thanks to a clever leave by Sorsby reaches James Oates in the forward line.  Again we see a trademark skill from Oates to exploit the right side.  Receiving back to goal and then rolling right.  This skill protects the ball the entire time, allowing Oates to release Sorsby (who made a fantastic overlapping run) into the very dangerous space on the right baseline.  

It’s almost impossible to defend this sequence, the ball is never put at risk and even close to a defensive player.  Rolling strong and then connecting to an overlap is a structural advantage only available attacking down the right and another key component of ‘right-side advantage’.

From here a cross and deflection put England 1-0 up.  But I’m more interested in these previous sequences that unlock the cross.  These are very repeatable passages of play that almost always yield great results and I think players & coaches alike should pay attention to that.

1. Across the body receive & carry inside with the ball in a strong position
2. Receive back to goal, roll and pass to an overlapping runner

‍

Goal Two

The second goal again showcases concept #1 from above but I want to use this passage of play to talk about the defensive side of ‘right-side advantage’ and how to combat it.  As we have seen it is not easy and defenders on this side are at a structural and technical disadvantage which means other small details need to be perfect to survive.

One of the more common details I see missed and one that is demonstrated here is the positioning and angles taken up by left sided players when defending.  

I want to stress that still images of a live match can be misinterpreted and very unfair on the players in question, we do not know the priorities that players are given by their coach.  For the defender in question, he is in a great position to stop a direct ball into the circle, which maybe his primary job, in which case he is doing it!  

However this also shows where you can be weak against defending a right sided attacker.  The arrow shows that he is in front of the attacker line.  This means and we see it play out in the game, a simple pass and good first touch will let the outside player get in behind and there is no way the defender can catch up.

If…the priority in this situation is to defend against the right side attack then he has to be level with the English right winger.   Being level will mean he can cut off the run behind him when the pass is played, being ahead gives him no chance.

Like I said we don’t know what his priorities were but it shows the importance of positioning when defending the left side.  Being one or two feet out of position can lead to giving up goal scoring opportunities.   Unfortunately defenders on this side have to be almost perfect in two priorities at once:  

1. Protecting the middle, you don’t want to let a line breaking pass into the circle
2. Staying level with outside attackers, so that one simple pass does not take you out of the contest

Despite all the new skills, goal scoring techniques and aerial dimensions to modern hockey - ‘the right-side advantage’ is still as alive and well today as it was in the 60s or 80s, so don’t forget it!