Happy Friday! I hope you’re gearing up for a great hockey weekend — let’s get into this week’s Playbook.

Watching the Hoofdklasse finals this week was, as always, a pleasure, and the quality of the hockey and goals was as high as ever.

In the Men’s Division, Rotterdam won their first championship in 13 years, defeating Amsterdam over two legs to win 5–4 on aggregate. **** Both matches were absorbing affairs and, as always, had their share of goals from penalty corners.  But it was the two open-play goals in the second leg that got my attention.

Rotterdam won the first leg 3-2 away in Amsterdam and so were holding a slender advantage going back on their home ground.

Amsterdam then took a 1-0 lead (and leveled the tie) with this incredible deflection from Sam Steins Bisschop. Let’s have a look:

Following this, each side scored one goal from corner routines to leave the final tied at 4-4 (Amsterdam 2-1 ahead in the second leg) with just 1 minute left.  And then Joaquin Menini sent another deflection into the top corner to win the Championship.

Here is the most important goal of the Men’s Hoofdklasse season:

Both of these goals share many similarities.

Both show aggressive off-the-ball leads by the forwards, allowing them to beat defenders to the ball.

Both show incredible touch and hand control to guide the ball into the top corner.

And, both show the value of accurate, hard hitting from the crash ball into the circle.

It is this last similarity that I want to focus on today.  Because I think it highlights an important concept that is potentially being forgotten in some coaching circles:

THE VALUE OF HITTING!

With the emergence of beautiful, flat, fast water turf fields, we all know the technical skillsets of players have changed over the years.  It’s been well documented across and the sport — and by me in this newsletter.

One of the biggest changes has been the emergence of the sweep pass.  A passing skill that allows a player to generate almost as much ball speed as a hit, but with:

• greater consistency and accuracy
• a flatter trajectory — making it easier to receive
• more disguise — making it harder to intercept

These are some significant advantages and so it is correct and of no surprise that coaches and development programs spend more and more time developing this skill.

The issue is that, in some quarters, it has been assumed that sweeping almost completely replaces the need to hit the ball, and so hitting technique and reps have been neglected — and in some cases totally replaced — by sweeping practice.

This is a large mistake.

As the goals highlighted today show us, hitting the ball still has immense value and, outside of drag flicking, is often the most decisive skill in a high-level game.

The fact that the ball direction and trajectory are more unpredictable are precisely why it is valuable.  Yes your teammates might find it more challenging but so will the defenders of the opposition!

Being able to generate maybe 80% of the ball speed with a sweep is great, but the last 20% is increasingly important at the highest level.  As very smart guy once told me - “the last 20% of the work, IS the work!”

The Pattern Continues

We talked about the trend of crash-ball deflections being a feature of the recent EHL Championships in March, and now, only a few weeks later, we see the biggest league championship in our sport being decided in the same way.

Crash balls into the circle are becoming the dominant way to score goals in open play, and these are much less effective without the ball speed generated from a great hit.

And this is just one game scenario where you gain an advantage, not to mention open play shooting, and defensive out-letting when trying to escape a high press.

All this to say, hitting always has been and always will be an extremely valuable part of the game.

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Practice it often.

Teach it to kids early.

Ignore it at your peril!

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Until next week,

Adam Falla

Co-Founder, Leap Hockey

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