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

It’s been an awesome week for us fans with The Junior World Cup in full swing and some incredible hockey being played.  The skill level of these young players coming through is pretty jaw dropping!  When trying to decide what to look into in more detail, I was spoiled for choice.  So be forewarned, we could be analyzing matches and moments from this tournament for quite some time!

Anyways, after some deliberation I could not stop watching Famke Van Heel and her spectacular Double 360 Spin down the right wing in Belgium’s match vs Argentina.

Now, only after deciding on this clip and when doing my research on Famke afterwards did I realize that both her parents, Jan & Lisa, are old teammates of mine from London!  What a small world our Hockey community is!  So to confirm, no favoritism was shown - but Jan & Lisa, if you happen to read this, hello!

I digress - let’s watch this incredible piece of skill.

I wanted to talk about this for a couple of reasons.  

Firstly - it’s one of the more creative series of elimination play I’ve seen in a long time and there is a lot we can learn from her skill execution.  

Secondly - many of us (apart from our Southern Hemisphere brethren) are starting Indoor Season right now and this is more classically seen in the Indoor Game.  This crossover is worth thinking about.

The first thing I noted was her body position when receiving under pressure and then initiating the skill.  

This is what we likely define as ‘technically perfect’.  The ball is so far away from her feet, her hands are nice and low at knee height and her body is in a strong, powerful position with the ability to move explosively in any direction.   Strong foundations are what elite skills are built on, and you don’t get stronger than this.

From here, she executes the ‘Reverse or Clockwise’ spin flawlessly with real speed.  Now performing a spin at a fast speed is not the hard part, many of us can do that.  The hard part is transitioning both in and out of that spin at speed - i.e. getting the ball started and then getting the ball under control afterwards.   This was what impressed me, and that ability, allowed her to double up and add the second one which might have been even better!

This is where the real creative genius shows for me.  Just before the second spin this is the space available to her, almost nothing!  But the move is so unexpected (this is a lesson in itself) that she is able to rotate with the ball right between the two defenders, attack the baseline and then win a Penalty Corner.   From a situation where Famke is 1 v 3 defenders - this is an outstanding outcome!

How do you get better at the transition in and out of a Spin?  Well after locking down a great carrying position like we talked about above, it’s simply reps and practice!

Which brings me on to the Winter Indoor Season.  Even if you are not an Indoor specialist - the indoor game is an amazing opportunity to develop skills that will improve your outdoor game.  As we all know, the ball moves even faster indoor which means you can get lots of practice reps at high speed.  This extra speed will develop those skills to a higher level.  Especially:

• All the on-the-ground elimination skills
• Drag push passes
• Block Tackles
• All the on-the-ground receptions

So make the most of the Indoor Season even if your focus is Outdoor, it’s an incredible environment to hone your technique.

And then when you go back outdoors, the game will feel slower and you’ll be able to spin and dance down the right wing like Famke Van Heel!