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

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Rewatching the highlights from the last round of the FIH Pro League this summer there was a real classic between Belgium and Netherlands Women.

The Belgian team took what looked like a game-clinching lead in the last minute, Delphine Marrien getting her 2nd goal from a penalty corner rebound.  Only for The Netherlands to go straight up the field, win their own penalty corner and the inevitable Yibbi Jansen tie it up just 20 SECONDS later!

This all set the stage for an intriguing shootout where we get great back to back examples of how, and how not, to your use upper body as an elimination weapon!

After two players from each team have gone it’s 1-0 to the Netherlands.  Next up is Noa Schreurs for Belgium and Frederique Matla for The Netherlands.  They both use body (not ball) movement to try and beat the goalkeeper with different outcomes.  Have a watch and see if you can figure out the reason one approach is more successful than the other?

The answer you were looking for is…

SHOULDERS!!  Let’s rewind a little bit.

• ‍First point, I loved that these two players went for chest forward eliminations in the shootout.  I know the Meta is backing into the keeper on one post and executing a spin move, but it is becoming so overdone and boring!  It was great to watch two players have the confidence to try and eliminate moving forward, aggressively.‍

• Second point, using body instead of ball movement (if done correctly) is a really effective elimination skill that many amateur & younger players should use more often.  Mastering deceptive body movement is often a much quicker process than the 1000s of reps needed for certain ball skills, so I encourage everyone to try and add it to their game more and more.‍

• Finally, ok - getting back to the shoulders!  When faking with your body one way or the other it is really important to shift a lot of your weight onto one foot or the other, so much so that your upper body and shoulders shift position as well.  In football (soccer) this is often referred to as dropping the shoulder.

The difference we see in these two shootout attempts is that Matla really dips both ways with her shoulders and that unbalances the Goalkeeper which gives her the opportunity to score.  Schreurs on the other hand just waggles her stick over the ball with much more limited side to side movement of her body and no shoulder movement - the goalkeeper is not fooled, keeps her balance and makes the save.

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There is something about the shifting of the shoulder position which really commits other players in that direction.  When you think about it, it’s a pretty simple technique that every one of us can immediately perform, even sitting here on our devices reading this email ;-)

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Now the challenge is adding it to our game, while dribbling at speed!