Spoiler alert – if you are going on a senior hockey coaching course in the very near future, you will be shown this scenario. Look away now. For everyone else, consider this situation.
A player in defence receives the ball. They have several options and the play is frozen so you, the coach, can decide which option she will take. Seasoned cynics, like myself, know that the video will show something you don’t expect.
If I only I knew a little bit more about hockey, I might have predicted that she goes for a reverse stick long pass to the right, threading the ball through two opposition players. In other words, a very difficult play to execute. It’s a high risk play with the potential to concede a goal should it fail.
Gaming the question, as one does, and guessing the “right” answer isn’t the purpose of the video though. The question is, what happens if it did, how would you react.
Let’s think through the situation again, this time in a rugby context. Your team are inside your 22m. The player who’s about to receive the ball could kick for touch, kick long, kick over the defence, kick for the winger, short pass to a bigger player, long pass towards a faster player or even go for a gap themselves.
Now, add in external elements, like the time in the game, the score, the type of opposition and the weather. Finally, wrap this into the potential consequences of winning and losing the game. If it is pre-season friendly where you are already winning by 30 points, then this is going to throw up some different perceptions than having to score a try to win to keep your team in the World Cup.
For example, in 2015 Chris Robshaw, the then England captain, had such a knife-edge decision to keep England’s hopes alive as his team crumbled in the face of rejuvenated Wales side. I don’t many of us envied his task as he chose to turn down a possible (but not guaranteed) three points to go for the lineout. It didn’t work out and the rest is history.
In all of that, what do you say to the player, captain or hockey defender, when a decision goes wrong? The bravest coach would suggest that it was the right tactic, but the execution was poor. For example, if England had secured the lineout ball and driven over the line, then Robshaw would still be England’s captain, and Stuart Lancaster and not Eddie Jones, would be preparing England for the 2019 World Cup.
I would like to think all of us would be able to see beyond the consequences of poor execution when the player was make brave decisions. Taking risks pushes the opposition, creates a point of difference and keeps everything fresh.
Fresh doesn’t pay the mortgage though.