Club Field Hockey Tryout Prep: The 4-Week Plan

Club evaluations test what happens when the game gets fast and a defender is closing. Every drill here is about making the fast version feel normal before you walk in. Mouthguard and shin guards on for everything, including the wall work.

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Duration: 15 min · Equipment: Stick, 6 balls, a rebound board or a wall, mouthguard and shin guards

Five yards from the wall. Push, receive on the forestick with the stick flat and the ball landing in front of the right foot, then push again. Twenty clean. Then roll the left wrist, turn the stick over, and receive twenty on the reverse, the ball landing off the left foot with the stick head down and flat. Feel the body get low and the eyes stay on the ball through the catch. Then alternate, forestick and reverse, for two minutes without stopping. The reverse will feel wrong for a few days. Keep going until it feels only slightly wrong.

Duration: 12 min · Equipment: Stick, balls, wall, a partner or a cone standing in as a defender

Receive off the wall with a partner (or a cone) standing behind you as pressure. On the catch, take the ball across your body with a pull to the reverse side and step away from the pressure, then accelerate two steps. Ten each side. Feel the first touch already moving away from the defender instead of stopping dead under your feet. This is the touch coaches write down.

Stationary. Drag the ball from right to left across your body with the forestick, then back with the reverse, in a V shape in front of your feet. Twenty slow, twenty at speed. Then walk forward while doing it. Then jog. Feel the left hand doing the turning while the right hand rides. Head up on every third pull.

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Twenty push passes through the cones, hands apart, stick finishing at the target. Then twenty sweep hits: hands together at the top, stick low along the ground, sweep through the ball with the body turning, no backswing above the knee. The sweep is the club pass because it goes farther than a push and stays safer than a full hit. Track how many go through. If it is an indoor tryout, make the sweep your main pass; hits are not allowed on the court.

Hands together at the top of the grip, ball opposite the left foot, backswing to about waist height, and hit through it with the stick finishing low toward the target. Fifteen hits. A hit that stays low and reaches the target beats a big hit that goes anywhere. If the ball is lifting, it is either behind you at contact or your follow-through is coming up. Outdoor only; skip this block for an indoor tryout.

Partner stands twenty yards away. You jog toward them and they push a ball to you at an angle. Receive it on the forestick without breaking stride, take one touch to set it, and push it back. Fifteen each side. Then fifteen where you receive on the reverse. The ball should meet the stick in front of you and keep going. Stopping to receive is a school habit; club coaches want it moving.

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Duration: 15 min · Equipment: Stick, ball, a partner carrying the ball, two cones ten yards apart as a lane

Partner carries the ball down the lane at half speed. You defend, low, stick out with the left hand on top, shading them toward the edge of the lane, shuffling backward, never crossing your feet. When the ball gets more than a stick’s length from their stick, jab with one hand and pull back. Ten reps, then switch. Then ten at three-quarter speed. Feel the patience: the tackle happens when they lose the ball, not when you decide to dive in.

A small lift, ankle height, over a stick lying on the ground, only for a kid who has played at least a season and only with a mouthguard and shin guards on. Ball in front of the right foot, stick angled slightly back, push under the ball and lift it just enough to clear the stick on the ground, then receive it flat. Ten reps. This is the only lifted-ball work in the plan, it stays low, and nobody stands in front of you. If it feels out of control, leave it out entirely.

Three twenty-yard sprints, then straight to the wall for ten forestick and ten reverse receives, clean. Rest one minute and drink. Five rounds. Your first touch gets heavy when your legs go. That is what the last small-sided game at the evaluation feels like.

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Three rounds of shuttles, full rest between, best times of the month. Then done. The fitness is banked. Adding more this week costs more than it gives.

Twenty-five clean receives on the forestick, twenty-five on the reverse, and twenty-five pushes through the cones. Clean ones, not attempts. End every session this week on a clean touch.

Two days out, walk through the station drills at half speed: receiving lines, pull series, channel and jab, push and sweep. Then sit down with your parent and write the three questions to ask the club: what does the team need, how many on the roster, what is the all-in number. Then sleep. Nothing at the evaluation should be new.

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Run the four weeks, then after the evaluation tell us how the first touch held up in the small-sided games and which station the coaches spent the longest on. That is where the next plan starts.