High School Field Hockey Tryout Prep: The 4-Week Plan

Everything in this plan builds toward day two of preseason, when it is ninety degrees, you are tired, and the coach is watching what you do about it. Mouthguard and shin guards on for all of it, goggles too if your state requires them, so the habit is automatic by August.

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Run this in the late afternoon so your body learns the time of day the tryout happens, but never in the hottest hour, and never without water within reach. Five rounds of shuttles: 25 yards and back four times, then 90 seconds of walking and a drink. Time every round. Feel your feet stay under you on the turns instead of drifting wide; the turn is where the seconds go. Write the five times down. If you feel dizzy or stop sweating, stop and get cool. That is not toughness, that is a rule.

Five yards from the wall. Fifty receives on the forestick, stick flat, knees bent, ball dying in front of the right foot. Then fifty on the reverse, left wrist rolled, stick head down. Hold the receiving position for one second after each catch so you can feel where the ball landed. This week is not about speed. It is about making the receive the same on every rep, so that when your legs go in week three the stick does not lift with them.

Stationary V-pulls, forestick to reverse and back, thirty at speed with the head up on every third one. Then weave the cones with the ball on the stick, ten trips, faster each trip until the ball gets away, then back off one speed. Eyes on a spot at the end of the line, not on the ball.

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Same five rounds, 75 seconds of rest. Beat every time from week one by a second. Add one thing: on every turn, call out "ball" as if you are calling for a pass. Your voice needs to be a habit before tryouts, because a quiet, hot scrimmage is where coaches notice who talks. Drink every round.

Duration: 20 min · Equipment: Stick, balls, two cones a yard apart at 15 yards, then a target at 25

Twenty push passes through the cones, hands apart, stick finishing at the target. Twenty sweeps, hands together, stick low along the ground, body turning through it. Then fifteen hits at the 25-yard target: ball off the left foot, backswing to the waist, hit through low, finish low. Track how many reach the target. A low, accurate hit beats a big hit that sails, and a lifted, wild hit at a tryout is a whistle and a note on the clipboard.

Partner pushes to you as you jog across in front of them. Receive on the forestick without breaking stride, one touch to set, push back. Fifteen, then fifteen on the reverse coming the other way. Solo: push into the wall at an angle and run onto the rebound. Feel the ball meet the stick in front of you and keep going.

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One round of shuttles, then immediately ten forestick and ten reverse receives off the wall, counting the clean ones. Rest 60 seconds, drink. Repeat four times. Your stick will want to lift by round three. That is the point: learn what your receive does when your legs are gone, and fix it with your knees, not your arms. This is the closest thing to day two you can build alone.

Partner carries at three-quarter speed down the lane. You defend: low, left hand on top, stick out, shading them to the edge, shuffling without crossing your feet. Jab one-handed when the ball gets loose and pull back. When they slow or the ball sits, drop into a two-handed block tackle with the stick flat on the ground in front of the ball. Ten reps, then switch. Say "got ball" out loud on every tackle. Coaches watch the feet on defense; a kid who dives in with the stick and gets beaten is the kid who gets written down.

Partner pushes to you at the top of the circle and then plays live but light defense. You get one of three choices: carry and shoot if they are more than a stick’s length away, pull and go past if they are close and square, pass back if they are between. Ten reps, say the choice out loud, then switch. Coaches at tryouts are not looking for tricks; they are looking for players who see the right choice fast.

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Three rounds only, full rest between. Best times of the month. Then stop. The fitness is in the bank; this week you are keeping it, not adding to it. Keep drinking through the day all week; hydration for an August tryout starts days before it.

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

The two days before tryouts, walk through receiving lines, the cone carry, the pull series, and channel-and-jab at half speed in the yard. Pack the bag: stick, shin guards, mouthguard, goggles, turf shoes, two bottles, the physical form. You are making sure nothing at tryouts is new. Then sleep.

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Run the plan, then after the first tryout day tell us how the run went and whether the stick stayed flat once you were tired. That is where the next plan starts.