When you watch Hockey, focus on “Circle!” (Vol.7)

Here is the Volume 7 of Hockey from When you watch something, visit us first! Mr. Manabu YAMASHITA, former Coach of Japanese men’s national Hockey team “Samurai Japan”, told us about the Bits of knowledge of Hockey this time. This is the combined version of Part 9-1 through 9-3 on our YouTube channel.

In Vol.6, we learned about Penalty Corner which is unique to Hockey.

This time, with the cooperation of Japan Hockey Association, Mr. Manabu YAMASHITA, former Coach of Japanese men’s national Hockey team “Samurai Japan”, told us about Bits of knowledge of Hockey. Mr. YAMASHITA was the Captain of “Samurai Japan” at Tokyo 2020 Games, and is now back in active and now is a member of it again.

We would like to thank Japan Hockey Association, especially Head Coach of Samurai Japan, Mr. Akira TAKAHASHI, for their great help in making this video. We would like to express our sincere gratitude.

Part 9-1: Interest of Hockey

Dramatic Hockey match

There was a Quarterfinal match between New Zealand and Germany at Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, and New Zealand was winning until near the end of the match. And with less than 1 minute to go, Germany caught up. Then, the match was restarted with a few dozen seconds left. Then, with about 1 second left, Germany scored with a touch shot, and they came back to win, so it was a dramatic match, tying and winning the game with a few minutes left.

That is the most surprising match I have seen recently.

Strong countries in Hockey

The countries that can be mentioned as stable and strong are Australia, and also European countries, and India. I think Pakistan and Korea have become a little less competitive. The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Spain, and the England are stable and strong. However, I have the impression that England has become a little stronger because of the London Olympic Games.

Belgium is ranked around No. 2 in the world, and as for Belgium, Mr. Takahashi, the head coach (HC) of the Japanese men’s national team, Samurai Japan, said that Japan had never lost to Belgium when he was active. So, if we think about it, in the 10 to 20 years since then, Belgium has already come to the top of the world.

I guess it is important how the national Federation of Hockey of each country is doing well. The Belgian hockey federation is also doing well.  And they have taken various measures, such as training coaches, to become stronger. Also, in Australia and the Netherlands, when we hear carefully, we noticed that they are developing their players from the junior generation onward. I think that countries that are doing well in player development are strong.

Q: Do countries with strong Men’s teams often have strong Women’s teams as well?

That’s generally true. India used to not have a women’s team. Or, there was a women’s team, but it was probably weak. But in the last few years, the men’s team has become stronger in India, and the women’s team has become stronger along with it.

Also in Belgium, the Belgian men’s team was weak and the Belgian women’s team was also weak, but now the Belgian men’s team is getting stronger and the Belgian women’s team is getting stronger together. Well, generally, where the men’s team is strong, the women’s team is also relatively strong. Argentina is the same, and…they are strong.

Upset in Hockey

Q: Do so-called “Upsets” happen often in Hockey?

If it is about each match, I think there will be Upsets in Hockey. It is not often that a team from a lower rank wins the championship, but it is easy for such an Upset to occur, such as to draw or to win against a strong team in a group league match of a tournament. It happens, for example, when we Samurai Japan, at the Tokyo2020 Olympic Games, were down 2 goals at the early match, but turned it around in the first half to go up 3-2. It is quite common for the weaker team to take the lead during the match.

In Japanese Hockey tournaments, if the 1st-ranked university student team plays against the 4th-ranked adult team, the university team usually wins, but if the adult team plays a firm defensive strategy, the 4th-place adult team can win 1-0, therefore, there are surely Upsets in Hockey.

Part 9-2: Behind the Scenes of Hockey Team

Key positions

I think the Midfielders (MF) are the key in attack. Teams whose MF are not functioning well tend to use a lot of long balls. If a team uses only long balls from the Defenders (DF) in the backward to the Forwards (FW), their attacks will end up with monotonous. Long balls are easier for DF to read the intention of Offense (OF) because it takes time for the ball to reach them. It is easy to defend because there is 1 FW player in the backward while DF has 1 DF player, as well as a Sweeper.

However, if OF players comes through with passes through MF, DF will have the same number of players as OF, or, if even more OF players come out, DF will be at a numerical disadvantage, so DF will be in difficult situation. In that sense, MF is the point of attack.

As for DF, Sweeper is of course important, but the defensive ability of FW is surprisingly key. A team in which FW players work hard and do not allow good balls from the opposing DF to be carried to the FW players in front is a very good team, and such a team can easily take the ball away from the opponent, especially since it is easier for MF and DF players in the back to steal the ball, therefore, I think the defensive ability of FW players is key.

Scouting during the match

It’s easy to see Hockey from a rather high place.

From a high place, it is a little more difficult to see the details, but on the other hand, it is easier to see the overall flow of the match, so coaches share their charge in terms of confirming the position of the opponents by combining the view from the bench in the same level with the pitch and from above. The coaches are communicating during the match closely with each other to see if the opponent is following the game plan they have laid out, or if they are using a some formation, for example.

In Japanese domestic matches, it may not be common to give instructions while watching from above, but in international tournaments, Head Coach (HC) is in a high place, and the coach and HC often communicate with each other via intercom before giving instructions to the players. Depending on perspective of HC, if they want to watch from behind themselves, i.e., from DF side, they may watch from the end of the stand, for example. If the goal for their team is changed, they will change their point to the opposite side.

The difficult part of this is that even if instructions are given over the intercom, it is difficult to ensure that they are really conveyed to the players as intended unless there is really good communication among coaches on a daily basis, so I think that requires a very high level of skill.

Part 9-3 Thoughts on Hockey

TOKYO 2020

When a tournament is held in Japan, of course, the food and the environment are completely different from those in other countries. The volunteers cheering us on are also Japanese, since Tokyo 2020 was held without any audience, but that feeling of support is something that can only happen when the event is held in Japan. Well, they cheer other countries up as well, but I think it was significant to feel the support in my own country.

When our team arrived at the stadium, volunteers lined up to wish us good luck. It was really amazing. In a usual tournament, we would not receive such a welcome because it is not held in our country, but in the Tokyo 2020 Games, there were Japanese staff and volunteers, and they were very helpful in sending us off to the games with a good feeling. I honestly felt that it was different from simply coming to the stadium and going to the game without anyone cheering us on, and I think it was very good.

At a tournament held in our own country, the way we spend time at the hotel is completely different from other tournaments, the food is different, and most importantly, we can have our acquaintances watch the matches. I think it will help the players a lot if their coaches, partners, wives, children, and other people they know come to watch them.

Of course, there are some players who would be nervous. I supposed that the Tokyo 2020 Games, which will be held in Japan, would be good for Japanese Hockey, and I thought it would be a way to return the favor. Unfortunately, we didn’t win a single game at Tokyo 2020.

There are people around us who say “congratulations” and “thank you,” but when I think about the development of Hockey in Japan, I feel that the result was still not good enough. That feeling is very strong in my mind. I feel sorry that we could not win any match.

I honestly feel that we did not win the games we could have won, or that we lost at the turning point. I don’t think that our ability was not good enough to compete with the other countries at all. On the contrary, I thought, “Wow, the gap with the rest of the world is quite little,” even though we lost all the matches. I think there are many teammates who feel this way.

There is a player of my age, mr. Kenta Tanaka, who was the top field goal scorer at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics despite being Japanese.

And he has played for the top team in the Netherlands. When a player like him achieves results, other Japanese Hockey players think that they would also play better if they go to foreign teams. There are players who want to play for the top team in the Netherlands now. There are many players who want to go abroad, so in this sense, I think it was a good experience for us to play in the Tokyo 2020 Games.

Focus on here in Hockey!

Hockey is quite difficult. Hockey is difficult because players have to handle their Stick, but the dribbling skills are quite advanced, and I think it is interesting to watch. It’s like, how did he get past the opponent player?

But actually, from a Hockey connoisseur’s point of view, I also place importance on how quickly a player can release the ball after stopping it, how a player can get past the opponent without being touched by the opponent, and how well a player can build up the match. When you watch a match, you may notice that this player is looking around well, for example, so I think that if you can see the characteristics of each player in the match, you can watch Hockey in a more interesting way.