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Improve Your Game with a Hockey Tutor

As an Olympic sport, Hockey is both exciting to play and to watch. Not only is it one of the world’s most popular team sports, but in South Africa, it is introduced from a young age. If you want to increase your chances of making it into the first team or hope to learn the basics before attending a practice for beginners, you could benefit from private hockey lessons to get a head start. 

While the fundamentals of the game are not difficult to learn, it can take some time to master all the skills. 

Basic Rules of the Game

Your beginner field hockey lessons will introduce the basic theories of the game. In a nutshell, every team has 11 players. One of these members has the position of goalie who is responsible for the last line of defence before an opposing team scores.  

Players have to make sure that they play inside of a hockey field’s markings. These are divided into halves and quarters and have a scoring or shooting circle. These semi-circles are located at each end of the field just in front of the goals. A goal is scored when a player hits a shot from the opposition’s circle to make it over the line and into the opposing team’s goalposts.  

Positions, Positions, Positions 

Not unlike soccer, each player’s position in hockey has a very important role to play which works together with the other players in the team. Private hockey lessons are the perfect way to get to grips with some of the nuances of your position.   

A hockey tutor could help you to understand more about these positions: 

- Forwards: their role is goal scoring

- Midfielders: they do the job of defence and offence

- Defenders: these players are positioned near the opposing team’s goalposts

- Sweeper: this player is closest to opposition goals.

- Goalie: the final defence of the goals, goalies wear protective gear and are trained to face fast hockey balls head-on.

A Hockey Tutorial Will Help You Understand Rules and Penalties

You could have all the talent in the world, but without knowledge of the rules of the game, you will never progress in hockey! If you are struggling to understand the rules and penalties of hockey, then field hockey lessons in a classroom could help!   

If that sounds crazy, hang on. Private hockey lessons can take you through all the necessary theories of the game like rules, penalties, and other things to avoid.  

- The Free Hit: given to the opposing team when an offence is committed outside of a scoring circle.

- A Corner: also called a penalty corner, this is awarded for offences within the scoring circle.  An example of this is intentionally hitting the ball to go over the line.

- Penalty Stroke: when the attacking team is fouled, preventing them from achieving a sure goal, the umpire can award them a penalty stroke which usually results in a goal!

If you want to know how to avoid penalties so that you don’t let your side down with unnecessary mistakes, a few sessions with a private hockey tutor is an excellent start. 

So when it comes to what to avoid, what can you expect to learn from private hockey lessons? 

Essentially, you will be sure to find out exactly how to not use your stick or your body to stop an opponent from reaching the hockey ball. There is also a lot to know about dangerous play and good players know how to avoid fouls that will ultimately trip them up!   

The Job of Umpires

Talent aside, a great hockey player will need to know how an umpire thinks! In hockey, there are two umpires to oversee the game and implement the rules. They use a whistle, hand signals, and penalty cards. Knowing the hand signals is vital and this is why field hockey lessons with a private coach can help you to remember these and so much more. You will also want to avoid the three types of penalty cards:  

- Green card: this is a warning for a player

- Yellow card: indicates that the player be removed for a period of five minutes

- Red card: this card indicates the disqualification of the player and is considered a serious offence

There are other prohibited actions that will help to complete your knowledge of the game. 

So whether you are a beginner who needs to understand the rules or an advanced player who wants to improve your scoring, passing, stickhandling, hitting, or dribbles, private hockey lessons with a tutor from Superprof, could help you to advance very quickly.   

One-on-One Coaching

Hockey may be a team sport but there is also much room for one-on-one coaching of players. You could try searching for a hockey tutor on the internet or you could head over to Superprof where there are several benefits: 

- Tutor credentials are verified to give you peace of mind!

- You could use the location tool to find in-person lessons near you.   

- If there is no one located near to you, sign up for online lessons using a webcam with a coach from anywhere around South Africa or overseas.   

- Benefit from a free starter lesson and find out about the coach’s teaching style. This will also help you to make sure that you and the coach are a good personality match.  

- Private coaching in any subject or sport is still the best way to learn just about anything.

So whether you are keen to get the most out of your school hockey years, or whether you want to play at Premier Hockey League level,  Superprof offers private lessons for every level and budget!

At only an average cost of R183 per private lesson, even a few private lessons could instil the kind of confidence it takes to make the most out of the enjoyable game of hockey!