Coaching Opinion; The Benefits of Small Sided Games
Written by; Tao MacLeod
Over the past couple of seasons, I have been coaching in a variety of roles at Inverleith Hockey Club, based in the Scottish capital city Edinburgh. As a youth hockey coach, I have been tasked with helping out with the development of the less experienced players here. I’m always thinking about ways in which to engage, encourage and provide learning opportunities to the children and young people in my groups and teams. There are many different ideas for how to go about things, however, I have some preferences.
Small sided games are a useful method to recreate the situations of a competitive match, in a training context. One versus one, two versus two, three versus three are all team sizes that I use on a regular basis. On a larger scale, indoor hockey is a short hand version of the sport with six players on either side, which has tactical and technical benefits for those who play both indoor and outdoor codes. Those who come back from the smaller game after Christmas, often talk about increased abilities and mental sharpness. This could be because of the rules and regulations associated with indoor hockey help to promote passing and movement attributes within a team setting.

When a coach uses small sided games during training, there are a variety of benefits for the players. A technical director that I used to work for talked about random repetition a lot. The exposure to primary, secondary and tertiary learning outcomes happen on a regular basis. Players will be able to use different types of technique and tactical decision making processes when passing, shooting, tackling, attacking and defending, in a variety of different positions, angles and situations. Additionally, I often change the shape of the pitch, between rectangles that are longer than they are wide, wider than they are long, as well as squares. Other conditions include moving targets from the right, to the left and then to the centre of the base line, having more than one target to aim for, as well as giving bonus points for moving the ball through certain targets, winning the ball in specified areas and creating overloads in highlighted positions on the pitch (often splitting the playing area in to sections, for example thirds). All of these are designed to encourage certain behaviours and choices through visual means and positive reinforcement.
The benefits of all of this is that the players are given the opportunity to make mistakes, realise what they are and then to have the chance to correct them again and again and again, as often as possible. When playing in smaller teams, or even in a one versus one situation, the chances are increased that the player will find him, or herself, in the desired situation to improve and to find success regularly during the training session. Random repetition is about providing players a match like situation, linked to the primary learning objective, often and regularly, but in an ever changing context. Therefore, if the team is working on passing, the ball carrier has to decide whether to move the ball softly, or firmly, evade the defender in the initial instance, or drive into space first, or even in which way to move the ball, therefore changing the angle of the stick and feet. I would recommend that all coaches include small sided games in their session plans.
