4 nations champions

Hola again,

How are you all? Sorry for the delay between posts. Internet wasn’t great at our last hotel. So as you may have seen, in the last few days we have had some great success in Mendoza. We have played 3 games, firstly beating USA 1-0, then drawing with the Argies 1-1 to get us into the final, then beating the Argies last night with a goal in extra time. What an exciting game it was. We had a really tough match against them the previous day so were all feeling very tired and sore. Cronky had played a blinder to keep us in it and we were very happy to draw with them which put us in over the Germans.

The game was as tough as we had expected but this time we were all over them in the first half. I only had a few saves to make and so we were looking good going into half time. Our only problem was that we had lost one of our defenders Anna who got hit on the hand. Turns out she had smashed her knuckle so today flew home for surgery. One of the other girls from perth has been called up and so will come to play the second leg of the tour here in Rosario. Anyway we didnt come out aswell in the second half and had 2 goals scored against us, both from Pc’s. Ash and Casey combined well to get one back but it was starting to look like it was all over. With less than 30 seconds to go we headed into the circle and just as the siren went the umpire blew a short corner for us. The Argies were going nuts of course but the umpire stuck to her guns. We had a secret weapon up our sleeves in Jodi Shultz who is a big Queensland girl who can drag flick. We hid this skill the whole time and chose to pull it out as a last chance effort to draw the game. It worked. Great goal and therefore extra time. We regrouped and decided that we didnt want to be out there any longer than necessary so said one chance and that has to be a goal. Within a minute we had another short corner. Secret weapon stepped up and bang..all over. Great effort by Jodes and our first gold medal as the new hockeyroos.

This afternoon we arrived in Rosario after a 2 hour flight and a 5 hour bus ride. Here we play all the teams again in another 4 nations tournament. Plan is to do it all again but with a few injury concerns it could be a bit difficult. Im looking forward to spending a bit of time wandering rosario again. It feels like only yesterday that we were here for the world cup.

I have attached a few photos so I hope you like them. Take care

Rach x




American Keeper looking for club team to play with

Hi World,

I am an American Collegiate GoalKeeper who is looking into living in Holland for a year/ a semester . I am wicked interested in finding a club to play for while there. Although my stay would not be for two or three years, I want to know if it is realistic to join and play with a club. Hockey World; do you think it would be possible for me to find a team to play with?

peace,

Ellie

OGO Kickers and ROBO Hi-Control Kickers

At the moment i have the OBO OGO Kickers and pads which are supplied by my club but im looking to buy some OBO ROBO Hi-Control Kickers and i looked oon my OGO Kickers the other day and i found out that they were medium! My question is: Are OGO Medium Kickers the same size as the ROBO Hi-Control Kickers?? PLEASE HELP!!

Amazing Goalie Academy

OBO community,

In close co-operation with OBO founder Simon and Bas from Verbunt Hockey we are working to make the goalie experience even better! The idea is to launch a website where we can share everything about goalkeeping and especially goal keeping development. Coaches/Trainers can submit drills and techniques supported by video (of course) and there should be a fun area also. Because this will be a meeting and communication place for GOALIES by GOALIES we would like to hear your ideas on what we should incorporate. So Speak up!

Buddha’s Blog: Commonwealth Games #5

HOCKEY IS THE WINNER IN THE END

Overall Hockey was the major winner at the Commonwealth Games. In articles on Stuff, The Herald and Hindustan Times Hockey was named the “Most compelling Sport” of the Commonwealth Games.

The venue was named the “Best Venue” of all the sports, with the “Nicest Stadium” and overall had the “Best atmosphere”.

The best game/event/spectacle of the Commonwealth Games was the India – Pakistan pool play clash. The game was at full capacity with 16,000 screaming fans packed into the Dhyan Chand National Hockey Stadium. Hockey consistently saw large crowds even for non-Indian games which was a complete reversal of the World Cup earlier in the year.

Even the non-hockey public in India and around the World were caught up in the emotion and class of the game. India eventually ran out 7-4 winners.

Then to top things off both the Men’s and Women’s teams medalled at the XIX Commonwealth Games. This was the first major medals for the women (1998 Bronze Kuala Lumpur) and the men (2002 Silver in Manchester).

This was a great achievement for Hockey in NZ and to have both teams do so well bodes extremely well for the future of the sport especially leading into the 2012 London Olympics.

!!BRONZE!!

The Blackstick’s Men righted some previous wrongs against England by taking an unassailable 5-3 lead in a penalty shoot out to win Bronze. It was all smiles for the NZ boys where the English were left to rue consecutive 4th place finishes at the last 2 Commonwealth Games.

The scores were tied 3-3 after regulation time and through Golden Goal Extra-time, before leading to a penalty shoot-out.

Goalkeeper Kyle Pontifex was the hero of the moment as he saved a penalty from English player Scott Dixon.

In an open game in which there was plenty of goalmouth action at both ends, Pontifex had his best performance of the tournament, making a string of saves, both from penalty corners and open play.

It was huge for the boys to finish 3rd and avoid the dreaded 4th place. In the end the team was rapt with its medal and pleased they had justified their third place seeding in the tournament.

THE END

Lastly thank you to everyone for all your emails and comments to the Men’s team throughout our Commonwealth Games campaign. We know we gave you some heart in the mouth moments none more so than our late equaliser against Canada.

But it was great to have so much support for such a big event and so far away from home. So from the Blacksticks men’s team we all THANK YOU!

In the end the boys were over the moon to come away with a Bronze Medal especially with beating England one of our biggest rivals and a team that we had not beaten since 2007.

Now it is time to relax with family and friends and enjoy and share our medal with everyone who helped us to achieve it!

Kind Regards,

Shea

Watch and learn off other goalkeepers

Been pretty busy lately and will be this year, so unfortunately can’t post as much as I’d like. Nothing spectacular, but a basic concept about how to learn by watching other goalkeepers (generally of the higher levels!).

Ever wondered what the best way to learn about how to play in goal is, without being coached or learning by game experience? Well, the simplest answer, is to watch someone else! You can learn a great deal simply by watching another game after your match has ended or watching game highlights over the Internet.

Don’t just be an observer!

Firstly, you need to ‘participate’ in the game. If you just watch what happens and don’t absorb the reason for the goals and a team conceding and losing, then you won’t learn how to prevent that happening in your own games. You don’t want to be a passive passenger to the game, but actively think about and mentally remember what the causes for the goals were. It may sound sad, but taking notes of the game and the goalkeepers (especially easier if you’re watching highlights over the Internet because you can make notes on your computer/laptop!) will help you to keep track of the things you have learnt.

Act like a scout

The best way to watch a game is to watch it as if you were scouting for the best goalkeeper there (out of the two playing). The mindset to have is to think like a scout. Imagine you’re the goalkeeping coach for the international team and you’re looking to add depth to the squad or want to decide on who your first choice will be for an upcoming tournament. I have actually been at a game two years ago where there was a scout doing exactly that and noticed what they were looking at (even if I failed to politely ask a few questions!!). Note: I wasn’t the one being scouted!! I was just watching!

Don’t just scout just watch the goalkeeper you follow or are rooting for, but also the opposition goalkeeper at the other end. You may miss out on exciting battles in the midfield, but your focus is after on the keeper and how they work with their defenders. When watching any game, try to keep track of both goalkeepers and evaluate who was the best. Goalkeeping duels are always fun to watch!

What to look for

When watching any game, there are certain things you want to look for. Focus mainly on the successes and failures to isolate what is good about their ‘game’ and what is bad about it:

  • What the goalkeeper does well – if they make significant saves to turn the game around and when they make the save e.g. an important, timely save to keep the game tied
  • The goals the goalkeeper allows (if they do!) and why – think about the reasons i.e. over active in their D and straying too far from their starting line…

What to listen for

Watching is not the only thing you can be doing. You can also listen in on the action and work out what the goalkeeper is saying to his team mates; what changes they are calling for etc. Knowing how a goalkeeper interacts with their defence will help you improve on your own skills in organising your team.

What to analyse

You can also analyse more deeply the things they are doing. In terms of technical skills try to apply what you’ve been taught (or what you know from experience if you don’t have a coach) and see how the goalkeepers are acting in relation to that. Sound technical goalkeepers should make few mistakes.

Here are some ideas:

  • How the goalkeeper controls rebounds
  • When the goalkeeper takes command of the situation instead of letting his defence deal with it (such as coming off the post to tackle)
  • How the goalkeeper positions themselves in their ready stance
  • How quickly the goalkeeper recovers after a low save

Where to watch games

The best action is obviously going to be watching it in person, so if you are lucky enough to live close to top division national league hockey, then go and watch a game at the weekend (in England most national league games are played or have been played on a Sunday, with everyone else mainly playing Saturdays, so there’s no excuse!)! When I wasn’t playing, I would go down and watch East Grinstead or my home club Oxted. If possible, try and make it to international games (some nations will also play friendlies, such as England’s series of friendlies last year) to really get a feel for the highest level of the game.

The Internet

If you can’t get to high level games because you aren’t local, then the Internet is your friend. Here’s a few links to some prominent websites that have highlight footage of games:

YouTube

YouTube is another great place to look for hockey highlights to watch and learn from. Hockey nations like Holland, where matches are televised, will consistently upload videos. Do a search for a team you know, like HGC of the hoofdklasse and you should be able to find some matches.

For example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvAgM3hYekQ

Buddha’s Blog: Commonwealth Games #4

!!BLACKSTICKS WOMEN FIGHT IT OUT FOR GOLD!!

The Blackstick’s women were O for Awesome in their 1-0 semi-final win over South Africa yesterday.

They were extremely impressive with the way they took the game to South Africa and outplayed them in almost every area.

Beth Jurgeleit was outstanding in goal and 2 fantastic saves on the line from Emily Naylor kept the South Africans scoreless.

All the girls stuck to task and played well through out the game. It wasn’t until a 2nd half penalty corner that the NZ girls finally took the lead, with a corner break down that fell kindly to Clarisa Eshuis who coolly slotted the ball inside the near post!

The girls are assured of a medal their first major tournament medal since a Bronze medal in Kuala Lumpur 1998 and NZ Hockey’s first major tournament medal in 8 years when the Men won Silver in Manchester 2002.

This is a fantastic achievement for the girls and NZ Hockey. They have been the stand-out team of the tournament and the most consistent team here across all 10 teams.

The entire Blackstick’s Men’s team and the NZ Commonwealth Games team believe that the girls will take out Gold and topple the Australians in tomorrows final played at (13:00pm India Local Time, 20:30pm in NZ) I hope you are all watching!


THE BLACKSTICKS WOMEN EMBRACE AFTER THEIR HISTORIC 1-0 SEMI-FINAL WIN

!!BRONZE MEDAL HERE WE COME!!


KYLE PONTIFEX DEMANDING EXCELLENCE

For those of you who watched at home I am sure you would agree that a 2-6 defeat at the hands of defending champions and World No. 1 ranked Australia was not a fair reflection of the game.

For the entire 70 minutes we showed plenty of spirit in 40+ degree heat! We had an extremely good game-plan that threw the Aussies off balance and we took the game to them breaking through their much talked about press.

We let ourselves down in the small areas on the field. A few soft goals really let us down as at no stage can you be off your game against Australia and they proved this in a six-minute period just before half-time when they broke the 0-0 deadlock with 3 quick goals.

Even though we were down 0-4 midway through the 2nd half there was still belief in our side which hasn’t always been there in the past against Australia. Dean Cousins and Phil Burrows (2002 Commonwealth Games Silver Medallists) were instrumental in this area and they are both players when they say “come” everyone else naturally follows. This is a trait that is rarely found in people and I think our team are lucky to have the 2 of them.


EVERYONE NEEDS A RED HEAD IN THEIR TEAM

Due to this belief we rallied in the 2nd half and staged a late fight-back with goals to Blair Hilton and Phil Burrows and we had another effort controversially disallowed to put the score to 3-4. Everyone except for the ref thought that this was a goal.

The belief was certainly there and we pressed hard in the last 5 minutes to try and score the goals we needed. In doing this we promoted more men forward and were caught out twice late in the game to go down 2-6, an unjust score to our efforts in the match.

If we play like we did against Australia with our desire and commitment in the Bronze medal play-off I am sure we will take the match out regardless of who we play!

But for now it is time to relax by the pool, and enjoy our day off and hopefully see the girls pull off GOLD! We also have a quiz night tonight which is always a bit of a laugh!

Thanks to all those who send their wishes to the team, everyone really appreciates them!

Kind Regards,

Shea