“Aerials are at the moment right now, in my opinion, like a normal passing skill. In the future, I think that this should be done already with under-12s, 14s, with a normal passing. Like, we learn how to hit as soon as possible. As soon as we have an individual capable of doing a high ball, that’s the soonest that we can play on.”
That quote from Tin Matkovic, currently coaching in Germany and working with the Polish national team, should probably make a few of us stop and think. Because if we are honest, most coaching programmes still treat the aerial as a specialist trick rather than a foundational skill. And yet here is a coach operating at a serious international level telling us that the high ball belongs in the same toolbox as the push pass and the hit. Not as a last resort, not as something you only let your strongest player attempt, but as a core part of how your team moves the ball.
The crucial lesson here is simple but maybe uncomfortable for many coaches: if you are not integrating aerials into your training from a young age, you are already behind. The game is evolving, players are getting smarter and more creative with how they use height, and the teams that treat the aerial as just another way to pass are the ones creating problems that defences simply cannot solve.
Why You Should Watch the Full Masterclass
This article captures the key insights from Tin Matkovic’s masterclass on The Hockey Site, but the full session goes much deeper. Tin walks through video clips from international matches, breaks down specific tactical scenarios in real time, and shares his screen to illustrate landing zones, defensive structures, and creative aerial execution in ways that are hard to do justice in written form. If you are a paid subscriber, the full video is available behind the paywall and it is well worth your time. Seeing the clips alongside Tin’s analysis gives you a completely different level of understanding compared to reading about it. The interactive Q&A with coaches watching live also adds a layer of practical discussion that you will not want to miss.
Takeaway 1: Know Your Landing Zones and Read the Opposition
“You imagine that you have an NFL match where every meter counts. So this is what we want. We want to sometimes skip the game.”
One of the most valuable parts of Tin’s presentation is how he breaks down the concept of landing zones. Rather than just lumping all aerials into one category, he explains how the choice of where to land the ball changes completely depending on what the opposition is doing defensively.
When playing against a zonal defence, Tin prefers landing zones on the outside of the field rather than through the middle. The reason is tactical and quite elegant. If the zonal team wants to intercept or contest the ball within the five-metre rule, they have to shift and stretch their shape. That movement opens up space through the middle of the field for a flat pass, a “Flach” as Tin calls it. So the aerial to the side is not the end goal, it is the trigger that forces the defence to react, and that reaction creates the real opportunity.
Against man-marking systems, the game changes. Here it is about momentum and speed into empty space. You are trying to manipulate your marker and then exploit the gap that opens when they cannot keep up. The landing zone is less about fixed positioning and more about timing your run to arrive in space before the defender can recover.
The takeaway for coaches is that aerials are not a one-size-fits-all solution. You need to prepare your team to read the defensive structure they are facing and adjust their aerial targets accordingly. Training sessions should include scenarios against both zonal and man-marking setups so players learn to recognise which landing zones to target in the moment.
One practical way to build this recognition is through freeze-play scenarios. Stop the game just before an aerial might be an option and ask your players: what is the defence offering? Where would the ball land? What would the next action be? Then, after matches, map your aerials onto a simple field grid with your players, marking where successful deliveries landed versus where turnovers happened. When the team builds that picture together over time, the landing zone concept stops being the coach’s idea and becomes the team’s shared language.
Takeaway: Train your players to identify the opposition’s defensive system and choose their aerial landing zones accordingly. The aerial itself is only the first action in a chain, what matters is the space it creates and how your team exploits it.
Read on for the full breakdown: how to manage the player who overuses the aerial, why there is no “golden technique” for teaching it, and what to bring to training on Monday. Exclusive for paid subscribers.
