Common themes of top teams

Common themes of top teams is the topic for this 90 minute masterclass by Adam Commens we hosted in December 2022.

Adam Commens

Former international player for Australia 🇦🇺, Adam Commens, found a new home in Belgium 🇧🇪. As a coach he was the one who qualified Belgium for the first time in almost 4 decades for the Olympics again (Beijing 2008). He coached his original home country Australia at the Rio Olympics before returning to Belgium where he became the high performance director overseeing all national teams and youth development.

As such he was one of the architects of the meteoric rise of Belgium culminating in gold medals at the World Cup (2018) and Olympics (Tokyo 2021). Commens delivered an earlier masterclass on Values Based Coaching, one we highly recommend as well 😉

Values based coaching

One lesson to take home

If I had to focus on just one lesson that rises above the rest, it is this: connection with your players and within your team is more important than tactics.

Plenty of coaches are obsessed with finding a magic formation, a unique penalty corner routine, or squeezing tactical juice out of training schedules. But looking at the sustained success of world-class outfits—from the early 2000s Australian Kookaburras to the modern Belgian Red Lions—the consistent thread isn’t just tactical innovation, but a deep, purpose-driven connection within the group.

Why Does Connection Matter? Technical and tactical excellence is a given at elite levels. Every national program, every top club, is full of astute tacticians and skilled players. But what allows teams to execute under pressure, adapt mid-tournament, or weather adversity isn’t merely technical work—it’s trust, clarity, and shared purpose among the group.

As Adam Commens put it:

“Connection is more important than tactics... Both teams that won gold spent an enormous amount of time learning the ‘why’ behind each individual.”

There’s a growing recognition that connection fuels performance. Commens noted that Shane McLeod, in guiding Belgium to Olympic gold, spent huge amounts of time in one-on-one conversations with players. Not to be best friends, but to understand what made them tick—why they put in the extra hours, what their dreams were, what feedback resonated. That investment allowed the coaching staff to deliver the right messages in the highest-pressure moments, giving players the ability to trust the process and deliver.

How to Implement This as a Coach

So, how do you action this philosophy in your day-to-day coaching?

1. Prioritise Individual Conversations: Dedicate time each week to check in with players, not just about hockey, but about their goals, motivation, and well-being. Ask meaningful questions—Why are they here? What do they want from you and the team? What do they bring to the group?

2. Use Connection to Guide Selection and Feedback: Rather than relying solely on form and data, understand individual personalities and how each fits into the broader squad. Connection allows for honest conversations about roles, expectations, and areas for growth.

3. Celebrate Unique Contributions: Make a point to identify and acknowledge each player’s “superpower”—the unique quality they offer the group, as Commens called it—and couple that to a broader team objective.

4. Create Small Moments of Trust: Consistently show players you’re available. Be open about selection. Offer feedback with empathy. Demonstrate, in actions more than words, that you care about their progression on and off the pitch.

The bottom line: You can run the best drills or have the most robust tactical model, but unless your group is tightly connected, honest, and aligned, you’re putting a ceiling on your team’s potential.

“If you nail [connection], then you’ve gone a long way to becoming a really high-level coach.” – Adam Commens

Why Watch the Whole Masterclass?

This session is a goldmine for any field hockey coach looking to challenge their current mindset. Beyond the headlines, Adam Commens peels back the curtain on actual methods—not theory—used to create Olympics-winning cultures. He doesn’t just talk about connection, but how to cultivate it; not just about “working hard,” but raising the quality bar; not just about building a winning environment, but how to genuinely transform a good group into a great one. The nuances, practical anecdotes, and candid look at mistakes as well as successes are worth every minute—and every coach will come away with actions they can apply this week.

Ready to go deeper? Scroll below for the three main takeaways and candid, practical advice to use in your coaching tomorrow.