The topic for this masterclass by Darren Cheesman 🇬🇧 is GOT metrics. The livestream was online for free on Friday, May 5 in 2023.
Darren Cheesman
Darren Cheesman is a hockey coach from England. Cheesman played for GB / England and his club hockey in the domestic leagues of England (East Grinstead) and the Netherlands (Oranje Zwart). Very active in the FIH Academy as a highly regarded coach educator, he is doing his on field coaching these days in Germany and before that in Belgium and the Netherlands.
For The Hockey Site Darren Cheesman previously also hosted a very interactive live session in his coach chat on long corner offensive tactics in 2021.
GOT metrics
Recently Cheesman published a thesis for his Master of Science in Elite Sports Coaching Practice entitled: “Reviewing GOT Metrics as KPIs for the German Women’s International Field Hockey team, and as a tool to inform future strategy and training interventions. A Case Study approach.” That was a good enough reason to ask him to tell us more about this topic in a new masterclass…
Download the PDF of this dissertation
The One Essential Lesson from the GOT Metrics Masterclass
Whether you’re coaching at a national level or fine-tuning a club side, field hockey can often feel overwhelming—so many variables, so many options, so much data. But if there’s one thing to take away from the recent masterclass on GOT Metrics, it’s this: structure is your best ally in navigating the complexity of field hockey.
GOT Metrics (Goals, Opportunities, Threats) aren’t just a way of counting circle entries—they’re a framework for making sense of the chaos within the attacking and defending circles. The true utility is not in how many entries you tally, but in the quality and context you attach to each one. If you’re used to measuring just quantity, it’s time to rethink: “Traditionally we talk about the quantity of circle entries or quantity of shots that we might be able to generate in a game,” says Darren Cheesman. “But actually, there’s a whole load of insight that goes into the fact that the quality of each of those circle entries is just as, if not more important.”
Why does this matter? Quality entries connect directly to scoring chances. Instead of looking at a stat sheet and thinking, ‘We got into the circle 25 times,’ you start asking, ‘How many times did we get a shot off without defensive pressure? Where on the pitch did our most dangerous entries initiate? Are we consistently creating the kind of opportunities that match the strengths of our squad?’ This shift allows coaches to be far more targeted in their tactical reviews and far more intentional in their session design.
How can you apply GOT Metrics in your everyday coaching?
Session Design Rooted in Reality: Use what the metrics tell you to build training that replicates the game environments your team faces. If your squad rarely gets shots from the top of the circle—either because they aren’t allowed by opposition defenses, or it doesn’t suit your strengths—why waste precious time drilling top-circle shooting? Instead, focus on the spaces and contexts where you are creating chances.
Performance Reviews with Context: GOT Metrics offer a way to dissect why you’re getting (or missing) chances, not just if you’re getting them. Are you failing to capitalize on overloads? Are you only creating shots under pressure, not in ‘red zones’ with no defender in sight? Overlay this with your video and post-match analysis for a far deeper conversation with your athletes.
Scouting and Opposition Profiles: GOT Metrics go beyond looking at your own team. Scouting becomes more efficient—you’re not just guessing how many times your rivals attack; you’re seeing where, how, and with what quality they hurt opponents. You can prepare tactical plans that fit the real threats, not imagined ones.
Resource Flexibility: If you don’t have video tech or analysts, you can still implement this approach. As Darren Cheesman pointed out, “You might just have somebody on the side of the field who has pen and paper and just puts a little dot on a circle, saying where the goal shot was…” The structure matters more than the tools. You can adapt this system whether you’re at World Cup level or running an U14s training session.
Here’s the crux: GOT Metrics aren’t a magic bullet for goals, and they’re certainly not a guarantee of wins. But used consistently, they provide a roadmap for improvement that’s rooted in evidence, not gut feel. You move away from coaching ad hoc, toward a method where data supports your intuition and sharpens your athletes’ focus.
As Darren Cheesman summed up, “These metrics are just metrics and the only metric that really matters is the goals. Just because you do well in the metrics, it doesn’t mean that you’re guaranteed goals… It’s just there to help you tell a story, to help you identify things, to understand trends, to be able to identify where you might need development areas.”
Why Should You Dive Into the Full Video (and Thesis)?
This masterclass isn’t just a theory session—it’s brimming with practical, field-tested application. If all you read is this summary, you’ll miss the context, the game footage examples, and the problem-solving in real sessions: how the metrics identified a real opportunity, how those were translated into drills, and how the plan stacked up in match conditions. You’ll see exactly how performance reviews shifted after applying the framework—and hear thoughtful answers to questions about live coding, player feedback, resources, sharing analysis, and much more.
Paid subscribers get to see the full video and read on for 3 takeaways...
