Preseason training sets the tone

Unlocking Better Preseasons in Field Hockey: The 7 Rules from Phil Moreland 🇦🇺

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Jul 01, 2025

If there’s one thing every field hockey coach shares after a couple seasons, it’s a healthy respect for how much the “little things” matter. Sure, technical drills and tactical sessions are important. But the groundwork for a successful campaign is laid in preseason, in those heavy weeks when you’re building habits, fitness, and expectation from the ground up.

Recently, I re-watched Phil Moreland’s excellent masterclass on preseason programming. Phil’s resume is impressive—he’s worked with international field hockey squads, but also the Australian Air Force. Yet what struck me most in his talk wasn’t the science or the tech (though he loves a good GPS unit as much as the next S&C coach). His real gold came at the end, in a series of seven rules for preseason design. These are distilled from years of trial, error, and tweaking: simple, direct, and—most importantly—practical.

Below, I’m digging into Phil’s rules for a better preseason, with an eye on how experienced field hockey coaches can make use of them (and possibly avoid a few headaches along the way).

1. Athlete Appropriate Before Sport Specific

We’re all a little guilty here. When preseason rolls around, it’s tempting to head straight for sexy, hockey-specific drills. But as Phil rightly points out, if your athletes aren’t ready for sport-specific loads, you’re setting them up to fail (or end up in the physio’s office).

Start by making sure the basics are in place: movement competency, joint stability, and general robustness. Consider this a “permission slip” to hold off on the nuanced rotational lunges or high-pressure 1v1s until your players are physically ready. Those who can’t squat or lunge pain-free, or who have glaring movement issues, simply aren’t there yet. Invest in the fundamentals first.

2. Train Movements, Not Muscles

It can be easy to slip into an old-school, bodybuilding mindset—especially if you’ve inherited a free weights room or a ton of resistance bands. But hockey is a sport of blended, real-world movements, not isolated muscle contractions.

Phil’s advice is to focus on patterns: squatting, lunging, pushing, pulling, rotating, decelerating, and balancing. When designing your S&C or warm-up blocks, mix in drills that mimic hockey’s demands. Try multi-directional lunges, change-of-direction runs, or resisted stick-handling under fatigue. Make sure every movement prepares players for the on-field chaos, not just for a bigger bench press.

3. Every Muscle and Joint Moves in Three Planes

Field hockey isn’t played in straight lines, and neither should your gym work be. This rule is about respecting the reality of how we move: forwards and backwards (sagittal), side-to-side (frontal), and rotationally (transverse).

For coaches, this means checking your program for monotony. Don’t just squat and sprint straight up and down—blend in lateral lunges, rotational med-ball throws, and agility ladders that force multi-directional movement. Your goal? Players who can control their bodies in any direction, under speed and fatigue.

4. Simplicity Yields Complexity

Phil’s fourth rule is almost sneaky in its brilliance. The best training drills aren’t always the most elaborate; sometimes, the simple ones—well executed—produce genuine game-like complexity.

Giving players a handful of clear rules in a restricted game (e.g., small-sided, limited-touch, or space constraints) often creates all the movement, awareness, and intensity you could ask for. Don’t overthink it. Focused, stripped-back drills often lead to the most “real” learning, forcing decisions, collaboration, and adaptation.

5. Slow Down – The Process Matters

Let’s be honest, most of us (and our athletes!) are guilty of rushing the process. We all want to be top-six, injury-free, and promotion-bound now. But Phil’s urging to slow down the process is spot on.

Be patient with progression. Make sure athletes have truly mastered a level before amping up the volume, speed, or technical demand. Getting ahead of yourself is a recipe for injuries and inconsistency. Remember, the goal isn’t a single good preseason but steady, sustained improvement over years.

6. What We Do in Training Must Connect to the Game

Phil hammers home the importance of relevance. Ask yourself: does this strength drill, this interval, this video review, translate onto the pitch? If you can’t connect a session to a real in-game demand, it’s probably not worth repeating.

Mix S&C with stick work, use scenario-based practices, and demand game-realistic intensity and decision-making. Training in isolation is useful (up to a point), but nothing substitutes for activities that look and feel like hockey.

7. Don’t Train to Get Better at Tests

This is a big one, especially for squads obsessed with the beep test (or whatever your fitness flavor of the month is). Tests give you important data, but they’re not the goal. A player isn’t a better midfielder just because they add a beep or drop a 10th off their sprint.

Design your program so that the ultimate test is the game—can they press hard in minute 65, win 1v1s in transition, or recover for a third match in four days? Your fitness blocks should be functional, enjoyable (where possible), and tied to the hockey your players need to play. If they improve the beep test, great—but if their game influence goes up, that’s the real proof.

Connecting It All

Phil’s rules are deceptively simple, but there’s real wisdom in their execution. For experienced coaches, preseason isn’t about ticking boxes. It’s about crafting a scaffold that supports fitness, skill, team cohesion, and—importantly—growth for every athlete, at their own rate.

Try holding these rules up against your next preseason plan. Where can you strip out fluff? Where might you individualize more? Where can your drills better prepare athletes for “the what next”—the real, chaotic, beautiful moments of hockey?

If your preseason sets the tone, these rules are your notes. Read them often and let them guide you through the long, rewarding march to opening whistle.

Don’t just prepare your team—prepare them for what they’ll actually face. That, in the end, is what winning preseasons are really about.

Happy hockey,