Field hockey, more than ever, finds its competitive edge not just in tactical sophistication or technical execution, but in the nuanced understanding of the mind. Of both athletes and coaches. The “cognitive process of coaching” is often discussed in theory, but rarely dissected from the inside out, especially for sports as detail-oriented and emotionally intense as field hockey.
In this insightful masterclass, Henk Verschuur, a grandmaster in the classical martial arts, sports administrator, university lecturer, and a well-travelled coach, shares his cross-disciplinary expertise. While not a field hockey specialist by training, his recent collaborations with some of Europe’s leading national teams, both women and men, offer rare vantage points. By partnering with coaches such as Jamilon Mülders (Dutch women’s team) and André Henning (German men’s team), Henk Verschuur has embedded himself at the frontier of elite performance, focusing on the “who” and “how” behind coaching under pressure.
This session, hosted by Ernst Baart of The Hockey Site, foregoes the slide decks and highlight reels, instead offering a conversational deep dive with direct applications for the experienced field hockey coach.
The Roots and Breadth of Cognitive Coaching
Henk Verschuur opens by establishing a critical but often-overlooked axis for coaches: self-awareness. With decades of experience as both athlete and sports executive, he has studied under the likes of Henry Mintzberg, examining “human intrinsic strategy”—the intersection of personality, motive, and function within high-performance settings. Contrasting his martial arts and football backgrounds with his more recent field hockey collaboration, Henk Verschuur notes a striking difference—field hockey players display an extraordinary intrinsic motivation and athleticism, unmatched even by some “professionalized” sports environments where monetary motives muddy the waters.
However, despite this mental edge among athletes, Henk Verschuur cautions that field hockey culture—as in many sports—remains conservative regarding the mind. Coaching certificates often emphasize technical and physical prowess, nearly ignoring the “vessel” of it all: the coach’s own mind. Technical directors and federations may enforce tactical fluency but provide scant education into the cognitive subtleties required to manage minds—athletes’ and coaches’ alike—under real stress.
Who Coaches the Coach? A Flaw in the System
A major thread in the conversation is the glaring gap: while elite athletes now routinely benefit from sports psychology, coaches themselves are often left unsupported. Ernst Baart confirms this with examples: football coaches often travel with their own “coach of coaches” over decades, but hockey rarely invests in such ongoing mentorship.
Henk Verschuur outlines how the coach’s mental state—whether under-threat by results-oriented boards or the weight of legacy—directly bleeds into team dynamics. Even the most professional, technically-brilliant coaches cannot escape the psychological “spoon of petroleum” that can sabotage a “good pan of soup.” He works directly with coaches not only on personal balance but on strategy, staff management, and emotional alignment, noting that the national program setting (where teams are transitory and staff transient) requires even more nuanced support.
Multidisciplinary Alignment: Staff and System
The conversation turns toward the architecture of successful staffs. Does diversity of temperament, experience, and background strengthen teams? Henk Verschuur asserts that success lies not in a simple formula, but in a chef’s precision—constructing a staff not by default, but through deep profiling of the team’s needs. Should an assistant coach be a challenger or a supporter? Novel systems fail if no one on the staff can identify or profile group and individual dynamics with rigor and open-mindedness.
Too often, top players-turned-coaches manage according to how they were once managed, neglecting that today’s athletes are a different breed cognitively, emotionally, and socially.
Cognitive Overload: Messaging Under Pressure
One of Henk Verschuur’s most practical contributions relates to the quarter-time or halftime team talk. Field hockey’s modern rhythms give coaches two to three minutes to deliver talking points, often after a period of high-intensity, emotionally-charged play. Yet studies show that in this window, players are often still mentally digesting what just happened; information overload at this point rarely sticks.
Henk Verschuur emphasizes the importance of brevity and relevance. At these junctures, a few well-placed cues—oft-rehearsed and emotionally “hooked” in prior preparation—are more effective than tactical lectures. Additionally, coaches must read the room: recognize states of agitation, fatigue, or motivational deficit, and tailor non-verbal communication accordingly.
Preparation, Alignment, and Training the Mind
Many coaches, Henk Verschuur acknowledges, lack deep training in sports psychology or cognitive science. Yet he contends that curiosity and “relentless reading” can elevate one’s practice. Technical mastery without mental insight too easily devolves into “monkey see, monkey do.”
Athletes—especially youth—are changing rapidly, both in learning style and psychological complexity. Coaches must leverage even basic understanding of developmental psychology to avoid mismatches in messaging and motivation, especially when dealing with parents who may unwittingly add pressure rather than provide safety.
The famous field hockey team circle during team talks, for example, is not just tradition but an emotional and cognitive “reset,” re-activating unity and prime attention in a high-stress situation.
Failure as Information: Resilience Under Duress
Of all the mental skills addressed, Henk Verschuur prizes the athlete’s (and coach’s) relationship to failure. He advocates for training both the coach and athlete away from the self-fulfilling prophecy of “it’s not my day” to embracing all setbacks as data—curiously, openly, and constructively. Drills that combine high heart rate (running) and cognitive overload (number games) can, over time, build an “expanded baseline,” allowing players to process disruption, recover composure, and make good decisions, even when the game’s at its most chaotic.
The Relationship Foundation: Trust, Communication, and Coaching Moments
Finally, the true core of cognitive coaching is relationship—of trust, reliability, and consistency.
Coaches cannot demand openness; they must earn it with authentic behavior, emotional regulation, and non-hierarchical engagement. Some of the best “coaching” takes place off the pitch or outside structured sessions—at the coffee machine, in the corridor—where status and pressure are minimized.
Q&A Summary
The session concludes with several pointed questions from the audience, each foregrounding the practical challenges faced by working coaches.
One coach asks about strategies for postmatch reviews. Henk Verschuur emphasizes timing and digestion: sometimes immediate feedback serves, especially for quick key points, while deeper reflection may be best saved for after rest and recovery.
Cognitive overload is a real risk; the coach’s job is not to say everything they want to, but to assess what the team can actually absorb.
A perennial issue concerns staff communication and player engagement in the critical team huddle. Some players may be distracted, emotionally disconnected, or physically absent. The response: preparation is key. Establishing the team circle as both an “emotional clue” and practical framework must be reinforced not only as a tradition but as a deliberate tool—a ritual that underpins unity and message retention. In moments of chaos, cueing techniques and conscious breathing can function as anchoring procedures to maximize group focus.
Another inquiry highlights how to help athletes balance external (game environment, opposition) and internal (self-monitoring, technique) focus, especially under stress. Henk Verschuur offers cognitive overload drills and the process of re-framing mistakes as fleeting, informational, and recoverable rather than as permanent failures.
Coaches also probe the boundaries between coaching and psychology—how to recognize when an athlete’s issue exceeds coaching remit and requires expert referral. Henk Verschuur is unequivocal: basic mental skills coaching requires a foundation of trust, psychological safety, and an honest assessment of whether the challenge at hand is within the coach’s competence.
Building trust, especially early in the coach-athlete relationship, was discussed as best achieved through consistency, reliability, and emotional regulation. Only through such behavioral credibility do opportunities emerge for authentic, open dialogue and deeper impact.
Conclusion and Practical Takeaways
This masterclass with Henk Verschuur offered a distinctly valuable lens for field hockey’s coaching community—a challenge and invitation to move beyond “just” tactical and physical frameworks towards a truly integrated cognitive approach.
Takeaway 1: Coaches Must Be Coached
The cognitive demands on a coach, especially at the highest levels, require routine support, reflection, and personal development. Seek feedback, mentorship, or even external coaching to maintain your own resilience, awareness, and innovation.
Takeaway 2: Refine Both the Message and the Moment
In high-pressure scenarios—quarter talks, halftime huddles—brevity, timing, and emotional intelligence trump information overload. Prepare cues in advance, read your group, and favor resonance over quantity.
Takeaway 3: Trust is the Foundation
Without psychological safety, both athlete and coach are limited in their capacity for growth and honest exchange. Consistent, reliable, emotionally-balanced behavior from the coach builds openness, engagement, and the foundations for successful mental and tactical coaching alike.
If you’re eager to apply these insights in your coaching journey, we highly encourage you to watch the full masterclass on demand.
Think you could benefit from some individual coaching by Henk Verschuur, reach out to him via email ↓
So, we kicked off 2026 with an interesting one. Let me know what topics or coaches you would like to hear more about for the rest of 2026 ↓
Best wishes for the new year and I hope to see all of you here often 😉
