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Are You Searching Hockey Lessons Near Me?

As an Olympic sport that is both exciting to watch and play, hockey is one of the most popular team sports in the world. In South Africa, it is introduced in some schools from a young age. If you want to improve your chances of making the first team or want to learn the basics before joining a beginner’s team, you could learn a lot from private hockey lessons to get you going.

While the basics of the game are not hard to learn, it can take time to master the skills. 

The Game in a Nutshell

Your beginner hockey tutorial will introduce you to the basic concepts of the game. In a nutshell, each team has 11 players, one of whom is a goalie who provides a final defence against the opposition team whose aim is to score a goal into your goal box.

Players are limited to playing within a hockey field’s markings which is divided into quarters and halves and a shooting circle or scoring circle. These semi-circles are on both sides of the field, 16 yards from the goals. Goals are only counted when the player shoots from within the opposing team’s shooting circle and when the ball crosses the line within the goalposts.

A Game of Important Positions

Very similar to soccer, each position in hockey has an important role that works together to with the rest of the team. Private hockey lessons could help you to understand the nuances of your position to play it to the best of your ability.

Are you searching hockey lessons near me so that you can focus on one of these main positions?

- Forwards: their main role is goal scoring

- Midfielders: they focus on both defence and offence

- Defenders: these players hang back near the opposing team’s goalposts

- Sweeper: this player is positioned closest to the opposition’s goals.

- Goalie: the last defence of the goals, this player wears protective gear and is trained to face a fast hockey ball head-on.

Battling with Rules and Penalties? Take a Hockey Tutorial! 

You might have all the athletic talent in the world, but if you do not know the rules of the game, you will not progress in hockey! If you are battling to understand the rules and penalties of hockey, then a hockey tutorial in a classroom setup could help you enormously!  

Private hockey lessons that focus on game theory like penalties, rules, and other things to avoid will include:

- The Free Hit: awarded to the other team for an offence committed outside of a scoring circle.

- A Corner: a penalty corner is given for any offence committed within the scoring circle. This can include intentionally hitting the ball over the line.

- Penalty Stroke: if an attacking team is fouled from a certain goal, the umpire will award them with a penalty stroke which usually ends in a goal!

If you want to learn how to avoid these penalties and not let the side down with unnecessary mistakes, searching hockey lessons near me is a good start.

But when it comes to what to avoid, what can you expect a coach to teach in private hockey lessons? 

Essentially, you will find out how to make sure that you use neither your body or your stick to prevent an opponent from playing the ball. There is quite a lot to know about dangerous play when it comes to hockey and good players are well acquainted with how these fouls could trip them up!

The Job of Umpires

Talent aside, a good hockey player needs to know how an umpire thinks! In hockey two umpires oversee the rules of the game using a whistle, penalty cards, and hand singles. Understanding the different hand singles is critical and this is where a private hockey tutorial will cement this critical knowledge in your mind. There are also different coloured penalty cards which mean:

- Green card: warns a player

- Yellow card: removes a player for five minutes

- Red card: this is the most serious offence and disqualifies a player

There are many other prohibited actions to understand than this. So while the game is relatively easy to learn, it can take much longer to fully grasp both the rules and unique moves of each position.

So whether you are a complete beginner who needs to understand the rules or an advanced player who wants to hone your passing, scoring, or stickhandling skills, hitting or dribbles, private hockey lessons with a Superprof tutor could help you advance very quickly. 

One-on-One Coaching for Team Sports

Remember that even though hockey is a team sport there is much room for one-on-one coaching of players. You could tackle a general internet search hockey lessons near me, or you could head over to Superprof where you can be assured of several immediate benefits:

The credentials of all tutors are verified for you which should offer peace of mind!

You could use the website’s advanced location tool to find a tutor near to you for in-person lessons.

If there is no one near to you, or if you prefer, you could take online lessons via webcam with a hockey coach from anywhere in South Africa and even some places overseas.

You could benefit from a free introductory lesson to make sure the tutor is right for you and that you are a good personality match!

Private coaching is still the best way to master just about anything.

So whether you want to make the most of your school hockey years or want to make sure that you make it into next season’s Premier Hockey League, Superprof which has offers private lessons for every level and budget!

At only an average cost of R183 per private lesson, even a few private lessons could instil the kind of confidence it takes to make the most out of the enjoyable game of hockey!