It’s about to start

By Tjerk van Herwaarden | Aug 25, 2009 in Blogs

Tjerk (pronounced Cherick) is a native of the Netherlands, and is Technical Director at the University of Maryland. In his four years coaching in the USA he has won an unprecedented three National College Championships with the Univ. of Maryland in just four years there. - 3 time NCAA Champion (2008, 2006 & 2005) ::: 2 time ACC Champion (‘08 & ‘05) - Head Coach Maryland Women's High Performance ::: 2006 National Champions - Head Coach Mid Atlantic Men's High Performance ::: 2008 National Champions - USFHA Level 3+ Accreditation ::: USFHA Level 2 Coaching Course Assessor - USA National Men's Team Assistant Coach - Co-Owner/Director of World Camp USA

Well here we go, just 2 days left in pre season! On Thursday we fly to Chicago and will open on Friday with a game vs Ohio University @ NorthWestern.

Where on the first day of pre season it is new for everybody and we just have to start back up, after not even 2 weeks it is as if we have been here getting ready for the last 2 months! Where fitness and technical skills have had the priority in the first few days we now are focussing on the big tactical pieces, outletting, our press options, Penalty corners and defense. Interesting for coaches is this new rule of the self start! Your press cannot be the same and it adds so much more to your options in outletting. From a coaching perspective I love it, it requires us to think and be creative with options and lots of great discussions with the coaching staff. Do we step up, or take a more defensive approach to it? What would benefit our team more and how would the players deal with our strategies and philosophy ?

Right now we feel that we have a solid plan and are able to provide our players with a good plan on how to press and how to outlet using the self start! I guess we will see this weekend if we are right with our thoughts….

Another interesting piece of this year is that we have a significant change in our team dynamic. In the past we always travelled with all the players on the team, this year we don’t! For every away trip we will select just 18 players which means some players will stay behind in College Park. Call it the economic crisis in College Sports…

The team has been doing great with this but tomorrow after our last session before we head out we are going to name the 18 for the opening weekend! It really is a tough situation to be in as a player, especially the freshmen but certainly also from a coaching perspective! Sport is very unfair, let me be very clear, some players will work as hard as they can every single practice but still come up short, some players just are talented and gifted and can do with half the work to still be on the field! As a coach you want to win, so what do you do? I know, it is a very tough situation!

It is decision time for all of us! And the only test to see if you are making the right decisions is the game! I will let you know about our decisions when we come back on monday!

Tjerk

Tjerk Van Herwaarden
Technical Director, University of Maryland ::: UMD
Co-Owner, World Camp USA ::: World Camp USA
US Distributor of Princess T14 Hockey Sticks ::: Link