How other sports can influence your practice

Goal: Take tips, practices and rules from other sports to inspire your practice design and boost decision making in your players.

Article Structure:

• Why we should do it?

• 2 Crossovers

• Coaching takeaways

Why we should do it?

As coaches, we often talk about developing decision makers, but how often do we give players completely new problems to solve?

Borrowing from other sports isn’t about copying - it’s about transferring principles. A basketball transition game sharpens scanning and next action awareness. A rugby support drill improves timing and depth and leads. A netball rule, increases body awareness and the use of 1 step.

Players learn to adapt when they experience something unfamiliar and that adaptability can be gold on the hockey pitch.

2 Creative Crossovers

Rugby Rule

How it plays: No forward passes. You can only move the ball forward by carrying it forwards. This will encourage your players to move forward with the ball and support players by dropping in behind them for drop passes.

Netball Rule

How it plays: When your players have the ball they cant be tackled, but they cant move. This one is great for firstly, just ensuring the first touch stays within the body space, then secondly if players off the ball have to do the work to lose their players in order to receive the next pass. If your players cant receive any clear passes, then it may be because their off the ball, movement skills need some work.

Coaching takeaways

The best “creative” drills don’t look wild. They just challenge players in a different context.

Borrowing from other sports allows players to experience new movement patterns, scanning habits, and ways of communicating.

If it’s too easy, adjust constraints (space, numbers, touches). If it’s too chaotic, simplify the rules but keep the principles of your team alive.

Try one of these this week  and share your favourite crossover drills with the Agora community: Join the conversation