The NCAA News - News and Features

The NCAA News -- October 12, 1998

Association wide -- Playing the (entire) field

Changes in field hockey offside rule and scoring circle have opened up the game

BY HEATHER D. YOST
STAFF WRITER

Technically, the field of play is no different than before. But recent rules changes have given field hockey coaches and players a bigger field to maximize offensive moves and defensive coverages.

The most dramatic change came two years ago when the International Hockey Federation (FIH) set out to make the game more exciting by remanding the offside rule. While that didn't change the size of the field, it changed how the field is used.

"(The rule change) has certainly opened up and lengthened the field," said Kathy Tierney, assistant athletics director and field hockey coach at Lebanon Valley College and NCAA rules-modifications interpreter.

"The change has put a challenge to defenses to cover a greater part of the field, identify and maximize coverage of crucial space and, more than anything, make quick decisions. It is a faster-moving game, and the defenses are put to the ultimate challenge of combating that."

When the rule was in effect, a player was considered offside if she received the ball from a teammate and was inside the opponent's 25-yard scoring area, in front of the ball and nearer the back line than two opposing players.

The change in the offside rule has altered thinking on both sides of the ball. Defensively, teams that worked to draw offenses offside have had to remove that page from the playbook.

"We tried to draw the other team offside," said Sally Scatton, chair of the NCAA Division III Field Hockey Committee and head coach at William Smith College. "Our game has changed focus from a defensive standpoint. We have to be a lot more aware defensively and aggressively attack the offense at all times."

Maintaining steady pressure on the offensive attack is particularly key now as more offensive players can join the attack and offenses find alternative uses for space.

"I think the skill level of players today is tremendous," said Cristy Freese, coach at Central Michigan University and chair of the NCAA Division I Field Hockey Committee. "I think the offside rule was doing a lot to slow down the offense. Now, the defenses are spread and the game is opened up. All the players are so skilled now, you have to put constant pressure on the ball."

Just as defenses have gone back to the drawing board since the offside change, so too have offenses been forced to adjust.

"It has changed offenses dramatically with the type of offensive movements that are available," Tierney said. "We are seeing more uses of specific spaces, like give-and-go's off the end lines. The offense has been opened up to be more creative with its use of space."

16-yard scoring circle

The NCAA field hockey committees also voted to align the college game with the international rules last season by modifying the scoring distance. From 1990 to 1997, a player could attempt a goal once she crossed the 25-yard line. To align with international field hockey rules, a player now must score from within the 16-yard circle.

"Two years ago when we went to the no-offside rule it was a very exciting change," Freese said. "Last year, I don't think there was any real drop-off in scoring or the excitement in the game after the change to the circle."

Amid concerns that scoring would be restricted and the excitement of the game abated by the rule change, scoring in championship play continued to rise.

In 1994 and 1995, the Division I championships produced 3.18 and 3.36 goals per game, respectively. During the first year of the no-offside rule, the number of goals on average in championships play was 5.54. Even after the scoring distance was shortened in 1997, championships play boasted a 5.63 goals -per-game average.

In addition to the goals-per-game increase, there were more shutouts in the 1995 championship (eight) than during the 1996 and 1997 events combined (six).

"After they adjusted to it, I think the players have learned to like the change (in the scoring distance)," Scatton said. "The players appreciate that you can't just whack the ball toward the goal after you cross the 25-yard line anymore. Now, players are making shorter passes, using the field and making strategic decisions."

Divisions II and III were tentative at first about the rule change, primarily because it was believed that scoring within the circle requires better stick work from the 16-yard distance, and Division I programs have the advantage of smoother playing surfaces or even artificial turf.

"I favored the change from the beginning to bring us in line with the FIH rules and to improve the pace of the game," Tierney said. "I think Divisions II and III had some special challenges that caused them to take to it a little slower."

Sentiments have changed

"It was a good way to make field hockey more of a finesse game and take away the long, hard hitting," said Jan Hutchinson, coach at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. "We have seen teams work the ball to the corners to score instead of scoring from the field of play, which is unfortunate.

"I think it has been good for the game."

Just as defensive players are forced by the recent rules changes to be more aggressive, goalies are faced with more shots and the challenge of blocking different angles.

"The goalkeeper has become an even more crucial part of the game," Tierney said. "Before the changes, what you saw coming at you was what you played. Goalkeepers now need to be more aware of where the attack is in order to deal with laterals and other things that we maybe wouldn't have seen before."

A goalie is forced to play more balls with a combination of the two rules changes. A goalie could choose not to play a shot on goal taken from outside of the circle, but the dangers of a tip-in by a forward and pressure on goalies while returning the ball to play may be a deterrent.

"The goalie must be more agile," Hutchinson said. "She must be able to adjust to playing with someone always standing in front of her and the goal all the time. She has to be able to play one-on-one with the attack player. The agility plays a big part of that. There is more mental pressure on a goalie now."

Although players -- such as the goalie -- must make quick decisions, in some ways the game has been returned to the masterminds on the sideline. The recent rules changes have allowed coaches the freedom to take a new, different look at the game.

"The offside trap is out," Freese said. "Penalty corners are more dangerous than ever, but we can be creative in new ways about attacking the goal.

"I don't know if we have fully realized all the ways these changes may have affected the game."