When Ohio field hockey coach Neil Macmillan was eating breakfast with a sports psychologist before the start of last season, the psychologist offered Macmillan a piece of advice: Don’t make goals.
“Sometimes when you have goals, everything gets lost in the focus and drive to achieve them,” Macmillan said.
The psychologist’s point was that taking the focus off the present made it hard to achieve the desired results.
“Lets say our goal is to walk across the backyard area … all the way to that flower over there,” Macmillan said. “When you do that, where is your focus? Your focus is on that flower. You’ve missed everything else around and the opportunity to really take in the garden.”
The Bobcats responded to the unorthodox method with a Mid-American Conference championship and a berth in the NCAA Tournament. And looking ahead to next season, the field hockey team has no intentions to change its ways.
Despite not setting goals, Ohio has placed more emphasis on developing individual skills this offseason than it has in years past. Macmillan said he has seen substantial improvement through the workouts.
With limited coaching time during winter and spring quarters, personal accountability has been integral to the team’s success. Macmillan is familiar with the work ethic he has seen, as the majority of the roster will return in the fall.
The Bobcats had only four seniors on last year’s squad and will have five next season.
Among the returning letter-winners are leading scorers Jessica Jue, Taylor Brown and Cathryn Altdoerffer. The vacancy between the pipes likely will be filled by freshman goalie Brittany Walker.
Even with a similar roster there are still general parts of its game the team aims to improve upon, such as upping its offense and playing better defensively. Ohio also has plans to cover more in-depth parts of the game.
“I think we will be looking at formation and ball movement and really trying to get organized so that we can go into the full week (of practice) with an idea of different options of how we can play, different formations we can be in, and who are the players that sit well in different positions within those formations,” Macmillan said.
Having a variety of strategies is a necessity for a team that has had a target on its back for several years. Macmillan preaches that the easiest way to counter a team targeting Ohio is for the Bobcats to use the same tenacity against its opponent.
“It negates that pressure that another team is putting on,” Macmillan said. “If we can play without pressure and play as freely as we can, then we can be successful.”
