Training carrying the ball

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If there’s one thing to take from this session, it’s that ball carry isn't just about moving with the ball — it’s about setting up the right decision at the right time. How you teach it sets up everything that follows.

This article unpacks Shenarda Dedic’s approach to building a field hockey session around the ball carry. We look at why focusing on vision and decision-making during carry changes not just technique, but the outcomes your players choose in-game. We’ll cover the core principle driving her session design and how you might rethink your own approach, before digging into practice design, decision-making layers, and how to adapt activities for different levels — that’s all in the paid section below.

If there’s a foundation underlying Shenarda Dedic’s approach, it’s that ball carry is about vision and decision-making, not just control or speed. Too often, coaches think of “ball carry” as isolated stick skills, or just “running with the ball” up the pitch. Here, the carry is explicitly taught and shaped so that a player can see as much of the field as possible, read options, and choose whether to eliminate, connect, or run.

Why does that matter? Because where and how your player carries the ball dictates what decisions they can actually make. If their body is closed, sightlines blocked, or hands locked-in, you might be coaching “good” technique but worse outcomes. Shenarda Dedic drills into this, saying, “I normally do my ball carry around making sure that the players can do the most amount of vision, partly because I want them to be the best decision makers" 03:22. It’s not about arbitrary technical positions — it’s about what that technique enables.

So what does this look like in principle? First, ball position shifts depending on support and pressure: right foot for some carries, further outside for others, always adjusted by where potential teammates or defenders sit. Body open to the play. Grip allowing “see your watch”, hand poised rather than rigid — because this gives vision and manipulates what the defender sees. Teaching “the parrot’s perch” is a visual for youngsters, but also keeps the carrying posture optimal, alert, ready to choose.

Take an example from her session: When players moved around cones as “defenders”, even in this unopposed drill, the focus was on always resetting the carry position after each elimination, deliberately putting the ball (and thus decision options) back in play. “That allows us to access inside and out," she points out 15:17. If you end up stuck flat-footed or on the wrong line after beating an obstacle, you’ve shut down most of your next options.

How does this translate into everyday coaching? It starts in warm-up, where even dynamic stretching is considered as a moment to build vision and alertness, not just muscle activation. In technical work, you emphasise not only where to put the ball or hands, but why — “because it gives you the biggest window for information.” In every application, you ask: Is my player really seeing all their options? What decision does this carrying shape make available — and what does it shut off?

The real challenge is adjusting your drills and constraints so the ball carrier is forced to take in, and act on, live information — even if that starts simply. It’s better to go slow, as she does (“if you have players struggling, tell them to walk through it”), than to rush to game speed before players have connected the technical base to vision and decision-making.

So, if you’re designing a session on ball carry, ask yourself:

There's more than one way, and different groups may need different emphases. But keep coming back to what your carry is for: enabling the next decision — not just moving the ball.