What NIT gives coaches that outdoor can't
More touches, tighter evaluation, and one position that benefits enormously
It’s February, and for many American field hockey players, that means one thing: the National Indoor Tournament.
NIT is a somewhat unusual recruiting tournament experience for college coaches. We’re watching a small-sided version of the sport that isn’t played at the collegiate level at all. Some coaches won’t engage with it all and refuse to go.
Yet, NIT will still be one of the best-attended recruiting tournaments of the year. Today, I’ll explain why.
The timing
June 15 is five months away for the class of 2028. That means D1 schools have a pretty long target list right now, which they’re whittling down over the next few months.
Most of the recruiting tournaments between now and then are showcases. Some clubs will go, some won’t.
But almost every club tries to qualify for NIT. So the next opportunity to see a majority of the country’s top sophomores in one place won’t be until the Max FH Top 150 event in May.
In addition, February is early in the spring season for college coaches. Most haven’t started scrimmaging yet, so they have more headspace to think about their future team as well as their current one.
More touches
This is the biggest pro of watching indoor.
At an outdoor showcase, a coach might watch half a game and see the player they came to watch touch the ball two or three times in 25 minutes. Indoors, it could be five times as many touches in the same timeframe.
And those touches come under pressure. A loose first touch indoors is nearly impossible to recover. A bouncy one is a free hit against you. Any pass through a defender’s personal space on the forehand is getting picked, or getting a drilling call. Flat sticks mean there’s nowhere to hide.
So the ball has to keep moving. And that means far more vision and deception to keep it circulating. You can really see who has smooth control and can use their feet, hips, and shoulders to fool defenders - not just their hand speed. The eyes tell the lies, the body fake provides the disguise.
All of it happening at high speed, with a suffocatingly small amount of time and space. Ideal for making notes on technical skills and decision-making under pressure.
Better proximity
At a large outdoor showcase, a coach might be sitting 60 yards away from the ball, trying to pick one player out of 22. We’ve all “backed the wrong horse” and ended up sitting in the half where little to no action is in some games.
Indoors, distance isn’t an issue. Coaches can watch whether you’re scanning before the ball arrives. They can evaluate how you move off the ball.
There’s zero guesswork or assumptions needed as to whether you’re communicating or not. It’s plain to see and hear. The same goes for your general presence - if a coach doesn’t notice you at all in a half of indoor, chances are they aren’t confident you’ll be noticed in their environment either.
And on such a small court, it’s even more obvious who is willing to sprint to get back on defense and protect their circle after a turnover, and who can’t be bothered.
Goalkeepers’ time to shine
Watching goalkeepers at outdoor showcases can be an exercise in futility. They could go an entire half without seeing a single shot - which is why keepers have their own separate showcases at outdoor events.
There are no such issues indoors. The scoring rate is dramatically higher. A goalkeeper might see more action in one half than in two full outdoor matches.
If you play in goal, indoor hockey is one of the best recruiting environments on your calendar. Coaches in the market for a goalkeeper know this - they pay attention at indoor events specifically because of it.
What coaches CAN’T see indoors
Hitting. Sweeping. 3D skills. Aerials. How you handle bouncy passes and balls coming in from distance. Vision and scanning on a full-size field. Transition speed across 90 yards. Pancake grip defending.
Those skills matter enormously in college hockey. They can only be evaluated outdoors. And some of the habits built indoors (such as defending in a block tackle grip 100% of the time) need to be broken once you go back outside.
Indoor tournaments show coaches a different set of abilities - useful ones - but not the complete picture they need to make recruiting decisions.
That’s why indoor recruiting has useful differentiation, but you won’t see many coaches recruiting other indoor tournaments beyond the ‘main’ event of NIT.
How to think about it
If you’re heading to an NIT this month, here’s what actually matters.
Play with intensity. Show coaches your passing, receiving, ball-carrying, and decision-making. Put your competitiveness, on-field presence, and communication on display.
For everyone else, think of it as a supplement to your outdoor showcases. Not a replacement.
And if you’re someone who dominates outdoors but feels less comfortable with the indoor game? Don’t lose sleep over it. Coaches understand that indoor and outdoor are different sports. A player who is elite outdoors but average indoors is still a player coaches want to recruit.
The indoor game has value. Just know what value it actually has - and what it doesn’t.