Field hockey is not won over forty metres; it is won over the first three steps. The player who arrives half a second sooner tackles cleaner, receives with more time, and never looks rushed. Footwork buys that half second.
Start with a simple ladder series: two feet in each rung, then one, then a lateral shuffle through. Two minutes, sharp and light, landing on the balls of your feet. The point is not speed through the ladder — it is teaching your feet to move without your brain asking them to.
Add reactive starts. Have a partner point left or right and explode two steps that way, then reset. Field hockey rewards the first movement being correct, so train the read and the step together, never in isolation.
Finish with low-position work: get into a hockey stance, stick down, and move a few metres in every direction without standing up. Keeping a low centre of gravity is what lets you change direction with the ball — and it is the first thing that disappears when you are tired.
None of this needs more than ten minutes. Run it as a warm-up before every session and your first three steps get quietly, permanently faster.