Auto-generated captions — may contain the odd mishearing. Click a time to jump there.
0:01 Well, hello coaches. Coach KW back here Uh today I have something uh that people have been requesting, which is a full session. So, today I have a full session
0:10 on turning and scanning. It's something I did with my U10 team about a year ago, but it is something that can be used with any age group, honestly, cuz
0:17 turning and scanning is a huge part of the game. So, this isn't a play practice play format, which is helpful, especially for newer or inexperienced coaches, because it really gives you a
0:27 structure to work within. And so, you'll see that structure, and hopefully it will give you some ideas on how you can perhaps do the same sort of things. We
0:34 have a welcome game, we have two technical progressions, we then go back to that welcome game with some modifications, and then we end uh with a full game uh with no restrictions.
0:44 That's the general outline of most play practice play format. So, let's take a look at this complete session, and we'll go through it and finish up at the end.
0:54 Okay, so here's the uh diagram. Uh once again, I'll try and make a copy of this available somewhere. If I can't, um at least you have the video to look from.
1:03 So, welcome activity. We did say this is set up in a play practice print A setup.
1:08 So, we're going to set up one or more four-goal games on a field that is wider than it is long. Um and if you're looking for my welcome game activities,
1:15 I have a video on 13 different ones. Uh put a link to it. You should go check that out. Uh the field size uh is, you know, be appropriate for the age of
1:24 players and their ability and the number of players. You want to be playing 4v4 or 5v5, but if you need to, it can be larger or smaller. Um and the
1:32 instructions are simply that the team can score in either net, and they should try to find the open side. Otherwise, just let them play. So, here's the
1:40 setup. We have two goals on the top of the screen, or the north, and two goals down at the bottom, the south. So, the field is wider than it is long, because
1:47 we're trying to encourage players to turn and go towards the opposite side that may be open. But, we really don't give them a lot of instruction during
1:55 the welcome game. We want to let them play and we just want to let them know, "Hey, you can score on either goal." So, if you notice that they're all bunching
2:03 up against one goal and somebody's trying to jam it through in and the other net's wide open, you might stop and just point out, "Hey, the goal is
2:09 wide open." But again, let them figure it out besides those clues.
2:15 Once they've done that for a good 10-15 minutes and really the idea of that welcome game is as players arrive, you start with 1 V 1 and then as each player
2:23 arrives to practice, you just toss them on. So, it may be odd numbers as you go forward, but that's the part of the game as well. But idea is again, you're
2:31 getting them play as soon as they show up. Let them go. You get them in there 15-20 minutes, they're good and tired.
2:37 Let them have a break and while that's going on, count up the number of players you have and then set up for this phase.
2:43 So, we'll see in this diagram next coming that you're going to set up uh some grids around a central area of four to five players. Uh you I'll
2:55 show you a setup for four players and five players. Five players is the norm.
2:59 You can make six if you change the shape, but again, we'll take a look at that. The idea here is you have players on the outside all who have a ball
3:07 except one player and a player in the middle. And the idea is the player in the middle is going to check towards the player with the ball,
3:15 call for the ball, receive the ball, make a turn, and pass to the open player. And in order for them to do that effectively, they need to scan the group
3:25 to figure out where the open player is before they receive that ball. You're going to play for about 30 seconds cuz you want this to be pretty high
3:32 intensity. You want them to count how many passes they have completed. And then once you're done with that 30-second session, stop, swap the player in the middle, do it again until
3:42 everybody's had a turn. If you want to make it a competition, you have more than one group, you're going to count up and add how many passes each group makes
3:50 as you go forward. Competition is always good, drives that intensity.
3:55 Here's the setup. We'll take a look at the setup on the right. You can see this is for five players, so there are four gates or starting points on the outside.
4:04 There are four players but three balls.
4:06 You have a player in the middle, and that's the player that's going to check in to one of the players, demand the ball, receive the ball. When they're
4:13 doing that, they're scanning to make sure they can find where that open player is. They're going to turn, make a pass, then they're going to turn to
4:19 another player, not the player that they just passed to, and ask for the ball again. So, here's a little demo of this in action.
4:28 So, you can see they've called, checked in, they've turned, they play out. They turn, they check in, they call, they play out.
4:35 And they keep doing that. The player in the middle can get a little dizzy, so that's why we try to limit to 30 seconds. So, the goal is for sharp
4:42 passes and turns. The player on that outside should not pass to the target player unless the target player actively calls for the ball. Um if they're not
4:50 loud, you should tell the outside players, "Don't pass it. Just stand there and wait for them to demand the ball from you."
4:57 Target player needs to be scanning between those passes to figure out where the next open player is. Again, as you saw in the video, the player should
5:03 check or step towards the outside player when receiving the pass.
5:07 You want to then train and demonstrate a variety of techniques to turn with the ball, receiving with the inside of the foot, receiving with the outside, back
5:15 foot, sole, and turning both directions, left and right. Ideally, the turn and passes done with two touches, one to turn, one to pass. Now, you can make it
5:23 harder, use two less balls on the um so that and call out left and right, or dress players in various colored pennies and color colors, but use your
5:33 imagination if you want to increase the difficulty. But, this is the first part of the technical practice. What you're looking for is lots of repetition with lots of success to build that technical
5:45 So, technical phase two, we're going to use the same setup except we're going to need one additional extra empty set of cones. So, if you had four
5:56 players, you're going to need a fifth place setting on the outside where there's nobody there. We have that same shape in the middle, but now only two
6:04 players on the outside have a ball no matter how many players you have on the outside. Now, it's a different sort of operation. The player on the inside is
6:12 going to check in to a player with the ball and call for it.
6:16 The idea now is for that inside player to receive the ball, turn with one touch, and dribble out to the free spot on the outside.
6:25 The player who just passed the ball follows the pass into the square, looks for the next player with a ball, calls for that ball, receives it, and
6:34 then looks for the open spot. Again, you can play with 30 seconds uh transferring every player around. Team with most passes wins.
6:43 Now, you can make this more difficult by either having the players on the outside be able to either move to the open gate before the player in the middle has
6:51 received the ball, or they can pass that extra ball around. The idea being making the player in the middle scan harder to find either where their next pass is
7:00 going or where their next open turn and dribble is going.
7:06 Here's the setup here. You can see with four players on the left, we have one additional cone. With five players, we've added one additional cone set around the outside, and there are two
7:16 balls. So, you can see as the play goes on, they receive the ball, they turn, and they dribble out. The player who made the pass steps in. You can see also
7:26 we have this variation where the outside players are shifting around the ball that's waiting to be passed to make it harder for the player in the inside. And
7:34 also we're showing the outside players moving around to make it more difficult for that player in the inside. But, same concept, but now we're passing and dribbling out and having to scan for
7:46 where we're going. So, again, coaching points. Goals for sharp passes and turn turns. Player on the outside shouldn't pass until they get called for the ball. Players
7:56 scanning in between passes and know where that extra spot it open spot is.
8:00 Again, we're talking about checking when receiving. We're looking about different kinds of turns. And we're challenging that center player to take their first touch on the turn towards that open slot
8:11 to make it more efficient. We don't want players stopping the ball. We want the players taking their first touch in the direction that they want to go in.
8:20 So, now we're going to take this and we're going to move it back in this progression. We're going to move it back to our four-goal game. Except now we're
8:26 going to add a center square to our four-goal game. Now we have a bunch of options. We can say in the run of play if a teammate receives the ball in that
8:36 center square and then turns and either passes or runs out of it and the goal is scored within two passes, that goal is worth three points. You could also place
8:45 a neutral player in that center area and that player is the only one in that area and any team can use them for possession to make that turn. You just swap that
8:54 neutral player out or you can have a player from each team in the square so they have to jockey and compete against each other and the same rule. When they
9:03 receive that ball, they can either take it and pass it or take it and remove and dribble out and then one of the teammates needs to come out and fill
9:12 that square in. So, again, we're going back to that welcome game, but now we're being more prescriptive. Now the players are starting to understand, "Hey, we're looking to switch the field and this is
9:21 a way to do it." And we're again still working on that turning and scanning for those players when they receive the Again, coaching points, same as before.
9:31 Variety techniques. You can limit this so the central player can't be challenged at all and then you can remove that restriction as they gain success. And again, you can make that
9:40 size of the central square bigger or smaller depending on the skill of your players or how they're going as the game goes on.
9:49 And then lastly, the ending of the play practice plays you want to play. You play a normal game with two goals so that they just play with normal rules,
9:56 but again, you're looking to praise or encourage when they do the things we just worked on in the practice.
10:05 So, there you have it. That's a turning and scanning session that I did with my U10 team about a year ago.
10:12 I'm going to dust this one off often because it is super effective. Again, it's good for any age group for sure.
10:18 Turning and scanning and playing and switching the field are things that happen in every game at every level, so it's a great way to work on that. It's
10:27 also a great way to figure out how to create sessions on your own. You saw my structure. I have a welcome game that helped sort of inform what we were going
10:35 to do cuz the welcome game was a four-goal game, part of that 13 welcome game series that I have out there.
10:43 Then, we worked on those technical components making it first focused, then a little bit harder, and then we went to a game where we highlight turning with
10:53 that same adding a square into the middle of the welcome game. So, it's the same setup.
10:58 And then of course, as always, ending with the full regular quote-unquote game, no restrictions, but again, trying to encourage the players when they do the things that you worked on in the
11:09 drills so that they feel like, "Oh, this is where I use it in the game." So, really hope that you enjoyed this session. I will try and find some more
11:19 sessions to get out there. It is preseason for me right now, so it is a busy time helping other coaches as well as getting my own teams set up. So,
11:29 again, like, subscribe, share, and I'll see you in the next video. Hope you're having a great time on the fields.
11:34 Thanks. Bye.
