Scan Clock

Set-up

Four differently coloured cones set around the player like a clock face, one at twelve, three, six and nine, roughly five steps out from the centre. Ball at the player's feet in the middle. The parent stands outside the clock and calls a colour at random intervals while the ball keeps moving, which is what separates a habit of looking from a habit of answering.

What you need

• 1 soccer ball
• 4 coloured cones

The ground: 15 × 15 ft (about 5 × 5 m). One child can run it alone in a backyard. The space and equipment check lists every drill that fits the ground you have.

How to run it

1. Set up. Four differently coloured cones set around them like a clock face — one at twelve, three, six and nine. Ball at their feet.
2. Keep it moving. The ball never stops for the whole round. Small touches in the middle of the clock.
3. Scan unprompted. Before any call, ask for a shoulder check every few touches. This is the habit being built.
4. Call a colour. You call one. They say what is at that cone without stopping the ball.
5. Beat the call. The look should already have happened. If the answer is slow the eyes were down.
6. Sixty seconds. A minute on and a minute off, three rounds. Count right answers out of ten.

Coaching points

• The scan happens between touches whether or not anything has been asked
• The ball keeps moving through the look — stopping to look is the fault
• A slow answer means the eyes were down, not that the question was hard

What to watch: Whether the head turns when nothing has been asked. A player who only looks when prompted is guessing.

Common mistakes

• Looking only when a colour is called, which is guessing rather than scanning
• Stopping the ball to look, which is exactly the habit that gets punished in a game
• Scanning with the eyes but not turning the head far enough to see behind
• Letting the touches get heavy while concentrating on the looking
• Calling out an answer before actually checking, and being right by luck
• Working so long that concentration goes and the scanning becomes mechanical

What good looks like

A good target: Right colour called 9 times in 10 with the ball never coming to a stop.

Progressions and variations

Making it harder

• Level 1: Stationary with the ball at rest, simply practising the shoulder check
• Level 2: Ball moving, no calls, scanning every few touches on request
• Level 3: Calls every four or five seconds
• Level 4: Calls at random intervals with the ball never stopping
• Level 5: The parent moves the cones between rounds so memory cannot substitute for looking
• Level 6: Two pieces of information per cone, such as colour and a number held up
• Level 7: Add a wall pass between calls so scanning happens while the ball travels

Alone, with a sibling, or in a group

• Solo: number the cones and let a phone read out random numbers.
• Sibling: one calls colours and counts while the other works, then swap.
• Co-op: two clocks side by side with one caller for both.

Adjusting it by age

• U14: Use three cones rather than four and call at a steady rhythm they can rely on. The aim is simply to build the habit of the head turning between touches; speed and randomness can come much later.
• U18: Four cones moved between rounds, random intervals, two pieces of information per call, and a wall pass added so the scan happens while the ball is travelling. Anything slower than instant is a fail at this level.

For the parent running it

• Call a colour every few seconds while they keep the ball moving. The look has to happen before you call, not after.

Safety

• Keep the cones far enough out that the player is not turning sharply onto one

More on training safely at home: Safety at Home.

Why it matters

None