Scan when you can

Scanning is a common technique in team sports, where a player looks away from the ball momentarily to gather information.

This might include where team-mates and opposition players are positioned and where the space is. Using this information can help the player to decide what to do next.

Why scan?

With the information they have gathered, players can:

• Pass that information on to a team-mate, through audible and/or visual cues
• Attack the identified space by running through it, kicking to it or passing to a team-mate near it
• Defend that identified space by moving to make the space smaller

If players don’t scan, they will only know the location of the ball and the players very close to it. The only other way to gain information is to hear it from a team-mate - but, again, this relies on them scanning so they have the right information to pass on.