Scanning in Football: What It Is and How to Train It

What is scanning?

Scanning means quick looks away from the ball, usually over the shoulder, to check where teammates, opponents and space are before you receive it. Each look takes a fraction of a second. The aim is to build a picture of what’s around you, so when the ball arrives you already know what to do with it.

What the research found

Researchers led by Geir Jordet studied 27 Premier League players across 9,574 possessions in a season. The more often a player scanned in the seconds before receiving the ball, the more likely their next pass was to reach a teammate. The effect was small, so scanning isn’t magic on its own, but it was consistent, and it fits what coaches have long seen in players like Xavi and Lampard.

The idea is simple: information collected before the ball arrives buys you time. You decide earlier, and you can play forward instead of having to stop and look.

How to train scanning

Watch it first

Next time you watch a match, pick one central midfielder and only watch them for five minutes. Count how many times they look away from the ball before receiving. It changes how you see the game, and it’s a good way to show younger players what to copy.

“Two looks” rule

In any passing drill, set a rule: you must check over each shoulder before the ball arrives. A partner or coach can call “no look!” when it’s missed. It feels awkward for a week, then it becomes a habit.

Call behind you

Do wall passes or passes with a partner. A second person stands behind you and holds up a number of fingers (or a coloured bib) just before the pass arrives. You have to shout what they’re showing before your first touch. That forces a look at the right moment.

Colour cue receiving

Set two coloured cones behind you, left and right. As the ball is played, a partner shouts or shows a colour, and you take your first touch towards that cone. You have to look, decide and move in one go, like turning away from pressure in a game.

Scanning is a look, decide, move loop

Scanning only helps if you use what you saw. That means the decision and the movement need training too. A 2024 review of team-sport studies found that decision training carried over best to real games when players answered with sport-like movements, not words. So make sure your scanning drills end in an action: a touch, a turn, a pass.

Where StepOver fits

We’ll be straight: StepOver doesn’t train the head-turn itself. What it trains is the loop scanning feeds into. You read a board and a pitch with goals in different kit colours, work out the right answer (sometimes with tricky NOTs), and answer with your feet before the clock runs out. Paired with real scanning drills like the ones above, it’s a way to get hundreds of quick look, decide, move reps at home.

Scanning in football: what it is and how to train it