How to improve scanning
These are just my thoughts (I haven't done any research).
I agree with the fact that you have to scan at least 3 times in the cycle of receiving and playing a pass. Once After passing, then one when the ball is back on course to you and then after you've taken your touch. You could always scan more during this time it also depends on the time between the pass and receiving the ball.
I was only scanning once during this whole process before. Now I am slowly getting used to doing three. How did I do this? not really special but... One way to do it is to keep adding one scan when you get comfortable with the previous number. The other way is to target more than how many times you want to actually scan, once you do more it'll automatically come to you.
Another thing to do is decrease the amount of time you scan so that you can get more scans in. If you're twisting the head all the way back you'll take quite some time. But if you do a half scan where you move your head half way through and then use your eyes to go the rest of they way, you would scan the same amount with half the effort. And twisting the body would help with that as well.
that's it
There are four things dancing here (in scanning)
ReplyDeleteYour body or more precisely your shoulders can turn
Your head or more precisely your neck can turn
Your eyes or more precisely your vision can turn and expand (preferably both).
Make a combo of these three and you can scan a lot and lot more frequently and also so scanning sweeps. Practice this PHYSCIAL scanning till it just habitual for you.
The 4th scanning element is the brain itself - the MENTAL scanning.
You see when our mind wants to see something then somehow it manages to see it. (Steals a glance). But even more important than wanting to see is WHAT are we wanting to see.
Simply put we need to train the mind to WANT to see the following
OPPROTUNITIES - options available or coming up right now
THREATS - Potential issues coming up or looming right now
PATTERNS - How (my teammates and specially opponent) is doing things - formations, movements, tactics, strengths / weekness etc - any data which can help me predict their patterns and then use them for our advantage in immediate future.
I guess one would scan for the first two - O & T when one has the ball or is about to get the ball or lets say ball is near me.
The third, P, i will scan for patterns specially when action is far from me (and i can process all the patterns).