Game Awareness - The "Three Look Pass"

One very important skill to have is game awareness.  Always scanning and checking, and being aware of your surroundings.  When I coach, I joke with my bench that I have ESP, because as I position players, especially on corner set pieces, I'm often times right on where the ball pops out.  It's all about reading where the space is, where holes are, who's marked and unmarked, and predicting play before it even happens by reading those visual cues.

At half time of my U14 boys game yesterday, I spoke about Xavi and how he's always scanning the field, taking mental pictures of his surroundings.  I have a drill similar to this, called the "Three Look Pass."  It's a nice and easy passing and moving exercise, where players 1- look over their shoulder, etc before receiving the ball, 2- look back down at the ball and make sure they take care of the ball, and 3- look back up to find your target.  After the second half started, we had a throw in just in front of me.  I told one of the players that the middle is open, and to hit that space after receiving the throw.  He received the ball, and without missing a beat, he immediately sent his pass forward toward the center of the field, where he connected with a wide open teammate, who played in another teammate, who put the ball in the back of the net.  My prediction became a reality in about 10 seconds, and proved my halftime speech to be accurate.  I also joked that I really deserved credit for that goal.

It was this clip I saw on youtube that I made reference to to paint that picture.  It also has some great additional information from Iniesta and Messi.  Just ignore the lame music.  :)