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Ball, Opposition, Teammates, Space: The Four Things a Player Reads

TheMastermindSite's BOTS framework — a shared language for scanning and decisions.

Cam Jolley

Cam Jolley

Co-Founder & Academy Coach, Coach Central

BOTS is one of the cleanest ways I've seen to teach perception, because it names the four things a player has to read — ball, opposition, teammates, space — and it makes clear you can never decide well off just one of them.

The framework

Ball, opposition, teammates, space — and the key line is that no player can make a good decision off one element in isolation. It also leans hard on scanning; the piece talks about the best players scanning something like eight to ten times before they receive. What I like is that 'teammates' is not just where they are but who they are — their habits, their quirks — which is how you start to predict and combine instinctively.

Why I give players the actual words

A shared language matters. If my players and I both say 'what did the picture give you — ball, opposition, teammates, space?', then my feedback is not me telling them what to do, it is me pointing them back at information they can read themselves next time. That is the whole game for me: I want them solving it, and a common vocabulary is how you coach the decision without becoming the joystick. Execution comes with time. The reading is what I am building now.

Teach BOTS as four words this week. When you give feedback, ask 'what did the picture give you?' instead of telling them the answer, and make them name what they read.

  • A good decision reads all four — ball, opposition, teammates, space — never one in isolation.
  • Scanning early and often (8–10 times before receiving) is the habit underneath it.
  • A shared vocabulary lets you coach the decision by pointing at information, not dictating the action.

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