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Check Your Shoulder: The Cheapest Habit That Separates Players

A film study of Ødegaard's scanning — a habit you can coach into any player, at any age.

Cam Jolley

Cam Jolley

Co-Founder & Academy Coach, Coach Central

Somebody counted every single time Ødegaard checked his shoulder in a match, and the number is enormous — which is the perfect way to show players that what looks like natural awareness is actually a trained, repeatable habit.

Why the count matters

Scanning — checking your shoulder to gather information before the ball arrives — is one of the most researched habits in the game, and it correlates with better performance. This video makes it visible by just counting Ødegaard's scans, and it's a lot. The point for players is that he isn't seeing the game because he's a genius; he's seeing it because he collects information constantly, so by the time the ball reaches him he already knows his next move.

How I coach it

This is the best value-for-effort habit in youth football, because you can build it into any player at any age and it costs nothing. I use cues — 'what's behind you before it comes?' — and games where a player has to know information they could only have gotten by scanning early, like calling a color or a number before they receive. I don't want them to receive and then look. I want them to look, and look again, so that receiving is just the moment they act on what they already knew.

How I'd use it this week

Add a scanning constraint to a passing game: before receiving, a player must call out something they could only know by looking (a defender's position, a color, a number). Reward the look, not just the touch.

Takeaways

  • Scanning is a trained, repeatable habit, not innate awareness — the film makes that undeniable.
  • It's the best value-for-effort habit in youth football: coachable at any age, costs nothing.
  • Use games that require pre-received information so players must scan before the ball arrives.

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