The Two Ball Check Your Shoulder Game is designed as a quick visualization warm-up to teach players to check their shoulders to gather information. At every level, the player with the most information makes the best decision they can, and the only way a player can do that is if they see the whole field. This drill is a good start for the training players' technique (how to turn their body, when to turn their body, etc.) and should be coupled with a more game-like activity after the key coaching points are hit.
The drill starts with four players on each corner of a square grid, and two of them are holding a ball ( a tennis ball may work better here for movement purposes). Another player is lined up in the middle of the grid with a ball.
The drill starts when the player in the middle runs towards one of the players holding the ball and passes the soccer ball to their feet. Key here is talking about body shape, after the pass is made players should immediately start scanning and look to open their body in a way that they can then receive to their backfoot. When the initial pass to the player on the corner happens, the other player holding the ball then throws it to one of the players on the edge without a ball. Once the player in the middle receives the ball back, they should be scanning to see where the second ball has been thrown and look to turn towards that player and play a pass to them.
The first player who receives the pass then looks to throw their ball to a new player, and the process repeats itself. The drill should be short, 30 seconds to a minute, and then rotate the player in the middle. Stop after the allotted time to address what made processing the information difficult and to adjust anything technical elements that the player needs to adjust.
