Introduction

The base drill installs scanning as a habit on outdoor grass. This variation tests whether the habit survives a surface change — and adds the surface change as a deliberate developmental stimulus, not merely a circumstantial adaptation.

On a smooth indoor floor, the ball behaves differently in three ways that matter. First, it rolls faster after contact — a touch calibrated for grass sends the ball three metres across a gym, which means eyes go down to retrieve it before the next call is possible. Second, it rolls further without decelerating — the player cannot rely on grass friction to slow the ball and buy scanning time; every touch must be intentional. Third, the room boundaries — walls, court lines, fixed court furniture — replace the open field, and spatial awareness must account for hard limits rather than open turf.

These three differences are not problems to be managed; they are the training stimulus. The player who can call a gate from 3m, maintain the ball on a smooth floor, and make the next call before the first gate is behind them has genuinely integrated the scanning habit across context. The player who can only do this on familiar grass has built a surface-specific reflex.

The drill structure is unchanged. The call-before-entry rule, the blind-entry count, the no-repeat rule, the block structure — all identical to the base drill. What changes is the surface under the feet and the physics of the ball on it. How much transfers — and how quickly the surface calibration completes — is what this variation measures.

Setup

     [Y]                        [R]
      ●  ●                    ●  ●         R = red pair (×2) — flat disc cones
                                           B = blue pair (×2)
                [B]                        Y = yellow pair (×2)
                 ●  ●
                                           Each gate 1.2–1.5m wide
     [R]                 [HOME]            (slightly narrower than base drill —
      ●  ●               ▪    ▪            faster ball means gate precision matters)
                         ▪    ▪
                                  [Y]      Court lines or tape strips mark
                [B]                ●  ●    Home square if no cones available.
                 ●  ●

     ← — — — 10–12m × 10–12m — — — →

The field: a section of the sports hall or gym measuring 10m × 12m (use court lines to define boundaries if the hall is larger; working in a bounded sub-section builds wall-awareness). If the full space is 20m × 10m or similar, define a 12m × 12m playing area with flat cones or chalk.
Gate width: 1.2–1.5m, slightly narrower than the base drill's 1.5m maximum. The faster ball roll on smooth floor makes precision gates — entering cleanly at speed without the ball ricocheting off a marker — a genuine additional challenge. Don't reduce below 1.2m.
Gate spacing: minimum 4m between gates, as in the base drill. Flat disc cones sit flush on the surface — a ball glancing off a standard cone deflects unpredictably; flat cones absorb contact with less deflection.
Home square: 2m × 2m, marked with four flat cones or adhesive tape strips. Return point between runs.
Walls: if the session runs against a wall boundary, set a minimum wall clearance (at least 1m) as a courtesy rule — calling a gate that requires running directly into a wall is not a valid call.
Ball: a futsal ball is recommended. A regulation ball is usable but its faster roll produces more early escapes, demanding quicker recalibration. From Level 3, having both ball types available creates the ball-variability contrast.

Description

The run mechanics are identical to the base drill.

The one rule: a gate only counts if it was called aloud, by name, from at least 2.5m away (reduced from the base drill's 3m — on smooth floor the ball reaches a 2.5m gate faster than the player can redirect, and the shorter call distance matches the tighter touch window), with the ball moving. Call → carry → enter.

One run (60 seconds, continuous):

Start in the home square. First touch begins the run.
While carrying on the smooth surface — ball moving, at 2.5m minimum from the target — look up, choose, call the gate by colour and position name.
Carry through the gate. Keep the touch short. On smooth floor, one extra-long touch is a lost rep.
Chain: call the next gate before this one is fully behind. The no-repeat rule holds (same gate and same colour pair — not consecutive).
Count blind entries aloud when they happen.
At 60 seconds: return to home square; record gates entered and blind entries.

Block structure: same as base drill — 3 blocks × 4 runs, 90 seconds rest between blocks (record, and from Level 2, re-randomise). Right-foot-favoured first two runs per block; left-foot-favoured second two.

Touch discipline for smooth floor: the player learns in the first session that grass touch habits need adjustment. The coach does not intervene except to ask one question after an escape: "What kind of touch would have kept the ball?" The answer the player finds themselves — lighter contact, inside-of-foot rather than toe, a deliberately short first touch after a gate — is the one that sticks.

Progressions

Five levels — the call-before-entry rule and blind-entry count hold at every level. Touch discipline for smooth floor is a standing expectation from Level 1; it is the defining condition of the variation, not a progressive addition.

Level 1 (baseline, indoor orientation): as described. Fixed layout, single-gate calls, no-repeat rule, alternating-foot blocks on smooth floor. Mastery signal: touch calibration stabilises within sessions (escapes reduce from Block 1 to Block 3), and blind entries trend toward grass-level baseline across indoor sessions.
Level 2 (memory + variability): re-randomise the gate layout during every between-block rest. On smooth floor, re-randomisation is more disorienting than on grass (fewer natural landmarks), raising the perceptual demand. Chain calls also enter: the player calls two gates in sequence ("red far, then blue left!") and visits both in order.
Level 3 (ball variability): alternate ball types between blocks — futsal for one block, regulation for the next. The player experiences the contrast between ball-type physics on the same surface in a single session. Watch for active mid-session recalibration. Optional: the call window compresses to 2m on the regulation-ball block.
Level 4 (override — re-decision under new information): a partner or adult calls a colour mid-run; the player abandons the current called gate and re-routes to the named colour. On smooth floor the re-route requires a sharper direction change — the turn itself is a technical challenge. Solo alternative: three colour cards face-down at home square; flip one mid-run and obey.
Level 5 (fatigue + fast floor): prelude of 5 down-ups or a hard 10m sprint, then the 60-second run. Scanning under fatigue on a smooth floor — where ball management is less forgiving and call discipline degrades faster under load — is the most demanding form of this drill. Optional: constraint cards from the base drill Level 5 apply here.

Coach guidance

Look for:

Touch recalibration in progress. Early sessions produce frequent escapes as grass-calibrated touches send the ball sliding. Watch whether the player adjusts touch weight across the block (shorter, lighter, more inside-of-foot) or keeps attempting the same grass touch. The adjustment happening within a session is adaptive capacity in real time.
The call that happens anyway, despite the escape. A player who loses the ball, retrieves it, and immediately calls the next gate — not stopping to re-orient — is maintaining discipline under disruption. This is the behaviour the variation is designed to produce.
Spatial awareness of the room. Does the player call gates near walls and then have nowhere to go? Do they adjust their field use as they learn the court's shape?
Honest blind-entry count on smooth floor. Blind entries typically rise in the first indoor session versus the grass baseline — the ball management demands more visual attention. The player's willingness to count honestly on a harder day is the affective work.

Cues to give:

"Shorter touch — what does the floor need from you?" (after an escape — a question, not an instruction)
"Where's your next gate?" (the base drill cue, unchanged)
"What happened to the touch? What would you change?" (between blocks)
"Long touch or short touch here — which one survived?" (end of block)

Praise:

Touch that stays close on smooth floor: "That touch stayed with you — you found the floor's pace."
Call maintained through an escape: "You counted it and kept going — that's what we're building."
Blind entries trending down from Block 1 to Block 3: "The floor became familiar across the session. That's calibration happening."
First fully clean run on hard surface: "Zero blind entries on the floor — the habit transferred."

Don't fix yet:

Slow pace in the first indoor session — the surface adjustment takes priority over speed; pace comes once the touch is recalibrated.
Initial increase in blind entries vs. grass baseline — expected and diagnostic; the surface is doing the teaching.
Conservative call distance (3.5m instead of the minimum 2.5m) — caution on a fast surface is appropriate early; confidence increases with calibration.

Watch points

Player adapts the call distance upward to compensate for the fast floor, calling from 4–5m to buy approach time. This is intelligent adaptation — note it positively; the 2.5m rule is a minimum, not a ceiling. Redirect only if the extra distance causes strategic avoidance of tight lanes: "What's the smallest call distance that still gives you enough time? Find that number yourself."
Escapes that produce head-down retrieval with no return to scanning posture — the player chases the ball head-down, retrieves, and dribbles on head-down. Redirect: "What did you do after that escape — did you call the next gate before or after you caught up with it?"
Player abandons the count when the surface is difficult — blind entries uncounted, or counted only when the coach is watching. Redirect: "Today your count's a bit different from last session. Do the blind entries feel different, or is the count harder to keep on a new surface?" Protect the honesty of the measurement over its absolute value.
Player reverts to "stop-and-look" — killing the ball dead, scanning, then calling. Redirect: "A stopped ball doesn't count as a call — what does the floor need for the ball to keep moving while you look?"
Player camps near two close gates in a corner, reducing distance run and long approaches. Redirect: "Which gate have you not called all run? Start the next run from the far end and make it your first call."