Formations, your kit, bibs, and your own players

Formations

Lines your eleven up in this shape. It replaces where they are standing, so it asks first whenever there is anything to lose, and lets you say whether the new shape lands on this phase alone or on every phase. Names, faces, cues, fades and bibs are kept either way, and Undo puts it all back.

Puts everybody back on their formation position, on this phase only. Your names, cues and fades are kept.

The opposition

The shape you are playing against. Useful when the lesson is about where their players are, rather than only where yours are.

Puts eleven opposition players on THIS phase, and only this one. Build your shape across as many phases as you like, then bring them on for the phase where the point is made: they fade in and out as the move plays.

On, your players never move when the opposition comes on or goes off. They keep the whole pitch and the opposition is laid out facing them, so the spacing you worked out is the spacing you keep. Off, the two teams take a half each, which is how the studio has always started.

Kit colours

Your kit colour. The counter labels switch between white and black on their own so they stay readable.

Their kit colour. Pick something well clear of yours.

Bibs

Bibs, for a session that is not simply two teams. Add a colour here and you can put it on any player, on either side: three-colour training, seven against seven plus seven, a group of neutrals, or a keeper who should not be in the outfield shirt. A bib is a colour with a name, so the seven yellows are all the same yellow and you can recolour the whole group in one place.

What this player is wearing. Kit is their team colour. Any bib on the board can go on them instead, and the plus makes a new bib in a colour you choose and puts them straight in it. A bib holds across every phase, because it is what they are wearing for the session rather than what they are doing on this beat.

Counters

What is printed on the counters: the position they play, or their shirt number.

What is printed on the counter. Up to four characters: CB, 6, GK.

A live instruction under the counter: PRESS, COVER, BALANCE. Set it on the phase where the job changes and you can show a role being handed over.

Greys this player back so the eye goes to the ones the phase is about. They are still on the pitch.

Drops one more of YOUR players in the middle of the pitch, on this phase. For a twelfth man, a coach, or a shape that is not eleven a side.

Takes this player off this phase only. They stay on the others.

Your squad, names and photos

Where a player's name is printed. Below the counter is the default, and it leaves the air above your shape for a title plate or raised headshots. Above is how the board used to draw, for when the room is under the players. Player cards carry the name on the card either way.

Where a player's photograph goes. In the counter, the default, makes the face the counter, and the number moves out to sit in front of the name, which is what you want when the board is a starting eleven. Above the counter keeps the kit, the stripes and the number all readable at once, which is what you want when the board is about a movement. Player cards turn every player into a card in your kit colours, number in the corner, photo filling it and name across the bottom, like a matchday lineup graphic. Players with no photograph keep their number either way.

Who is filling each role, across every phase at once. Pick a player here and the name, the number and the face change on all of them, and nobody moves: the runs, the timing and the shape stay exactly as you drew them. That is what makes a board worth keeping. Build the movement once and put next week's eleven into it in a few seconds. It also tells you what it finds wrong, which is the part that saves a Friday night: a role nobody is on, the same player in two places, and any phase that disagrees with the others about who somebody is.

Questions