10 Reasons Scrimmaging Boosts Team Performance

Here are 10 reasons why scrimmaging more at training will improve your team performance, along with ways coaches can use MatchPlay Cards by The Coaching Lab to enhance the process.

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1. Real-Game Decision Making: To get better at the game, players need to play it. Players develop better decision-making skills when exposed to game-like situations that will only help them perform better in competition.
   
   
2. Game-Specific Fitness that means running laps: Playing in match conditions improves endurance, agility, and speed in a way that isolated drills can’t. Scrimmaging on a big field with small team numbers (3v3) will increase the running compared to a small pitch with big numbers (8v8)
   
   
3. 
   Better Communication & Teamwork: Adding team challenges and bonus points to the scrimmage with MatchPlay Cards forces players to communicate, develop chemistry, and understand their teammates' movements. You could add two different team challenges, one to each team, or a single challenge card for both teams to play. 
   
   
4. Tactical Awareness & Game IQ: Scrimmages provide a natural way for players to read the game, react to patterns, and understand positioning. You don’t get better at the game by standing in a line running around cones. Use MatchPlay Cards by The Coaching Lab to introduce scenario-based play where every 5 minutes, a new team challenge is added to the game for players to play. 
   
   
5. Pressure Handling & Mental Toughness: Players learn to manage nerves, make decisions under pressure, and develop resilience. Add MatchPlay Cards to simulate pressure situations like golden goal moments to help prepare players for what can happen in a real game. 
   
   
6. More Touches & Technical Repetition without Standing in a Line: Traditional drills isolate skills, but scrimmages ensure technical execution happens under realistic conditions. 
   
   
7. Encourages Creativity & Problem-Solving: Using unstructured gameplay encourages players to be creative, take risks, and find new solutions. Do these with ease by adding MatchPlay Cards as player challenges into your scrimmages, challenge your midfield with passing or defenders to win the ball in a certain area. 
   
   
8. Reinforces your Coaching Points without having to shout: Wonder why your players don’t do what you said on a game day? Players retain concepts better when learning is embedded in match conditions rather than isolated drills. Use your deck of MatchPlay Cards to focus on specific coaching themes and engage players in different learning styles. Pick out 3-4 challenge cards per training session that relate to the objective or team style. 
   
   
9. Keeps Training Fun & Engaging: Players enjoy scrimmaging, which helps with motivation, attendance, and long-term development. You can never have too much fun, but unfortunately, scrimmaging is so often left to the last part of training. MatchPlay Cards add variety and surprise to training that engages players. They are your secret tool to having players who are great decision-makers in the game. 
   
   
10. Builds Game Confidence & Self-Belief: MatchPlay Cards are your coaching tool kit to introduce constraints into your training that improve players' performance. The more players experience game-like moments, the more comfortable and confident they become. If they have experienced something before and been positively encouraged to do so, they will most likely do it again. 

By integrating MatchPlay Cards into scrimmages, coaches can shape the game environment to emphasize key learning objectives while keeping training competitive, engaging, and development focused. 

Become a game changer with MatchPlay Cards!