Throw-ins can be stressful for youngsters. Not only does the player need to get the ball back into play legally, but he’ll want his team to retain possession too.
Throw-ins can be stressful for youngsters. Not only does the player need to get the ball back into play legally, but he’ll want his team to retain possession too. Add in the fact that a player has only a 180 degree area for distribution and you can understand why panic can set in. But the pressure shouldn’t be on the player taking the thrown-in at all. After all, he is only as good as his team-mates and, more specifically, their movement off the ball.
Although every throw-in situation will be completely different, I try to coach a few basic ideas into my players. The first is to ensure that the player with the ball doesn’t take a foul throw, so that’s feet together on the line, snapping the legs so that the ball is propelled forward from behind the head. Also remember he must let go before the ball passes over the top of his head. The bigger part of effective throw-ins is in ensuring team-mates have taken up sensible and realistic supporting positions, so I’ll always try to have a minimum of two active players looking to receive the ball. One is going to come short, and his job will be to side-foot the ball back to the thrower. The other player is slightly further away and ‘on the run’, so if the thrower chooses this man, the ball will be thrown into his path for him to take it away from the area. I also tell my thrower not to rush what he’s doing. If he has to wait for team-mates to get into position, then he should wait. After all, it’s not his fault if he has no immediate options, and better to wait than hurry a throw-in and lose possession.
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