Short Throws

In this step to your final mastery of the soccer ball, I’ll be showing you how to take a short throw-in. It’s quite simple, so please throw in the ball and not the towel!

1) Stand by the touchline and choose a player to throw to closeby

2) Make sure they are either in space or will be able to play the ball back to you

3) Hold the ball behind your head, bend your knees and arch your back

4) Bring your arms forward (with the ball in hand)

5) Release the soccer ball as it passes just in front of your head (but don’t wait until it is in front of your face-that’s too late)

6) You throwing the ball in the direction of the player you are aiming for will take it in their direction… make sure you throw it at the right pace and height for them to control.

Once you’ve got that you should be pretty comfortable at taking throw-ins because short throws are the most commonly used. Now what about the long throws?

Long Throws

Now most players aren’t required to take long throws because lots of teams have just one or two people who specialise in them. So here’s a great opportunity for you to be one of those players, or simply to get a bit of interesting information.

1) Stand several steps away from the touchline off the pitch and choose a player/or area to pass to

2) Stetch your arms out in front of you so you are holding the ball just in front of your head and pointing it at the target

3) Take quick steps towards the touchline and bring the ball back over your head

4) Bring the soccer ball back further so it is over your shoulders with your arms bent back to hold it

5) Arch your back slightly and begin to swing your arms forward

6) Make sure you don’t step over the touchline or bring your heels off the ground

6) Release the ball just in front of your head with your arms outstretched and force it upwards to get both height and distance

7) Follow through with your arms

Now it’s quite tricky to pull that off properly; it requires quite a bit of power.

If you can throw from the touchline horizontal to the penalty area into the penalty area then I really take my hat off to you (not that I wear hats). Anyway that’s something to aim for!

Before you get to that stage, now you know how to throw the soccer ball (throw ins) you might want to try turning on the soccer ball