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The Throw-In

The Only Time A Field Player Gets To Touch The Ball With His Hands!

This is the Taking Throw-Ins Page of the How to Play Soccer-Soccer School on Spain-Football.Org.

Scroll down the page for the rules, tips and techniques, videos, book recommendations and lots more interesting stuff!

A throw-in is signalled when the ball has completely crossed the line.

The throw is taken from the spot where the ball went out of play and is signalled against the team of the player who last touched the ball.

Back in the Seventies, players like Martin Chivers and Iain Hutchison used to take throw-ins that were almost as dangerous as corners - these days it seems to have lost some of its tactical importance.

In This Section:

Taking A Throw-In

The player has to be facing the pitch and his feet must not be moving. He has to throw the ball with both his hands and release it when it's still behind or above his head. Each foot must be touching the line.

If he breaks any of these rules, the throw is given to the opposing team. Furthermore, the player who has taken the throw-in can't touch the ball again until another player has touched it. If he does, the referee will blow an indirect free kick against his team.

Offside

There's no offside for throw-ins. For example, if a player, who is offside, receives the ball from a throw-in and scores, the goal counts.

Did You Know . . . ?

A goal isn't valid if it's scored directly from a throw-in.

Questions and Answers

What can you do if a player from the opposing team stands directly in front of you when your trying to take a throw-in?

This is pretty unsporting behaviour, but it does happen occasionally.

All you can do is move back from the touchline to a distance of no more than 1 metre and take the throw as best you can.

Are You A Player, Coach, Parent Or Referee?

As I do more and more research on the Internet on football-related topics I come across an ever increasing number of fantastic resources. Here are a few of the best ones I´ve found so far but with time this could turn into a complete section on different aspects of the art of playing and coaching.

Blast The Ball is quite simply the best video available for learning all about kicking a soccer ball – covers everything from techniques, aerodynamics, parts of the ball etc. The promotional video is certainly worth watching as it is a lesson in itself.

Total Soccer Fitness is a free fitness course that comes in five email instalments and is ideal for players, parents and coaches alike.

Soccer Tutor is a set of 250 Soccer Drills endorsed by Adidas, Umbro and Leyton Orient amongst others. If you coach a youth team and want to work on their soccer skills, this selection will keep you in ideas for season after season as your players advance from beginner to professional. It´s particularly useful if you plan on taking your your FA or UEFA coaching licence and even if you're only interested watch the demo video – it's excellent. The guy that does the voiceover is so obviously a football professional. Game of two halves, innit?

The Fastbreak Soccer Practice Book Although not quite as intuitive as Soccer Tutor also contains Soccer Drills, this ebook is worth having a look at if only for the free Training Schedules available in PDF format.

Elite Soccer Coach is a very handy guide for football coaches and comes with two more ebooks on Fitness and Formations.

Learn How To Take A Better Throw-In

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