Throw-ins for Kids: Throw, Receive and Play
In pairs, one player takes a correct throw-in to a teammate who loses their marker, controls and dribbles through a gate. Throw-in technique for young players.
- Age
- U9–U12
- Players
- 4–16
- Duration
- 12 min
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Intensity
- Low
- Area
- 20 × 15 m
- Type
- Technical
- Approach
- Analytical
- Format
- Circuit
- Objectives
- Technical: Receiving / first touch, Passing
- Tactical: Set pieces
- Concepts worked on
- Technical:ReceivingDirectional first touch
- Tactical:Set-piece routinesMovement to receive
Training diagram
Legend
- Attacker
- Pass
- Run without ball
- Dribble
- Ball
- Cone
Foul throws and throw-ins straight to an opponent cost young teams many balls. In pairs and with lots of repetitions, players learn a legal throw and the receiver learns to move away and come back to get free. The receiver's first touch must already take the ball forward through a cone gate.
Objective
Take a legal throw-in to a teammate's feet or chest, and get free to receive with a first touch forward.
Organisation
- Players in pairs with one ball, standing on a line that acts as the touchline.
- In front of each pair, a 3 m cone gate about 10 m from the line.
- Several pairs work side by side, 4–5 m apart.
How it works
- The receiver moves away from the thrower and then comes back quickly to ask for the ball.
- The thrower throws to the receiver's feet or chest when they come back.
- The receiver controls and dribbles through the gate, then returns with the ball and they swap roles.
- 10 throws each, then change the type of throw (to the feet, to the chest, down the line).
Coaching points
- Thrower: face the pitch, both feet on the ground behind the line, ball with both hands from behind the head.
- Throw when the teammate is coming towards you, not when they are still running away.
- Receiver: move away, then come back sharply; the change of direction gets you free.
- First touch away from the line and towards the gate, never back to the touchline.
Progressions
- Add a passive defender who marks the receiver.
- 2v1: two receivers against one defender; the thrower chooses the free one.
- The receiver passes back to the thrower, who has stepped onto the pitch (go and return).
Regressions
- The receiver stands still and receives the throw.
- Throw with the ball held at chest height first, then from behind the head.
- Shorten the throw to 4–5 m.
Variations
- Competition between pairs: a point for each legal throw received and taken through the gate.
Key principles
- A legal throw first.
- Get free with a change of direction.
- First touch away from the line.
Share this task
Useful? Send it to your coaching staff or save the diagram.