How Thomas Grønnemark Became the First Throw-in Coach | OneFootball

The set piece coach has become en vogue in the world of football in recent years. One of the originators is Thomas Grønnemark, who rose to prominence as a throw-in coach for clubs like Liverpool and FC Midtjylland. He sits down with us to discuss carving out a new niche in coaching and how he came to understand the importance of the throw-in. 

Albert Einstein once said, “If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.” Looking back, it’s hard to find a better aphorism for the rise of Thomas Grønnemark. Once laughed off as a charlatan on live television, Grønnemark has been able to prove his mettle and carve out an unprecedented legacy in world football as the game’s first ever throw-in coach.

Grønnemark grew up in Denmark and excelled in the nation’s top U-19 league against future stars like Real Madrid’s Thomas Gravesen, but never managed to go pro. Instead, he switched over to athletics in the mid ’90s, and became a two-time indoor national champion for Denmark, competing in events including the 4×100 meter relay and 200 meter short track.

He’d then switch over to winter sports, and spent four years competing with the Danish bobsled team. It was here where he’d discover his true passion in sports, albeit a hyper-specific one: the throw-in.

A training session alongside the German bobsled team saw each group warm up with an indoor football match. During the game, Grønnemark went to take a throw-in before catapulting the ball from one side of the facility to the other. This newfound talent led him to create a career out of thin air: the throw-in coach.

Grønnemark was able to coach the art of throw-ins to a number of Danish clubs like FC Midtjylland, where he achieved 46 long throw-in goals over five seasons, as well as Viborg, Silkeborg, and Horsens. In 2010, he set the Guinness World Record for the longest soccer throw-in ever, using a front flip to send the ball 168.4 feet. However, it wasn’t until 2018 that his career finally managed to take flight.

One day while visiting a chocolate shop with his family, Grønnemark’s phone rang: it was an unknown number starting with a +44, leading him to believe that it was an Englishman trying to sell him something. But when he picked up, he recognized a distinct German accent, which happened to belong to one of the best managers of the 21st century. It was Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp, who wanted him to become the English club’s throw-in specialist in 2018.

It didn’t take long for him to make an impact at Anfield, taking Liverpool from 18th in the Premier League in possession retention after throw-ins (45.4%) to first (68.4%) within a year of his arrival. This proved fundamental as Liverpool won the UEFA Champions League and the Premier League, in addition to an FA Cup-EFL Cup double in 2022. This didn’t stop the likes of Steve Nicol, Richard Keys and Andy Gray from making fun of him for having such a bizarre role, but by the time he departed in 2023, it was Liverpool who was laughing to the bank with seven titles in five seasons.

Since leaving Liverpool in 2023, Grønnemark has been able to work with teams from Germany, Spain, England, Japan, and Denmark, in addition to conducting a coaching course in Sweden.

Less than a decade after not even knowing if he could make this into a full-time career, Grønnemark has been able to engineer a brand-new function of throw-in coach in clubs like Liverpool, Ajax, Borussia Dortmund, and Brentford. He’s been part of 15 different titles and four promotions, while he’s never been part of a relegated side. And after helping to put an end to Liverpool’s long-awaited title drought, he’s now looking to do the same at Arsenal as a part-time throw-in coach.

We caught up with Grønnemark for a Q&A session.

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Thomas Gronnemark 🙌⚽️ (@thomas.throwin)

Urban Pitch: What was it like carving out this brand-new industry and trying to explain to people why having a throw-in coach is important? When did you realize that this is something that can actually take you very far?

Thomas Grønnemark: First of all, I’ll say that I kept my motivation over longer times by also doing other things. Because if I said to myself, “Okay, you want to have your big breakthrough full-time as a throw-in coach,” then I probably would have stopped again after a year or two. Even though I coached Danish Super League clubs, it was only freelance, and it was only not that much money, even if the results were really great.

I had also been working with kids and youngsters on the side, doing a lot of talks for companies around innovation, motivation, joy at work, cooperation. I’ve actually done over 800 talks over the last years, so I’ll say that’s the reason why I could keep on going. The other reason was that, regarding the fast and clever throw-in, I could see the data, I could see that they were really bad, I could see when they had a throw-in where either the players didn’t move or they did what I call individual space creation. That means that it’s only a single player who tries to create space for himself, so that’s not really efficient.

I had all the knowledge, I had all the data, I knew precisely how to improve the teams, but my biggest challenge during the first few years was that the teams only wanted my knowledge around the long throw-ins, because this is really easy to measure. It’s also quite easy to see if your team has success on long throw-ins, but how do you see possession? How do you see space creation? How do you see the risk-reward aspect?

This is much more complex, and when I started in 2004, this was more about opinions, even though I had a lot of knowledge. People had their opinion, and 99% felt that the throw-ins were only a small thing, and they believed that they shouldn’t spend time on it. It was actually first when Jürgen Klopp called me in 2018 that I got my international breakthrough but also had the chance to work with the fast and clever throw-in clubs, so that meant a lot for me.

We’re seeing so many European teams taking matters into their own hands, literally, when it comes to throw-ins. You’re not seeing as many foul throws, you’re seeing more efficient set pieces and carefully crafted throw-ins. Does that give you a sense of pride knowing that you were really one of the pioneers of taking throw-ins seriously?

First of all, I’ll say that, of course, I’m happy for titles. I’m happy when I go one week or two weeks away where I can come back to my family, where I can come home with a decent payment, so it’s worth it all, at least economically wise. But those things are not the most important. I did this also to change the sport, so when I’m doing throw-in coaching, it’s not only for the results, for the titles, for the promotions, it’s also to make the game better for the fans.

As I say, if you take a long throw-in, it should be world class. There should be a quite decent chance to score. I don’t like bad long throw-ins, because that’s a waste of time, you know? And if it’s not long enough to throw, do something else instead. I love fast and clever throw-ins because then they can be creative, and you can use your creativity. Set piece coaches who limit their teams only to have one or two routines in each zone, they’re limiting their creativity, too, so I’m working with throw-in intelligence.

I’m teaching the teams to read the opponent’s defending pattern, because in theory, you can have thousands or millions of different options when you have a throw-in, so the ability to read the opponent, the ability to create many different spaces, the ability to have good decisions, the ability to know when to throw fast, and when to have patience, all of these things are really important. With this, you have throw-in intelligence, throw-in creativity. To cook it down in a couple of sentences, I hope that in the future, when I’m not here anymore, two pals are seeing football, one of them is getting a beer in the kitchen, and then there’s a throw-in, and then the guy on the couch, he’s shouting, “Come on in, man, there’s a throw-in.”

I want level of quality on all types of throw-ins when you have a football match. I don’t like it if throw-ins are time-wasting. I don’t like if teams don’t have any solutions at all, the players can’t think, because then we have either chaotic duels or we have boring situations. I know that this was a long answer, but my most important job is to make football better, and also for the fans.

How many teams do you typically coach over a single campaign?

I’m normally coaching anywhere from six, eight, sometimes 10 teams in a whole season. Already this season, since July, I’ve been coaching quite a few. The way it is with me is that I’ll only say the team if the club is saying it themselves, or if the season has finished and it’s approved by the club.

This season, I’ve worked with JEF United Chiba and helped them achieve promotion to the Japanese top-flight for the first time in 17 years. I went to Celta de Vigo to coach the throw-ins, which was great, I’ve worked with another team from Spain, and a team from Germany. I can’t reveal that I was there this week, but if I just say a really good team in Europe, then I won’t say too much. I can’t reveal it right now, but you’ll probably hear it later, who I coached this season. (It was later revealed to be Arsenal.)

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Thomas Gronnemark 🙌⚽️ (@thomas.throwin)

When you were 42, this whole career thing was just a fantasy, and now at 50, you are the only full-time throw-in coach in the entire world. How long do you see yourself doing this? And overall, are there any things you want to tick off the bucket list before you decide to retire?

I’m doing so many things in life, I’m doing so many talks for companies. In 2024, I released some music, a single called Complicated Love, and even though it wasn’t heard a million times, it was still heard in 129 different countries in 2024, so that was quite cool.

The Danish national team heard it before the European Championship in the dressing room. Midtjylland heard it in the dressing room when they played against Porto in the Europa League last season. I’m doing a lot of things, I’ve published two books in Denmark, I’ve been thinking about writing music for other artists.

For many years, I’ll probably remain concentrated on the throw-ins, but one of the reasons why I can continue to improve is because I teach a lot of clever people from football. But it’s also because I’m getting inspiration from many other places than just sports. These are the things that keep me alive. If I was to look at football every day, if I should analyze every day, if I should coach every day, I’d probably have retired 10 years ago.

Again, I’m not saying that people who are doing this is wrong, I’m just saying that I’m the creative type. This is the reason why I continue to develop models. Just a few months ago, I developed a whole new, nine-field, intensity complexity training model, and this just revolutionized my own coaching. Of course, I had it in my head for a long time, but putting this out really changed things. I’ll probably continue to develop a lot of things, and then, of course, I hope to come upon new adventures in the future.