The football throw-in: A scoping review

Abstract

Despite the publication of articles about set pieces in football, research has not provided much focus on throw-in actions. The aim of this review is to offer an overview of the current literature concerning football throw-ins and identify perspectives for future research. Following the PRISMA-ScR recommendations, PubMed, SPORTDiscus and Google Scholar databases were used, and a total of 1676 articles were found. After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, 33 articles were included in the review. These publications were divided into three main categories: 1) studies on biomechanics, motor learning and training, 2) studies analyzing goals scored from these actions in different competitions and 3) studies analyzing the game and the involvement of throw-ins. This scoping review revealed that throw-ins play an important role in football, as it is the most frequent game interruption in matches, but it seems difficult for teams to retain possession and create goal scoring opportunities after throw-ins. Different variables can influence the outcome of throw-ins, and some key principles could be followed in order to learn and/or improve the throwing motion. Future research should focus on evaluating throw-in performance and finding training methods.