By Zach Lowy
Out of the 8 billion people living on Planet Earth, there isn’t a single person who knows more about throw-ins than Thomas Grønnemark.
Born on December 12, 1975, Grønnemark was raised in Denmark, where he impressed in the nation’s top U-19 league against future stars like Thomas Gravesen, before making the switch to athletics in the mid ‘90s.
He competed for Denmark in both running and throwing, and achieved a personal best 40.47 in the 4×100 relay on June 22, 2002, before joining the Danish bobsleigh team. Whilst training with the German bobsleigh team in a partnership, Grønnemark took a long throw-in which traveled from one end of the facility to the other.
This prompted him to pursue a career as a throw-in coach, working with various Danish sides before enjoying his big break in 2018 and being hired by Liverpool. Grønnemark excelled at Anfield, earning praise from coaching experts like Glenn Crooks and helping Liverpool establish itself as the kings of Europe and England. And today, he’s embarking on a new journey as Arsenal’s throw-in coach. GBC spoke to Grønnemark about a number of different topics, including:
You’ve made your mark in the football industry, but is it fair to say that athletics and bobsleigh have also played a massive role in your career?
Yeah, I think that they influenced me a lot, because I had a lot of knowledge from football when I was playing. Even though I wasn’t a professional, I was still playing in the highest youth league in Denmark, so quite a decent level. Then I got all the physical stuff from athletics, understanding the movements, how the body works, how the body was connected, and then, of course, I did the same on the bobsleigh team. But on top of that, we had this structured, innovative thinking and also video analysis, and we used a lot of that.
I understand that you also have a deep passion for basketball, is that correct?
I’d like to say that, yes, of course, these things have had a great influence on my throw-in coaching career, but I think the sport that maybe matters even more is basketball. I’ve been playing basketball for one year in a club, but I’ve been playing street basketball my whole life.
I’m seeing a lot of NBA, I visited the Boston Celtics facility in March 2023, so I’ll say that basketball also had a great influence on my throw-in coaching. Especially around space creation, because basketball is played on a quite small pitch, 5 versus 5, and the football pitch is much better, if not better, bigger, but still, we are often in the same pit size.
We can play three against three, one against one, in specific areas when we have a throw-in. Basketball players are really great at creating space, and football players are typically really bad at it when they have a throw-in, so this has maybe been my biggest inspiration as a throw-in coach.
Lastly, you currently hold the Guinness World Record for the longest throw-in. What is it like having your name etched in history forever?
First of all, I did it to be the world’s best, to have a personal challenge, but of course, it also earned me attention from international clubs. Until then, I’d only coached Danish Super League clubs, but I got some media attention. Of course, especially with the fast and clever throw-ins, if you set a world record in the longest throw-in, it doesn’t give more focus on that, but it was a fantastic personal dream that came through. I also had a world record at 70 in the Mets with Denmark in a full stadium in Spain.
I had a world record attempt at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin in 2009; the match was held in Berlin with 40,000 spectators. I had gigantic, fantastic experiences there, but it didn’t really give me my international breakthrough. Of course, it’s the two and a half years of the journey where I beat the world record with the flip throw-in, which is also often a part of my talks for companies.
Even though I didn’t earn any money specifically on that world record, even though it didn’t give me my international breakthrough at that time, it actually earned me millions. It was a part of the story, and then when I finally got my international breakthrough, that world record was also an extra thing that gave proof that I can do something special around throw-ins.
