There are throw ins, and there is the flip throw in

I've seen the flip throw in before, where a soccer player flips over the ball and flings it over her head during a throw in instead of just standing still. I don't see it very often though, and even less freqently at a high school game. So when I failed to get a photo of Alina Bachman doing one during a game earlier in the season I was disappointed.

The idea of the flip throw in is to get much more distance and height out of a throw in than throwing in standing still, which helps when the throw in is near the goal.

While at Thursday's section final soccer game between St. Peter and Mankato West I saw Bachman set the ball down on the sideline when given a throw in near the goal, a sure sign she was going to do it again. I managed to get in position and get off a series of frames of her doing the flip throw in.

I had a little fun with them between assignments tonight and made the animation at left. It turned out pretty well and shows the acrobatic throw in better than a single frame would.