Lineout throw

What good looks like

• Feet about shoulder width and square to the line you are throwing down, because the law asks for a straight throw and a square stance is how you get one
• Both hands on the ball, fingers spread, thumbs behind it, and the point of the ball aimed where you want it to finish
• The ball starts above and slightly behind your head with your elbows in, not flared out to the sides
• The power starts in your legs and comes up through you. Arms alone throw a soft ball that drifts
• Both hands leave the ball together, over the top of your head, and finish pointing at the target
• The flight is flat and quick to the front and the middle. A throw that has to be lobbed is a throw that arrives late

The drill

1. Mark a target about the size of a dinner plate on a wall, as high as you can comfortably reach and then a little higher.
2. Stand 5 meters back with your feet square to the wall. This is your front ball.
3. Throw ten. Count how many hit the target, and reset your feet between every throw.
4. Step back to 8 meters and throw ten more. This is your middle.
5. Step back to 11 meters and throw ten more. This is the one that punishes a weak leg drive. It is not a full back ball: that is nearer 15 meters, and it needs a pitch rather than a wall.
6. Any throw you had to lob does not count, even if it hit. Take it again.

Space

A flat run of 12 meters in front of a wall, one ball, and chalk or tape for the target.

How to film it

Prop the phone side on, far enough back that you and the target are both in frame, so the release point and the flatness of the flight are visible in the same shot. A second take from directly behind you shows whether the ball went straight, which side on cannot. How to film a drill.