About
Before Thomas started as a coach
Before Thomas Gronnemark started as a Throw-in coach in 2004, he was playing football.
In the early 1980´s he made his first passes – and first throw-ins – in a small working-class club called “Horsens Freja.” After some years of improvement on the football pitch, Thomas qualified to play at the best club in the city “HFS.” One of his strengths was the long throw-in. As a kid, he had seen his older cousins Bent and Johnny make great throw-ins, so as a teenager, he developed his throw-ins into a dangerous weapon.
He had some fantastic seasons as a youth player, and his team was in the highest U19-league in Denmark. Thomas was playing against excellent players like Martin Jørgensen (later Fiorentina) and Thomas Graversen (later HSV, Celtic, and Real Madrid), but his football talent wasn´t big enough. At least not to be a pro. But he was fast. Very fast!
From football to athletics
In the mid-1990´s Thomas changed sport to Athletics. He went to a training at a local club, and soon after that, he started in a club in Aarhus called AGF. He became part of a fantastic group of people, and they were all running 100, 200, 400 meters and relays. In the following six years, he won several individual Danish championships. He and his teammates also won the European championship for club teams in Paris in 2000 at the 4×400 meter relay.
In 2002 he had set personal records on 100 and 200 meters and was still a part of the Danish national team, but something wasn´t right! Thomas was training alone all the time with no coach because he had moved to the western part of Denmark. Because of love. He had met his wife.
So he missed the social part of a relay team. Thomas decided to find a new sport – a team sport.
In May 2002...
In May 2002, Thomas came on the Danish national bobsleigh team. YES… It´s a crazy sport where you are driving up to 150 km/h and pulling 5 G´s. Their dream was to qualify for the 2006 Olympics in Turin.
He had four fantastic and beautiful years on the bobsleigh team. They were traveling all over the World visiting countries like France, Austria, Italy, the USA, and Canada. The team had a very innovative approach to the bobsleigh sport, and that was probably why he, in February 2004, thought: “If I can make a good throw-in myself, then I can also teach other players to do it.”
The big breakthrough
So, after Thomas Gronnemark returned to Denmark, he went directly down to his local library to find that book about throw-ins. But there were no books at all and nothing serious on the internet. So, he had to make his throw-in course, and in fall 2004, he was ready to get the first club. Thomas dared to ask a local Superliga club called Viborg FF. They said yes, and were scored a lot of goals after throw-in situations. The season after it was FC Midtjylland, and since then, he has coached a lot of professional clubs all around the World.
The big breakthrough came in July 2018. Where Jürgen Klopp called on Thomas´s phone, and this changed his life. Now he coaches professional clubs like Liverpool FC, Ajax, KAA Gent, Atlanta United, and many others.
Guinness World record
In 2008 Thomas decided to have to world’s longest throw-in. After 2 ½ years of training, record attempts in the national match between Denmark and Spain 2008, and The Olympic stadium in Berlin 2009, he set a new official Guinness World record of 51,33 meters in 2010.
