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Football Phrase of the Week: (to) Shin It
This podcast’s weekly football phrase is to shin it. which is a phrae you will hear connected with how a player kicks the ball. Read the transcript for this post below, and for more football language and vocabulary you can also check out our glossary of footballing phrases here and visit our site to access all our previous posts and podcasts. If you have any suggestions or questions, then you can contact us at admin@languagecaster.com
DB: Hi there everybody. Welcome to LearnEnglishThroughFootball.com’s weekly football language podcast. My name’s Damon and I am one half of the LearnEnglishThroughFootball.com team and based in Tokyo. Apologies listener, as this weekly football phrase podcast is a little later than usual – it’s been a busy week. Did you listen to our main show earlier in the week? Damian, the other half of the team, talked about the Copa Libertadores and the phrase flying header. There’s lots more football language in that podcast, so go ahead and check that out too.
We hope you are well and that you have been enjoying the football this week. It was mixed results for my team Liverpool a win and a draw, but at least they stopped their poor run of form, which saw two 3-0 losses in the league on the bounce.
On today’s podcast, we’ll look at a phrase I heard in a match between Damian’s team, Tottenham and Newcastle, which ended in a 2-2 draw.
The word is ‘to shin‘.
Stinger: You are listening to Languagecaster (in Wu Chinese)
DB: Yes you are listening to LearnEnglishThroughFootball.com, and that message was in Wu a language from the Shanghai region of China.
(to) Shin it
DB: Right, let’s talk about today’s football vocabulary, which is a verb phrase ‘to shin it‘ or ‘to shin the ball‘.
The shin is the front part of your lower leg – that bone that goes from your knee to your foot. Usually we use the word as a noun – your shin, a shin – but in football we use it as a verb, and it means to try to kick the ball with your foot but actually hit the ball with your shin. Obviously this is not ideal and usually the ball does not go where you want it to. You have less control and it is also not as powerful. If you kick the ball with your foot, you can guide the ball as well as hit it with power.
In Tottenham’s match against Newcastle, Spurs were losing 2-1 until deep into added time, when their captain and centre back shinned an overhead kick into the net and equalised. Here is how it was described in Besoccer.com:”Cristian Romero shinned a bizarre overhead kick past Newcastle goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale in the dying moments to secure a 2-2 draw for Thomas Frank’s beleaguered Tottenham on Tuesday.”
(to) Shank
DB: A similar phrase is to shank. Shank is an old word for leg and so if you say a player shanked the ball, they hit the ball with their leg, the shin, not their foot and the shot or pass was a poor one. Shank is often used with ‘wide’ shanked wide, to mean the attempted shot was a poor one and off target.
If we compare both to shin and to shank, it is possible to use to shin in a positive way. For example, Romero scored, even though he shinned the ball. But to shank is used in a negative way, to shank wide, to miss. I don’t think you’ll hear it used when someone scores unless it’s an own goal. Here is an example of this in Spurs-web.com and it refers to another Tottenham player: “Bergvall’s first-half blunder was the difference-maker tonight, as he shanked a clearance that deflected into his own net early in the contest.”
Stinger: You are listening to Languagecaster (in Mongolian)
Thank you for that message which was in Mongolian. If you can, please send us a message like that in your language. We’d love to get more languages on our show. Just record a message saying, ‘You are listening to the Learn English Through Football Podcast’, and we’ll add it to the show. Our contact email is contact@learnenglishthroughfootball.com.
Goodbye
DB: Right, on today’s show we looked at two verbs that can be used in football to talk about shots or passes ‘to shin‘ and ‘to shank‘. Both of thes mean the ball was mishit.
Before we go, drop us a line at contact@learnenglishthroughfootball.com if you have a comment or leave one under the post at LearnEnglishThroughFootball.com. And of course let us know if you have any ideas for football language or want us to explain any football words or phrases that you’ve heard.
Enjoy all the football this week and we’ll be back soon. Ta-ra!
Learn English Through Football Podcast: A show for football fans to improve their English language skills
https://languagecaster.com/football-language-glossary/
