If you’re searching for every day throwing drills for QB’s to help improve your QB’s overall throwing mechanics, then these simple every day throwing drills would be a great place to start. Our QB’s perform these drills at the beginning of individual periods at practice. It’s a nice throwing routine to get them in sync with their upper body mechanics and throwing motion.
Coaching Points for Every Day Throwing Drills for QB’s
There are plenty of coaching points to be made in the ~5 minutes it takes to complete the throwing routine. Glaring points that need to be made right away is that the QB’s get their front shoulder (left shoulder for right handed QB’s) perpendicular towards their target. This is done by “coiling” the upper body, or “burying” their frontside shoulder. This rotation will help create the necessary torque needed when “uncoiling” or rotating the hips and throwing the ball forward.
Another necessary point that should be made is to have the QB’s finish their throwing motion with their throwing thumb in the opposite pocket (right hand thumb in left pocket). Inexperienced QB’s performing these throwing drills will not follow through as they are releasing the football. You’ll notice this as their chest will stay open to their target, and their hand will stay out in front of their face. For a proper finish, the QB’s back shoulder should start rotate forward upon the release while the wrist snaps down on the ball with the thumb ending in the opposite pocket.
Lastly, in these every day throwing drills for QB’s, it’s important to look at how the QB’s are separating their hands with the football. You want to make sure that your QB’s are not bringing the ball down by the hip in a long circular motion. When QB’s separate their hands, the ball should be turned away from them with their wrist/hand on top of the ball (ball should be flat with nose pointing end zone to end zone). This is a quick “J” motion as the QB needs to quickly get their arm at a 90 degree angle from the wrist to the elbow and through the shoulder.
This is just the beginning of our every day throwing drills as we will progress through our drops. Our QB’s will eventually throw off our 0 step drops, 3 step drops, and boot / sprint out footwork as well. We get to a point where we are emphasizing the necessary drops / footwork that match our passing concepts.
If you’d like to see more videos on what our QB drills look like, then please leave a comment under the video on my YouTube channel.