There’s an old coaching belief that says you can’t change a throwing motion. He either can or cant’ throw the football. You hear this all the time, this idea that a quarterback’s mechanics can’t be changed. Commentators, football dads, and coaches proclaim, “it’s impossible to change a quarterback’s throwing motion”. Just coach his footwork. Older quarterbacks in particular get subjected to this.
But what is passing talent? The mentality that some kids have it while others don’t shouldn’t apply to throwing in the same way it might to raw speed or quickness. Yet it comes up so often. There are many high profile athlete, especially quarterbacks who are world class athletes but aren’t very accurate. They can throw a spiral and an accurate pass or two, but because of their talent the theory is that the best thing to do is just to let them play and the last thing you should do is over coach them. The old myth comes back: Just coach their feet; ignore the upper body.
There are thousands of high school kids that receive almost no coaching of their passing mechanics. At best they get a few throwing drills. The result is thousands of young players who are given no the opportunity to develop. For the great athlete quarterbacks, the lack of coaching puts a gap on their success and hurts their team’s passing games. For the less talented kids, they simply never see the field or get moved to new positions. If they ask for help, it’s that same refrain again. Let’s work on your footwork. Yet aren’t the feet are the farthest appendage from where you throw a ball from? Lack of coaching or not, the expectations remain, perform at a high level or face criticism or the bench. The can’t coach a throwing motion myth prejudices the careers of many young men. Not all quarterbacks make it to the NFL but all want to succeed. Ignoring the upper body is like only coaching half the kid. Ironically, the same coaches who preach a footwork only gospel also throw out plenty of meaningless buzz phrases like follow through, come over the top more, and raise your elbow. This double standard of non-coaching and coaching can be confusing for both the coach and the kid.
I believe can you improve a quarterback’s throwing motion, but it’s important to use the right methods. The old way is to focus on footwork only and then sprinkle the various aspects of the throw throughout practice. This will include teaching quarterbacks to self-correct, not self-destruct, through a central focus on the arm. By doing this and by teaching simple biomechanic concepts that are universal and nonnegotiable, and yet provide powerful results that start with the footwork and support the entire process.
THIS POST WAS SUBMITTED BY ANGEL L. RASARIO JR.
