COACHING QUARTERBACK PASSING MECHANICS Steve Axman Second Edition Steve Axman provides coaches with a compelling aid for improving quarterback performance. Written in clear, straightforward language, Coaching Quarterback Passing Mechanics is a must read for every coach who wants to develop a championship-level quarterback. Troy Aikman NFL Hall of Fame Quarterback Steve Axman provides extraordinary insight into what constitutes proper quarterback passing mechanics. As such, Coaching Quarterback Passing Mechanics is a great resource for players and coaches alike. I highly recommend it. Rick Neuheisel Quarterbacks Coach Baltimore Ravens Steve Axman s book offers a complete and detailed overview of sound quarterback passing mechanics. It provides step-by-step instructions on dropping back to pass, setting up to pass, and delivering the pass. Steve s knowledge of fundamentals and techniques is certain to be of great assistance to coaches at all levels. Jeff Lewis Former NFL Quarterback Denver Broncos, Carolina Panthers Coaching Quarterback Passing Mechanics is simply the best book on the subject that has ever been written. It is must reading for every coach who wants to develop an effective quarterback. Ted Williams Running Backs Coach Philadelphia Eagles ISBN 978-1-58518-964-9 5 1995 9 781585 189649 US $19.95 AXMAN COACHING QUARTERBACK PASSING MECHANICS COACHES CHOICE Second Edition COACHING QUARTERBACK PASSING MECHANICS Steve Axman
Second Edition Coaching Quarterback Passing Mechanics Steve Axman
2006 Coaches Choice. Second edition. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Coaches Choice. Throughout this book, the masculine shall be deemed to include the feminine and vice versa. ISBN: 1-58518-964-2 Library of Congress Control Number: 2006901135 Cover design: Studio J Art & Design Book layout: Studio J Art & Design Front cover photo: David Maxwell/Getty Images Coaches Choice P.O. Box 1828 Monterey, CA 93942 www.coacheschoice.com 2
Dedication To my mentor, Coach Homer Smith 3
Acknowledgments I certainly consider myself a student of the game and, as a result, feel very fortunate to have had some great teachers. No person has had a greater influence upon me in my efforts to write such a book as Coaching Quarterback Passing Mechanics, Second Edition, and on my own coaching than my dedicatee, Coach Homer Smith. I had the great fortune of having been able to work under Homer for three years at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Homer taught me what offensive design and structure was all about, how to apply geometry football coaching, and how to coach technique with precision. Although our philosophies may have taken slightly different roads, Homer Smith s teachings are deeply embedded in almost all of my football thinking. Homer s greatest gist was that he, indeed, truly made me think. Although I only spent one season working for Mouse Davis with the Denver Gold in the USFL, I certainly was able to learn much while with him. And, although they may not realize it, I have benefited greatly from studying such great quarterback coaches as Lindy Infante, Paul Hackett, and Sam Wyche. I must also acknowledge learning some excellent passing mechanics concepts from Rick Neuheisel while working for him at the University of Washington. 4
Contents Dedication......................................................3 Acknowledgments................................................4 Preface.........................................................6 Chapters 1 Presnap Stance..................................................7 2 Receiving the Snap..............................................12 3 Dropping Back to Pass...........................................16 4 Setting Up to Pass..............................................33 5 Delivering the Pass..............................................42 6 Sprint-Out Passing..............................................57 7 Passing Mechanics Drill Teaching Progression........................65 About the Author...............................................79 5
Preface Football is a great game that I have been fortunate enough to coach for more than three decades. During that period of time, I have had the opportunity to observe and work with quarterbacks at all levels of competitive play high school, intercollegiate, and professional. In each instance, the importance of the quarterback being able to consistently exhibit sound passing mechanics has been reinforced countless times. I wrote this book because of my perception that a need exists for coaches at all competitive levels to be aware of what constitutes sound quarterback passing mechanics and what steps can be undertaken to teach those mechanics in an appropriate manner. To enhance the effectiveness of Coaching Quarterback Passing Mechanics, Second Edition, as a productive teaching tool, the information presented in this book has been divided into seven chapters: presnap stance, receiving the snap, dropping back to pass, setting the snap, delivering the pass, sprint-out passing, and passing mechanics drill teaching progression. To the extent possible, I have attempted to present the information in a straightforward, step-by-step, and detailed manner. Hopefully, this book will serve as a sound blueprint for teaching, developing, and refining quarterback passing mechanics. To the extent that it accomplishes that objective, it will have achieved its primary purpose. 6
1 Presnap Stance The passing quarterback must start with a good presnap stance to enable him to best read the fronts and coverages facing him. A good presnap stance also will enable the quarterback to begin his dropback stepping action efficiently and without false stepping. The quarterback places his feet shoulder-width apart, which is a fairly narrow, or bunched, stance. Too wide of a stance is a major cause of false stepping, an action that the quarterback must avoid. A right-handed quarterback staggers his left foot backward approximately six inches in a toe-to-instep relationship with his right foot (Figure 1-1). (Note that all descriptions in this book are written for right-handed quarterbacks unless otherwise stated.) This slight stagger actually helps put the quarterback six inches deeper into his drop. More importantly, the slight stagger action of the feet helps to eliminate any false stepping action of the left foot, which often occurs when the quarterback starts with even foot positioning. From an even alignment of his feet, a quarterback often (whether he is thinking about it or not) will take a short punch step forward with the left foot so that he can push off of it more comfortably to get into his dropback action. This forward punch step will actually shorten the quarterback s drop. In addition, the left-foot punch step is the primary reason (along with too wide of a stance) that a quarterback is stepped on by his center, which can cause the 7
quarterback to be tripped up. The quarterback must, however, be sure that his stagger is consistent. He cannot stagger the left foot for certain actions and the right foot for others. This inconsistency would only produce keys for the defense. Figure 1-1. A stance with a slight left-foot stagger The quarterback s toes can be turned in slightly in an effort to create a digging in action of the inside cleats, which enables good pushing-off action as he works into his drop. The heels of the quarterback s feet should rest on the ground lightly, thereby placing the majority of the quarterback s body weight on the balls of his feet and helping to eliminate flat-footedness. The quarterback bends at his knees to position his hands underneath the center and to create an athletic carriage of his body. He does not bend at his waist to place his hands underneath the center. Bending at the waist produces flat-footedness, locked-out, stiff leg positioning, and a dropping action of the head, which cuts back on his downfield vision. The quarterback stands tall with his chin up and chest out to best enable him to see the defense. A hunched-over or rounded back cuts down on the quarterback s ability to see downfield. The proper presnap stance is shown in Figures 1-2 and 1-3. Finally, the quarterback must position himself close enough to the center to allow for a comfortable arm bend at the elbows, which allows the quarterback to ride the center s movement with his hands as he starts into his dropback action and until the center s snap of the football breaks the quarterback s hands apart (Figures 1-4 and 1-5). If the quarterback positions himself too far from the center, he will force himself to lock out his elbows, producing straight-arm positioning. When the quarterback has 8
Figure 1-2. Presnap stance front view Figure 1-3. Presnap stance side view locked-out arms, he will not have the ability to ride the center s movement as he begins his dropback action, which often leads to miscues on the quarterback-center exchange. Figure 1-4. Properly bent arms 9
Figure 1-5. Improperly locked-out, straight arms Presnap Shotgun Stance A shotgun quarterback s presnap stance is five-and-a-half to six yards deep, depending on the offense s preference. Again, the quarterback s feet are shoulder-width apart. However, his feet are placed even not staggered to best allow him to step to either the left or right. The quarterback s knees must be slightly bent, because he does not want to be lock-legged and, as a result, flat-footed. The quarterback must have an athletic carriage to his body so that he can act like a baseball shortstop in the event of a poor snap from the center. Once the shotgun quarterback is ready to receive the snap (after any line-blocking or wide-receiver adjustment calls are made), he extends his hands out to the center. The palms must face down with a good, but comfortable, finger spread as the fingers point upward (Figure 1-6). The extended hands can actually act as the signal to the center that the quarterback is ready for the snap, whether the snap count is silent (on the center s discretion), called by the center verbally, or via the quarterback s verbal cadence. In addition, the quarterback can give a second ready for the snap signal by lifting one knee to be doubly sure that the center knows that he is ready to receive the snap. At this point, the quarterback must be sure to lock his eyes on the football in the center s hand(s) in case of a miscue or an early snap by the center. 10
Figure 1-6. The quarterback's shotgun stance 11