The 3 Keys To The Foundation of Every Great Quarterback

All the greats, from Tom Brady to Dan Marino, varied greatly in everything from their favourite spots on the field to throw to their

throwing pattern. But there are three fundamental aspects of all of their games that every quarterback needs to practice.

Extension

Sometimes, when a player is trying to make up for a lack in arm strength, they will tighten up their elbow, almost shot-putting the ball. This is going to limit your throwing power and accuracy drastically, and something you need to correct in players early.

Teach them to extend their arm fully, keeping their hand on top of the ball as they release. This will give them the ability to get more arc on their deep throws, and more zip on the ball on their short to medium range passes.

Whether their release comes right over the top, a-la Peyton Manning, or perhaps closer to a 45 degree angle, similar to Troy Aikman, the full extension is key.

Staying Compact

Another key, especially in terms of avoiding fumbles and getting the ball out of the pocket quickly, is staying compact.

While your arm should be fully extended on the release, the rest of your body should be in a balanced athletic stance, with your shoulders square and knees slightly bent.

From the moment the ball is hiked there should be now wasted motion from your quarterback – no lazy feet, shoulder rolls, flailing the ball around – you want your quarterback as efficient as a heat pump.

A Quick Release

There are a lot of things out of your hands as a coach and player. Not everyone is going to be blessed with incredible athleticism or a rifle for an arm, but every player is capable of developing a quick release.

A quick release will make it much tougher for defenses to react to you, and will become more and more valuable to the player as they get older and the level of play increases. In fact, I should probably say more and more necessary.

I will be putting up some drills that focus on each of these individual aspects shortly, but it’s important to stress these three concepts to your players.

When you develop all of the characteristics in a quarterback, he learns a little magic word that is a quarterback’s most important trait – efficiency. This isn’t so much a technique so much as a mindset that your quarterback needs to have with every single thing they do. You cannot over emphasize this.

Later on this week, we’ll look at some drills that will help improve your quarterback’s ability in these three areas – and many more! In the meantime, take a look at these quarterback drills I put up not too long ago!