Do you want to watch your football soar through the air with a glorious spin? A little technique with your hands and fingers goes a long way. With some practice, you'll be rifling the ball around your yard in no time!








Steps

  1. Grip the football with your ring finger on the 1st or 2nd lace and index/pointer and middle finger gripping halfway between the top lace and nose of the football. Your grip is determined by hand size and is therefore slightly subjective, but these are the basic rules of the grip.
  2. Hold the ball up near your right ear, if you're right-handed, or left ear if you're left-handed. You will have a much quicker release which will give a defender less time to react to your throw, hence increasing your completion percentage.
  3. Keep your eyes on the target, your shoulders close to parallel to the intended target and your pivot/plant foot pointing nearly at the target you intend to throw to. (Your pivot foot is the opposite side of your throwing arm.)
  4. Make the throwing motion circular, albeit a half circle from top to finish; think of centrifugal effect, with the release being at the top of the arc. The longer the radius of the circle, the faster you will be able to throw the ball (i.e. the further you extend your arm from your shoulder, the more velocity you can achieve with less arm speed).
  5. Shift your weight nearly evenly at release. About 60% of your weight will be on your front foot at release. As you get more comfortable slinging it around, you will be able to step into your throws. A good QB will need to step into his throw to complete a 20 yd sideline pass.
  6. Use the rotation of your shoulders timed well with the throwing motion of your arm to generate the torque needed to achieve maximum velocity on your throws.
  7. Find your release point. Footballs tend to sail through the air quite well when a decent amount of spin has been imparted on it. A certain release point will generally be good enough to cover 5-15 yds, a slightly higher release will rocket the ball 15-25 yds and so on and so forth.
    • A three quarter release is generally a very easy way to throw.
    • Remember to follow through with your arm fully to the hip opposite of your throwing arm. If released properly the ball will drill through the air.
    • To throw a deep ball, just change the launch angle. A perfectly thrown deep ball will nose dive beautifully at its peak.
  8. Practice throwing with 50% or less effort - the release is very important. Next, with very low effort, get the timing of your shoulder rotation in tune with your arm's throwing motion to generate maximum velocity without maximum effort.



Tips

  • A proper throw will feel like it's only utilizing the thumb, index and middle finger. A good release will "roll" off of your index and middle finger. To impart more spin, you may snap your wrist through as you follow through to the hip. The other three fingers on your hand stabilize the ball as it's being flung. They should not be used to impart spin on the ball.
  • The release and follow through are very important, more so than the throwing motion. Release and follow through are the difference between throwing a wobbly "duck" and rifling a throw that nails your receiver between the numbers.
  • Your fingertips should be the last part of your hand to touch the ball. This helps ensure good spin.
  • An excellent exercise is to throw the football up and down. You can really grasp the concept of the release by using this exercise and as you learn to throw higher and higher, your catching will become better, too.
  • Watch videos of Florida State quarterback Chris Weinke consensus All-American and 2000 Heisman trophy winner. Weinke's throwing motion is close to being perfect. His release is a little slow, but near perfect. He throws one of the best high arcing and accurate deep balls in the NFL.
  • When following through, make sure your thumb points to the ground just after you release the ball. This way, you get more spin and accuracy into your throw.

Warnings

  • Do not hurl the ball with the palm of your hand. It will have no spin, and instead of spiraling, it will just flop end-over-end in the air.