What football drills can I do on my own?

What drills can I do to improve my football spiral?

• I can throw a football pretty far and accurately but I can never get a right spiral? What drills can I do by myself to improve? I know that you've gotta flick your wrist and ...show more

• Answer:

  Dear Joe: Right off of the bat, I can see at least one problem. You mentioned that you’ve “gotta flick your wrist”. That is actually the single worst thing that you can do. Flicking the wrist positions the football at an angle to the line of flight, which pretty much precludes any chance of achieving a perfect spiral. I do not know your age, so I do not know if you are old enough to understand the physics of the gyroscope. However, the basic idea is to impart a spin to the ball as it leaves your hand. To do this, position your hand on the backside of the ball with your fingertips on the laces. As you throw the ball forward, keep your wrist straight and allow the ball to roll off of your fingertips, thus imparting a spin to the ball. Your objective is to get the ball spinning at a right angle to the axis of rotation (the imagining line between the points of the football). If you can do that, you will have achieved a perfect spiral. But exactly where should you position your hand? There is no way for me to answer that because each passer’s hand is different. There is nothing to do but practice until you find the hand position that works for you. While you could do this by trial and error, the better way is to get instruction from a competent passing coach. If you can be trained to achieve a perfect spiral, your game will improve dramatically. Good luck. Flash Kellam