Stop Throwing Ducks! Improve Your Spiral.

I started training Quarterbacks in 2013 right when I finished my career in the NFL aka getting cut. However, seven years before that I was just a 15-year-old Junior Quarterback wishing I had a tight spiral. It killed me. I worked and worked and worked at improving my spiral, but I just could not seem to get it right. I did everything, watched every how-to video, listened to Peyton Manning tell me to flick the booger, I tried it all. After all that time and energy for some reason I just could not get a tight spiral.

All of my hard work led me to become a better, more accurate passer, however, I was left extremely frustrated with my spiral consistency. In College, it seemed to get better with reps, yet it still wasn’t where I wanted it to be, but by then I had written it off as to something you had to be born with.

Doesn’t that sound familiar, “Something You Have To Be Born With”, you know the age-old saying or I guess more or less internal saying, the thing we all tell ourselves when we actually just can’t figure it out. We write it off as if others were born with it and we just were not as “lucky” or “gifted”.

Fast forward to December of 2013, I am walking to my white Pontiac thinking to myself: “How cool is this? I am training Quarterbacks as my job.” There was just one issue, of the five Quarterbacks I was training at the time, four had asked me how to get a tighter spiral. I was motivated, I was driven, but most of all I was embarrassed if I could not come up with an answer for them.

So I hit the tape, everything every football player has done their entire life. Study, study, study, until something, somewhere jumps off the screen and hits you in the face.

It came to me as I was watching Aaron Rodgers in pre-game warm-ups. I noticed his finishing hand position. Then I watched Manning, Brady, Marino, over and over again there was a massive similarity in where their throwing index finger finished. That December night in 2013 the shooter drill was born, and since implementation into our Jenkins Elite Quarterback program, it has helped hundreds of youth – NFL athletes tighten up their spiral. Now it is time to help you!

If you haven’t already, start with watching the video at the top of this post! Then hop down here.

1. Start with your throwing hand mimicking your grip and going directly up
2. Internally rotate your hand and shoulder mimicking releasing the football
3. Upon rotation shoot your index finger out and close your middle, ring, and pinky finger
4. Finish with the fingers in the shooter position and index in the middle of your opposite thigh

As promised we will give you the workout to make your spirals better in one week. The only drill you need is shooter drill!

As you complete your shooter drills, be completely focused on each rep, DO NOT RUSH, you must be locked in and engaged through every rep.

Monday:

1. 75 perfect Shooter Drills looking in the mirror

Tuesday:

1. 100 perfect Shooter Drills looking in the mirror

Wednesday:

1. 75 perfect Shooter Drills looking in the mirror
2. 15 standing throws checking index finish every time

Thursday

1. 75 perfect Shooter Drills looking in the mirror
2. 15 standing throws checking index finish every time

Friday

1. 50 perfect Shooter Drills looking in the mirror
2. 25 standing throws checking index finish every time

Saturday

1. 50 perfect Shooter Drills looking in the mirror
2. 50 standing throws checking index finish every time

Sunday

1. Rip tight spiral dimes!

The Shooter Drill is a great maintenance drill as well. It is not something that needs to be completed daily, but working it in consistently weekly or biweekly can help any level QB stay crisp throughout the year.

— HAPPY SPIRALS!!