[00:00:00]  You're listening to the Football Coaching Podcast. I'm Joe Daniel from JoeDanielfootball.com. I don't remember how I do this, and this is the second time I've had to do it. I don't have to usually do these by myself. Daniel and I have been on vacation and all sorts of things as the summer goes.
[00:00:12] We'll probably have a couple more times. I'm trying to do a solo show the best I can, and usually Daniel does all the running. But we're going to be talking about quarterback drills today. So we're gonna jump into a little bit quicker 'cause I don't even know what the topic is next week. So a lot of you may like this where there's not a lot of banter and stuff.
[00:00:28] Maybe this is what you've been hoping for all along with the Football Coaching Podcast. But I think it's gonna be an interesting show and, and what I wanted to talk about is quarterback drills I, I believe that in the future Daniel and I will have... Neither of us, of us is a quarterback guru. I am always...
[00:00:47] I love Troy Taylor, who I'll talk about in a minute, but we, we coach here in Virginia, coach here in Virginia. I remember that, you know, he talked about he had these, this run of great quarterbacks, and it was [00:01:00] like, "How do you develop these quarterbacks?" And he said, "When they're ninth graders, give them all a football and see which one can throw it the best.
[00:01:06] He's the quarterback." And, you know, that's like, you know, basic- paraphrasing, but... And he's a, he has a lot of skill and it's a lot of the things that he learned from Coach Mountjoy as well which I'll be talking about. But, you know, I've always been fortunate to either be able to have a quarterback who had those skills or have somebody else on the coaching staff with the experience to coach the quarterbacks.
[00:01:34] And in, in that, I, I look at it a lot like a long snapper. So I'll just, I'll talk about a few things here. With the quarterback, with the, with the long snapper and I coached a long snapper who ended up, you know, being a long snapper at Virginia Tech. I, by, by the time that he was a junior, I couldn't tell him anything.
[00:01:55] I mean, I could look at it and kinda know, but what I did was, and I did it with him and I did it with [00:02:00] multiple kids before him and multiple kids after him, all of whom became very good long snappers, was I sent them to Rubio Long Snapping, and Chris Rubio, who was on po- on the podcast years and years and years ago.
[00:02:09] And even though the closest clinic to us was in Charlotte and we had to drive several hours to do it, we did it because nobody was as qualified to coach long snappers. And Rubio would, you know, watch the videos and help them out and has, you know, dozens and dozens and dozens of Division I and top level and NFL long snappers.
[00:02:27] I look at quarterback the same way. Unless you are a unless you are really, really into quarterbacks, I've always been kind of inclined to make sure that quarterback gets some camps make sure that quarterback, as far as the mechanics. As far as the mechanics, one of the things that I've always thought is like, I'm not...
[00:02:46] This is beyond my expertise. I'm a hire experts guy. So who can he work with? Is there somebody, if it's somebody on staff, if it's somebody nearby, if it's somebody, sending them to camps, sending them to clinics, what- whatever it needs [00:03:00] to be as far as the mechanics side of it. Now, as far as the passing game, the footwork, the reads, all of that within our offense, that's our offense.
[00:03:11] You cannot send them away. But I've been fortunate also to have resources and, and be able to support coaches and, and help coaches do this and it all comes from Bill Mountjoy. And Coach Mountjoy if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, you know, I've, I've learned everything, especially on the offensive side, but I mean so many things defensively and just football in general from Coach Mountjoy.
[00:03:35] He passed away last year a- and truly missed. He was... I, I don't think anybody gave more to football I don't think anybody gave, gave more without asking for anything in return to football than Bill Mountjoy did. And so what I'm gonna do on this episode and what I wanted to do on this episode, and this was the plan all along by the way this is why when [00:04:00] Daniel and I talked about this episode Daniel talked about, you know, do we wanna go find a quarterback guy?
[00:04:05] And I said, "Look, our quarterback guy, because Bill gave so selflessly we have so much from Coach Mountjoy on throwing mechanics." I won't get it all in here because he has an absolute, you know, a massive library of, of things but so I want to share Coach Mountjoy's information on quarterback drills and throwing mechanics.
[00:04:30] So this is not my... I'll have my own, maybe some of my own input in this because I do work with quarterbacks and I do, you know... They're, they're there. They're, obviously even if they send them to, if you send them to a camp or something, they're, the, the guy at the camp isn't there all the time. Again, I look for the guy who I know can throw and can learn our system and has some leadership ability.
[00:04:51] But this is really about sharing Bill Mountjoy's, teachings on quarterback fundamentals, [00:05:00] throwing mechanics, and the cord- the warmup which is a really interesting warmup for the quarterback, and it's one of those things that looking back, I don't know that we've used this very much, and it's something I wanna get back to to sharing.
[00:05:11] The PDFs that I'm gonna pull up I'm gonna work on making those available in some way. You know, like I said, we're recording this because Daniel and I are behind on the recording, so I'm recording, this is probably going out tomorrow. So I w- might not have something set up for you to instantly access, and I don't have the capa- or my team doesn't have the capacity to answer hundreds of emails saying, "Coach, can you send me that?"
[00:05:32] We, we got, we, we got other things right now. So I, but I will put something together, and if, if we put it together and announce it on the next podcast, I'll make sure that you know where to get it. But you will be able to access this. When we get it up, it will be with the podcast, which will be at JoeDanielfootball.com/QBDrills, no spaces, no, just QBDrills is where this podcast, and I'll put up some related things as well there [00:06:00] Bill Mountjoy is the person who really developed what became the pistol power offense system.
[00:06:06] I learned all of that, the power, the counter, the inside zone, the outside zone, the count system, the truck toss our passing game, our five-step, our three-step all of that, red, white, and blue America the, you know, trips, cover zero beater. All of those things came from Bill Mountjoy. I put my own spin, I put my own growth on some of them.
[00:06:27] I probably made them worse because he, he was so meticulous in the way that he taught and the way that he did these things. But that's, you know, the pistol power offense system that's inside JDFB Premium Coaching Systems. You can go to JoeDanielfootball.com/membership. That is where, that is where all of that came from.
[00:06:43] Trigger reads, all the things we do in there there's such a, such a dynamic offense that Bill put together a- and, and learned from others, and learned from... And, and has never been shy about giving credit where credit is due and learned from [00:07:00] so many different resources, and I can't even begin. I know the, the Joe Gibbs and the Redskins and, and all the, the coaches that went through there, he learned a ton from them and has just learned from so many different sources himself and then passed it on.
[00:07:14] Again, just a selfless teacher of football, a sharer of football. But the pistol power offense system all came from Bill. And so what we're gonna talk about today is, is not directly related. You know, it's related in that it's the quarterback. The system, even though I call it pistol power offense, you don't have to run it out of pistol.
[00:07:31] I learned it all under center and then I liked the pistol, then I named the thing and then it's been out there for years. I, you know, I could change it I guess, but it is, it, you know, it's not specifically pistol power offense. Now we do spread, we do spread option. A lot of stuff Bill, Bill never liked the pistol, Bill never liked the spread stuff that we did, but again it was the evolution for me and again I probably made it worse.
[00:07:53] You know, he's a tight end H-back you know, tight end and H-back and using three by one formations and, and using the motions and [00:08:00] using really the basics and being great at it But that's where it all came from. If you are putting together your practice plans, a lot of what you'll see in Season 21 of the Football Coaching Podcast, we talked about planning your individual drills in episode one last week.
[00:08:16] The episode this one talking about the quarterback drills, and we'll be talking about other drills and, and different positions. If you're looking at how to put together the practice plan so that you get to, to implement all of these, go to joedanielfootball.com/practice. You can download those practice plans for f- my practice plan templates for free.
[00:08:33] It's a one-week shell that I use. With the 90-minute practice plan, you can adjust the times. It can be as long or short as you want. Obviously it's just an, it's an Excel template. So you can get that and adjust your own practice plans. Obviously we've done lots of podcasts on 90-Minute Practice Plan.
[00:08:47] I have put together in YouTube, on our YouTube channel, joedanielfootball.com/YouTube, I put together a playlist of all the podcasts that are related to practice planning from the past, and we'll continue to add to [00:09:00] those. So you can go to the YouTube channel and go to the playlist, and you can check out all those podcasts as well.
[00:09:03] So we're gonna organizing all the stuff that we do. Let's jump in and let's start talking about quarterback mechanics first. I think this is really interesting because, like I said, I have always been a believer, Let me see if I can, Let me upload a file. Can I upload a file here? I'm, I'm unprepared for this part.
[00:09:21] I will s- absolutely admit that. I was just gonna share the screen, but then I saw the option to upload a PDF and that may be better. We'll find out The, like I said, if you're listening to the audio, we are doing a little more visual for the YouTube, for the YouTubers. So if you want to see these they will be on screen for For your viewing pleasure and then like I said, I will try to get those up somewhere available so that you can see them with the with JoeDanielfootball.com/QBDrills.[00:10:00]
[00:10:00] So this is quarterback fundamentals. This is just kind of, everything that you need to think about and I love this because I think we lose sight of a lot of this. General technique, stance, feet, knees, hips. I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go through this really quick. Feet, knees, hips, arms and shoulders, head and eyes, balance, poise.
[00:10:15] If you guys are looking for just like a checklist of everything that your quarterback needs to be able to do hand position, upper hand, lower hand. Obviously this is talking about under center. Really important the hand position and how to take the snap. Taking the snap, getting the laces, the exchange, the follow through of the snap.
[00:10:31] I don't think we get into all of that here. I f- if I remember correctly there may be something on the snap. But then the head and eyes pre-snap, where they're looking pocket presence, you know, the, the footwork, the fakes, the passing, all of those, signal calling calling the huddle, managing the line of scrimmage, cadence running game the position of the ball after the snap, the adjustment before the hand off, spins and turns talking about reverse pivots I assume reverse pivots and, and roll-outs.
[00:10:58] Or not roll-outs but but [00:11:00] reverse pivots mainly. And then opening and, and, and coming out from under center. A lot of this you guys may not do that much of. I would really recommend just as an aside here, again Bill was very, very big on under center and our quarterbacks, we often get quarterbacks a- and I'm not big on trying to force a change.
[00:11:21] If I have a kid who's comfortable from gun and he's being successful there, I probably won't force him to be under center a ton. And a lot of times you get kids who have been in the middle school level or junior high or whatever it is and they have not spent much time under center. Some of them have, some of them haven't, but if you get that, you know, I
[00:11:38] A lot of ... Some people will force everything under center. Some people will just abandon everything under center. I love to be able to do a mix of under center because certain plays are better under, certain plays are better gun, pistol for the variety that we use and the variations that we use in the pistol power off its center.
[00:11:53] But set system. But if you want the timing of your run game and the timing of your [00:12:00] passing game to be perfect, if you, if you really want that, under center is better. You will have better downhill run game, better timing because you don't have to worry about the snap being here, here, here, here, and the quarterback having to drop his eyes to catch the snap then get his eyes back, adjust his feet, all of those things.
[00:12:19] He takes the snap from under center it's the same every time and his footwork is going to be the same. If it's a five-step drop his footwork is going to be one, two, three, four, five and his, the ball is going to be as he hits the back foot he's gonna be able to release on that first read. Same thing with a three-step drop.
[00:12:33] All of those are gonna be better. Certain plays like toss Is just flat out better under center. It is significantly better. Play actions are much better under center. Better ball fakes because of the quarterback being able to turn his back being able to hide the ball. So, that's something to consider as well.
[00:12:50] The handoff responsibility, who's, you know... I, I like the, the wording there, the handoff responsibility. Who's responsible for the handoff as far as placing the [00:13:00] ball you know, when you, when you give the ball or you're pressuring the ball when does the quarterback decide to give it to the running back?
[00:13:06] When does the running back take it from the quarterback? How you hold the ball, where you look, footwork, placing the ball. Faking, very important. A lot of quarterbacks, including mine, have often been not very good at ball fakes. And then toss, types of tosses, techniques for tossing. Passing game. I've got it on a second monitor over here, so if you feel like I'm looking off into the distance, I am.
[00:13:26] Passing game, position of the ball, technique talking about the chest height. We'll get into that in a minute. Throwing mechanics, which we're gonna get into, so I'll just kinda drop past that. Drop back, how many steps, the types, the techniques of drops, quick game drop back, all, all of those things.
[00:13:41] Sprint out. I never ran a lot of sprint out from... never learned a ton of sprint out from Bill. It's just never been a big part of my game. I've run a little bit of sprint out, but not a lot. A lot of co- some coaches love sprint out, others don't. It's never been a major part of my passing game. But o- obviously, you know, it's, it's something we've done, [00:14:00] something a lot of teams do.
[00:14:01] Throwback from sprint right and sprint left. I don't even know that one. That's, that's... Okay. And then play action, footwork and faking, ball handling, reading, set and throw and the bootleg technique So that's the, the basics of the the fundamentals. And as we go to the next page here Don't reconstruct your throwing, learning quarterback throwing mechanic or throwing techniques.
[00:14:31] A lot of the way that Bill wrote these, and I love this, a lot of the way that Bill wrote these things, he, he, he's coaching coaches, he's teaching coaches, but Bill comes from an old school, old, came from an old school world that I just haven't been able to live in, and I thought this would be important to talk about.
[00:14:50] One of the things that Bill always wanted, and I think you should do it with your quarterbacks, I think the quarterback is the one position that you should do this with. But Bill always talked about quarterback [00:15:00] school, and quarterback school starts in January. And th- this, this page is actually labeled I believe that the download name, the file name is, is MJ eight, I th- I wanna say.
[00:15:15] And that's the lesson. That's where it comes in. So if you can imagine, this is the eighth thing. They've, they've got seven, seven lessons before they get the ball. We were never able to do it because our quarterbacks always played other sports, and so we were never able to really get this fully the way that Bill wanted.
[00:15:32] We tried at times. And you know, honestly, I'd rather have a kid playing other sports and, and, you know, he would talk about they need to come in in the morning, they need to find time and make it work, and we just never could. We've never been able to go at that level and that depth. You know, this is the old school of, you know, giving kids a playbook and sending them home to study it.
[00:15:55] And I just, I don't... It doesn't [00:16:00] seem to work well with the kids we have today. They don't have great study habits, for one thing, but also we, we try to keep it simple and teach it on the field. But this was, this was all very much written in a, like, give it to the athlete and let them take it home. And I think if you have the right quarterback, and I've had quarterbacks who I would just give this stuff to and say, "Read this."
[00:16:24] Not a lot, but a few that could really take this. So just, just for purposes of as I go through this and understanding what it says, learning quarterback throwing techniques, he's speaking to the quarterback himself. Don't reconstruct your throwing motion. Know what causes poor throwing. Number three, improve the techniques that cause your poor throw.
[00:16:50] Number four, performance is the key. Don't change if you are getting the results desired. I, I love that one because how [00:17:00] many quarterbacks, I wonder... We, we know the quarterbacks who have such great success you know, Philip Rivers, like, they, they had these throwing motions that weren't what it's supposed to be, but the results were there There's a, there's a two-way street here.
[00:17:20] How many quarterbacks could have fixed some technique issue where the results were there in high school, but not good enough to get the results in at a higher level in college, or maybe going from college to the pros? Or is it too late at that point? I don't know. I've never been a quarterback, so I honestly don't know much about, you know, the actual feeling.
[00:17:45] I can't throw. Like, you watch my dr- you l- you look at my defensive drills you know, from the offensive side, you've always got a quarterback there to throw. As a safeties coach, if I had any drills where I needed the ball to be thrown, almost all of my drills involve on the defensive side involve short throws where I d- you know, I used [00:18:00] to, as a young coach, would sit there and throw and throw and throw.
[00:18:02] And I have terrible throwing mechanics, and I tear my arm up, and I can't get it there. I just, I d- I don't throw a football very well, and I've never learned how to do it, and I'm not probably going to. The... Doesn't interest me. The... I would always make the backup quarter- the quarterback or the backup quarterback would always be a safety so that if I needed somebody to do that.
[00:18:20] I also like to have them for umbrella drill. But if you're getting the desired, desired results, you don't need to obsess over the throwing mechanics is what I think Bill is saying. Don't obsess over this perfect, these perfect mechanics. Look at the success of, you know, a Mahomes who does so many creative things.
[00:18:45] Honestly, off the top of my head, I can't remember if he has traditional throwing mechanics or not, but he does so many creative things. He creates plays, and it's like, look, that's what's happening. Now, he works on that. It's not random chance. But if what you're doing is working, [00:19:00] let it work. Don't, don't change, don't tear apart a, a swing in golf.
[00:19:08] We're getting into the British Open week here. Don't tear apart a golfer's swing if it's working. You don't go and, and change everything because it's working. You, you do want to tweak. Number five, concentrate on only one coaching point at a time. So if what you are doing is working, you look within that, and what is the w- there's probably something that is the lever.
[00:19:37] We talk about ASCA, we talk about alignment, stance, key read assignment, but as you look at adjustments, it's the same in throwing mechanics. There's something in there that is the weakest link. There's something in your game, even if you are Pat Mahomes, there's something in your game that is currently the thing that if it was better, everything [00:20:00] else would be better because you'd be adding this other element that you can do.
[00:20:04] You'd be adding this other thing that you can do, and it, it will improve everything. So The technique that causes the poor throw, again, is what we want to look at because we're probably not 100% accurate. What is the thing that's happening? Is it our footwork? Is it our eyes? Is it our follow through? Is it our, you know, the way we're holding the ball?
[00:20:26] What is it that we want to work on? And then repetition develops consistency, and so that's where I go back to is it too late when that guy comes into, you know, Division I college, he's been a four-year starter in high school because he was just that good, and is it too late to change it if now it's not good enough to be the starter at a top school?
[00:20:44] He's the backup and, you know, s- because his ball's a little slow or a little inaccurate. Obviously, that's where we start to look at, okay, what is the one thing we could do to tweak to make it better? Don't tear it down. Don't... Going back to number one, do not reconstruct the [00:21:00] throwing motion. The way that your quarterback throws right now, get the kid who throws it the best or, you know, athletically, athletic and throws it pretty well, and don't tear down that throwing motion because it's not ideal, but just start to look for one lever at a time, one coaching point, one thing, and then start to work on changing that one little thing and repping it, and repping it, and repping it, and throwing the same way as many times as you can within reason.
[00:21:32] And then he mentioned number seven, know the receivers and their route. Knowing the receiver... I, I should just read it the way it is 'cause Bill's got it right. I was thinking it was written wrong. It's not. He's meticulous about this stuff. Knowing receivers and their routes develops throwing consistency, so there's the mental aspect of it.
[00:21:50] If you know where your receivers are going to be, you can develop that. One of the really cool things about the Pistol Power Offense system and I, I, I should say one of the really cool things about Bill's passing system [00:22:00] that I stole with Bill's... And by the way, Bill encouraged me to share this stuff all the time with, with our coaches in, in our website and you know, I think sharing it on the podcast is a great way to do it.
[00:22:11] So hopefully, so hopefully, Bill, that's okay. One of the great things that I always think is so cool and, and we talk to guys about our passing game is, and it was great, Bill would always talk about our passing game because we, because everybody he talks to is running our passing game. You know, our passing game and our passing game we use a mirrored route concepts and a lot of people don't like the mirrored routes and they'll say, you know, "I like to have the numbers" or, "I like to have passing concepts because we've got five receivers there."
[00:22:39] That's all fine. Understand one of the things that is great about the mirrored concepts and you can tag them and you can... It's not always, in fact, it's very rarely the same on both sides, but the, it can attack both sides and there's always, in the way that Bill's system is designed, there should always be someone open.[00:23:00]
[00:23:00] If you learn the trigger reads, if you learn all that, and we very rarely trigger at the high school level, almost never happens against the defenses that we see now. So a lot of people get intimidated by the trigger reads and they, you know, say, "Well, the, the mount- the mirrored thing doesn't work because of the triggered reads."
[00:23:13] It's almost all pre-snap reads for us. Almost all pre-snap reads, finding the best side, finding the space, knowing where the routes are gonna go and throwing to that spot. But Bill was so meticulous in the, the, the split of the receiver, and this is all stuff we teach in the, in, in our systems. The split of the receiver, the steps of the route that every throw, every three-step throw was essentially the same.
[00:23:38] So if you think about this a, a hitch, a five-step hitch, whi- which is you take five steps to match a quarterback's three-step drop, 'cause the, that takes care of the ball in the air so that as you're turning, the ball is on you. And, and d- all the details of Bill going to the ball is out in point A, it arrives in 1.3.
[00:23:58] That hitch goes [00:24:00] one, two, three, four, and then he actually opens with his outside foot. Doesn't want the ball thrown inside, he wants it thrown to his outside shoulder. That throw, you have a 10-yard split. Now, when I throw a slant, I throw a three-step slant. I move to a 12-yard split. I take one, two, three, four, five, and that fifth step, remember the hitch was one, two, three, four, and open.
[00:24:26] Now I have... In a straight line. And now I go one, two, three, and then two steps, four, five, are at a 45-degree angle, and I land in almost the exact spot where the ball is being thrown to my inside now on slant as I'm moving, but the throw is almost the exact same throw if I'm throwing to the first option on that, and it's so cool.
[00:24:52] All through the passing concepts. The curl, the nine-step curl. Now we adjusted the curl a little bit, but a nine-step curl, seven big, two little, eyes back to the quarterback [00:25:00] from a 10-yard split. And then the receiver goes to run a deep out and he goes one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. The eighth step crosses over.
[00:25:07] He starts from an eight-yard width, and as he crosses over, that ball lands in the exact same spot in the exact same time as the nine-step curl The post route, 12-yard split, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine as he... one, two, three, four, five, six, seven inches break. As he breaks, the ball is hitting him in almost the exact same spot, okay?
[00:25:33] It's really cool in the way that all of this, the quarterback knowing where the receivers are and then he's, he's getting to consistently rep this, this technique. Additional learning points, quick hands and feet are extremely important to a successful passer. Number two, you must have the fortitude to step up and throw the ball when you get a heavy rush, and this takes deep concentration.
[00:25:54] This is the hardest thing for a quarterback, is especially from [00:26:00] under center they get the gun, the distance and the gun even though you end up in the same spot, it- they feel more comfortable. They're not like backing away from this thing w- is what I've found. But if a, if you have a quarterback who can take a five-step drop under center, plant and throw regardless of the rush, it is so, so important.
[00:26:19] We... I love Dub Maddox. I, I think the R4 system is brilliant. I've never been a great teacher of it, and we had a coach years ago who tried to impl- we tried to implement it and we would joke because and maybe it was the kid, maybe it was... But it was the year that we installed the R4. We had a talented quarterback, but he really struggled with that, and we would joke that the R4, that the four Rs stood for ru, ru, ru, ru, run because he was so good in seven on seven and so intimidated by the rush and standing in on that rush.
[00:26:49] It's really important to learn to, and I, I love the wording there. This takes deep concentration to trust your offensive line, block [00:27:00] all of that out, and it's you and your, your, your, your receivers, your read. We generally just have, you know, first read, second read, third read, and a max of three reads to a side.
[00:27:11] Very rarely get to the third. And again, a lot of pre-snap de- determination, but know where your protection is, know which area is being protected and which is not. That comes from experience. You must make these calls. Never taught this. Never taught this. Ball when you throw the ball. Makes sense. Lets the offensive line know the ball's away.
[00:27:30] Go if you run with the ball. Absolutely, so the receivers can release and start bar- blocking. Now again, I- I've always had a thing about this that and cover if there's an interception. That's a good one. I've always had a thing about the calls on the field. He better be loud. I've always thought that, you know, the, the one that always gets me is the pull call.
[00:27:49] The linebacker has to make a pull call to the other linebacker to let him know. It's like, no, he just needs to go with that guy because there's not enough time. There's too many things happening. I don't know if this is [00:28:00] y- the, the most important things but he teaches the quarterback you are the safety if you throw an interception.
[00:28:08] And in this case they're not talking about our free safety and the 425 defense where you are the key to the defense, and the leading tackler, and the best player on the field. He's talking about the traditional sense of a safety. You are the last man. We'd prefer you not to be making the tackle Important points on centration.
[00:28:26] I think he means concentration. There is a typo. Important points on concentration. You can concentrate effectively on only one thing at a time. First, the snap count. Second, the play. What does this sound like? This sounds like a one-on-one game, right? Sounds like the one-on-one game. Snap count. Play. Third, throwing accurately to the receiver.
[00:28:50] Don't think about several things at once. One-on-one game, one-on-one game, one-on-one game. Your play is a progression of one-on-one games. So [00:29:00] what should your drill work be? You should be drilling the one-on-one games, right? So you're thinking, and just to break this down, you're thinking first about getting the snap.
[00:29:10] What's the snap count? Getting the snap. Then you're thinking about your footwork and how it times up with the receiver routes and where all that's gonna be. Again, the more you do this, the more it becomes like driving your car to work, driving your car home, and you just, it's on autopilot. And then you think about making that throw, and that throw, from the time you hit that back step, that last step, and you're going through your throwing mechanics and that release that's the one-on-one game The smaller the target of visual concentration, the more accurate the throw.
[00:29:40] So if you have a specific small target like the chin, the shoulder, the eye, et cetera, you're gonna be more accurate. Concentrate on the positive result, what to do instead of what not to do
[00:29:57] All right, now passing mechanics, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna go [00:30:00] through this because it is, some of it is, you know, obvious. Some of it is there's some absolute gold in this as well for those of you who don't have your own quarterback guru mindset Keep the ball at chest height and no lower. So we're standing up, the ball is at, at, you know, chest height and no lower.
[00:30:19] So we're not standing there with the ball. You see quarterbacks drop the ball down to their stomach level and then they have that long wind up, keeping the ball up at chest height. Shoulders are perpendicular to the target. Shoulders are parallel to the ground, so you're not tilting one shoulder up, one shoulder back.
[00:30:35] The feet are shoulder width. A lot of shoulders here. So number one, keep the ball at chest height, no lower. Two, shoulders perpendicular to the target. Three, shoulders parallel to the ground and not tilted. Four, the feet are shoulder width. Five, the eyes are on the target. Remember that the eyes on the target, eyes always stay on the target, and we wanna have a target, not just an area, not a...
[00:30:55] But where am I going to hit this throw? The better throw, the better the target. Tighter the target, [00:31:00] the better the throw. The body should be in position by the back foot being planted with the weight on the instep. So love the specifics of it. And quarterbacks, the better they have a feel for their body position, they can feel that you know, how they're landing there.
[00:31:14] The body should be in position by the back foot being planted with the weight on the instep. The knees are bent, the body is tucked. Not exactly sure what that means. Knees are bent, a body... So like the butt back kind of thing? Butt is shifted back. Is that, that's the tuck? You're not like sitting back?
[00:31:32] That sounds right. The left foot for a right-handed passer, if you're a left-handed passer, flip all this. Remember that this stuff is written for the quarterback to read. You can teach it to your quarterback. If your quarterback's just not a reader, that's fine. I've had plenty of those. The left foot for a right-handed passer moves forward and opens to the target in order to put the belt buckle in direct line with the target.
[00:31:56] The target is not the receiver, but rather where the [00:32:00] receiver will be when the ball reaches him. There's a lot of nuance to the target. The point is very, this point is very important in the overall scheme of things. So the left foot moves forward and opens to the target to put the belt buckle in direct line with the target.
[00:32:16] Opening the left foot, number 10, opening the left foot allows for the shift of the weight from the right foot to the left foot in an even manner. Just as a golfer must get the left hip out of the way to smoothly bring the club through, the passer must do the same. So you must get the left hip... You can't just step straight at the target.
[00:32:39] You have to get the left hip out of the way as you make that throw. So the foot is opening to your target and ag- and opening, it's not just stepping straight ahead. You're in that balanced stance. It's not just stepping straight ahead because your, your throw, I assume your throw is gonna end up to the right if you do that because your belt buckle's gonna be pointed the wrong way, or you're gonna throw across your body.
[00:32:58] I don't even know if it's possible to throw that way. But you've [00:33:00] gotta clear the hip, you've gotta open the hip. You gotta get that belt buc- belt buckle pointed Through the entire motion, keep the eyes on the target. So we're training the eyes, training the eyes, training the eyes. Keep the eyes on the target.
[00:33:13] Not on the rush, not on finding a passing lane, not on finding an escape, okay? The eyes are on the target. The natural movement of the ball being raised and thrown is started by the left side pulling down to the left to the le- down and to the left. The left side pulling down and to the left, so that's our lead.
[00:33:32] Our left side, left hip and elbow the, the our left hip and elbow pull down to the left, not out, but down. So it's not, we're not opening up more now, 'cause then we're gonna, we're gonna lose our power, I would say I would guess. But I'm driving the left elbow, hip not out, driving it down. This pushes the right side up into position, extending the [00:34:00] arm as it does.
[00:34:01] Okay? So again that's a lot. The natural movement of, of the ball being raised and thrown, the natural movement of the ball being raised and thrown is started by the left side pulling down and to the left, hip and elbow, not out, but down. This pushes the right side up into position, for a right-handed passer, extending the arm as it does One thing I love, I love this as we get into it.
[00:34:28] One thing... Try to blow it up on my screen here so I can see a little better. Here we go. One thing one should think of two forces being imparted on the football. Now, be careful with which quarterbacks you talk to about this because this is like, this might be when I try to teach defensive ends how to wrong arm and taught them to, you know, we take, I took the fa- the Pat Fox, you know, wrong arm, you don't, wrong arm is inside half, you're wrong sided.
[00:34:53] Wrong arm is inside four-fifths's and the fractions, my defensive ends did not do fractions. So [00:35:00] be careful. Two forces being imparted to the football, centri- centrifugal and centripetal. Centri- centrifugal, centrifugal, centrifugal and centripetal. I don't... I, I'm in Mensa. It's getting me. The first is the force to send the projectile forward to the target.
[00:35:24] This force is generated by the left hip through the right forefinger. The left hip through the right forefinger. When the ball is released, it should feel it should feel that as string is attached to the left hip and the right hand and is cut just as the ball is released. This is deep. There's a string from your left hip to your right finger.
[00:35:50] I guess the hip opens, and it's pulling that finger through, and it's cut when the ball is released. So you're still clearing that hip. The second is imparted on the [00:36:00] football by the wrist snap and the fingers pulling. It creates the outside in spin, the spiral. Spin factors for those of you that have heard that one Bill, Bill loved.
[00:36:11] The outside in spin or the spiral, which has a very positive effect on accuracy. Just as the left side should go down and not out, the right side should go up and not out to the side. The arm and the elbow therefore should stay as close to the center of the action, you use the head as the guide as possible.
[00:36:32] If the left side gets swinging horizontally with its pull instead of vertically- It will cause the right side to get outside the line of flight and the result will be the ball will be influenced only by the first force, the centri- centrifugal. Phil. I gotta get set up. Without the control of the second, and it creates a slice[00:37:00]
[00:37:03] So not a hook, but a slice You feel this when you don't bend your left knee, lock it out, and spin around to throw the ball. Coaches call it all arm or throwing off your back foot We all know the, the... I think it's easier to see the throwing off your back foot here. It's all arm, and so that makes sense.
[00:37:25] The left side so again, if the left side gets swinging horizontally with its pull instead of vertically, it will cause the right side to get outside the line of flight. The ball will be influenced only by the first force without the control of the second, and that creates a slice. You feel this when you don't bend your left knee, lock it out, spin around, throw the ball.
[00:37:46] Coaches call it all arm or throwing off the back foot. The passing motion should be a relaxed movement that takes full advantage of the mechanics, yet still allows for the last second adjustment by the wrist and fingers. These [00:38:00] adjustments take place because of eye-hand or hand-eye, I would say, hand-eye coordination.
[00:38:05] Poor body mechanics makes it impossible to take advantage of that natural phenomenon, underlined bold. Very cool. I love... 13 is a deep, deep description. Might have to listen to it a few times. Run it back. And like I said, I'll try to get this up at JoeDanielfootball.com/QBDrills, but we're recording, I'm recording late now, so.
[00:38:30] I love the takes full advantage of the mechanics, last second adjustment by the wrist and hand because of hand-eye coordination. You can understand that. I mean, just, you know, as you see something at the last second, you can kind of put a little flick on it to, to make that little adjustment and that little piece, but it doesn't happen with the overall body throwing mechanic.
[00:38:51] That stays the same. And as long as that overall body throwing mechanic is working, then the, the wrist snap can have a little [00:39:00] ex-extra impact there. Natural phenomenon. Number 15, passing the football should appear smooth and natural, not violent. Violent appearance is the result of trying to overcome mechanical flaws.
[00:39:11] So we shouldn't be grunting through our throws as a quarterback. Some of these flaws, So he points out some flaws here, and there's actually gonna be a whole thing on adjusting. Some of these flaws are taking too long a stride with the left foot. Throwers do this to get the left hip out of the way, and it creates poor balance.
[00:39:29] Jerking the left side out to the left throws the right out the other way. So if you think about the kind of spinning everything spinning away instead of staying tight. This is done, I feel like I'm getting weightlifting instruction here, 'cause I, I do all of this in my weightlifting. This is done because the thrower didn't open the left side far enough, cocking the shoulder where the right shoulder cocking the right shoulder toward the ground and the left shoulder towards the sky, so that lifting that we, we actually key that for a fade ball.
[00:39:58] But cocking the [00:40:00] shoulder up, the cocking that left shoulder up, this is done because the thrower doesn't understand or believe in mechanics and thinks he needs to wind up. Most of them do. I mean, honestly, it's literally the key that we use as cornerbacks to identify a fade throw is the quarterback throwing that shoulder up.
[00:40:21] That's how we know it's a fade. So it's pretty common. A note for sidearm, sidearm passers can appear smooth, however, the longer the throw... And my screen, I'm just gonna tell you that there's, I have to rotate this because for some, for whatever reason, this one page is like sideways and just has a little snippet on it.
[00:40:47] This is an old, old PDF. This is not anything fancy. And so let me open this view window
[00:40:57] The more difficult... s- let me, now I gotta go back. [00:41:00] Sidearm passers can appear smooth, smooth, however, the longer the throw, the more difficult it is to be accurate because of the force imparted. That's, that's the sideways page for those of you on the YouTubes. Also, a sidearm thrower has a tough time with the trajectory needed on many throws over the defensive line and in front of the defensive backs.
[00:41:20] That's just a note on why sidearm is not the ideal, and we would rather fix many of those things. The natural follow-through, the last one, number 18, the natural follow-through should be as a result of the elbow and wrist locking out together. Because the idea was to keep the ball in the line of flight, just as in golf, the follow-through with the club head...
[00:41:43] I hope you have a quarterback who plays golf. This is why all the quarterbacks play golf. Just as in golf, the follow-through with the club head should be to the target, and then naturally down in front, not across your body.
[00:41:58] Down in front. [00:42:00] Okay. Palm facing the ground and thumb pointing to the ground Yes. Torso should remain erect. So natural follow through should be as a result of the elbow and wrist locking out together because the idea was to keep the ball in the flight, line of flight. And just as in golf, the follow through with the club head should be towards the target and then naturally down.
[00:42:21] Okay, the golf club is not going towards the target and naturally down. But your follow through with throw is towards the target and then naturally the palm, thumb down as you finish, and that's that wrist flick happening there
[00:42:38] I'll kind of jump through the correcting throwing efficiencies 'cause I know we wanna get to the drills and get moving, and I gotta get moving here a lot faster. There aren't a lot of drills, by the way. As you... Very, very JDFB coach simple, you know, defensive drill system, same deal. Correcting throwing inefficiencies.
[00:42:55] Flight problem, overthrow. You released behind the top of the arc or you [00:43:00] over-strided. So this is... There's two columns here. There's the flight problem, the, the problem with the flight path of the ball, and the technique that caused it. So here's your levers. Here's your chart of levers. Look at the thing that's happening the most.
[00:43:15] Maybe they're doing all of this, and so if I look at this and I go, "Okay, you know, what's the one that they're doing the most that has the biggest impact on our passing offense?" You know, that's the one that we'll wanna look at. Overthrow, if you, if he's overthrowing the ball, then he's releasing behind the top of the arc or over-striding.
[00:43:29] And remember, we want our quarterback to be able to be one of the people who helps to identify this, along with the coach, and starts to work to fix that. Under throwing, the p- the problem is being, the ball being under thrown. We're releasing in front of the top of the arc or under-striding. The tail of the ball wobbles.
[00:43:46] We have a jerky motion. The palm is not being rotated down. The elbow is too wide. The grip is too fal- too far forward or back on the ball. If the ball floats, I don't know if [00:44:00] float in overthrow. The point maybe that's the front going up I'm not su- I guess. Nope, that's the next one. The point is too high or you have a loose grip.
[00:44:08] I always think maybe that's the ball kind of wobbling. That's the, the... Would float be a duck? That might be, that might be a... Quack, quack. If the point is too high, the point is up on the grip. If the point is too low, point down on the grip. Yep Point up. Okay, so when you're gripping the ball, if the ball, if the point is too high on the throw, then you've got the point up in your grip, down in your grip if the point is too low.
[00:44:34] You have the inability to throw with velocity. If you got a young quarterback, he's not able to get the ball as far as you need him to go, the weight is not being transferred to the front foot. Of course, you talk about triangle weight transfer. Poor hip and shoulder rotation, not pulling down on the ball, no hand acceleration, no follow through or cross.
[00:44:54] Most of this goes back to number 13, his centripetal , [00:45:00] ah, his centripetal and centrifugal, centrifugal force. Probably, probably mostly a centrifugal force. It's that, the step, the, the, the first step in clearing the hip and the, the left hip connected to the right forefinger and driving through all of those things.
[00:45:19] Inaccuracy. The initial step is not at the target so that's, you know, that's a, that's a overall mechanics flaw. He is throwing across the body he is not pointing the fingertips at the target, or he has a poor concept of the receiver routes. So there you go. All right, moving into the next part, the quarterback essential individual drills.
[00:45:44] So we've talked about the mechanics of throwing the ball, and I think, you know, some of you may be really experts in quarterback mechanics. A lot of us are not. We weren't quarterbacks. We weren't... You know, we were offensive linemen, we were defensive linemen, we were linebackers. We've [00:46:00] never known all of, we never had to know all of this stuff.
[00:46:03] There are resources out there ex- you know, Dub, Dub Maddox, and I know that they've got Darren Slack, they've got all sorts of resources that have been out there. I'm sure there's more. I don't keep up with all of it. But if you just want an understanding, listen to this podcast a few times.
[00:46:22] Like I said, I'll try to get these documents up at JoeDanielfootball.com/QBDrills as soon as we can. You probably won't... If you're listening on the day that it comes out, probably not there yet. But here is the quarterback, I guess I, I should, I should, Add one more here. But here is the quarterback drills.
[00:46:44] Jog one lap around the field or two laps around the gym, carry a ball and do the air dribble with your throwing hand as you jog. So one lap around the field, warm up. The old school stuff, but jog a lap around the field, get warmed up. And listen, your [00:47:00] quarterback should be warming up before practice.
[00:47:02] This is not part of your individual drills that we talked about in the previous episode. This is stuff that has to be, they have to be there before everybody else. Their pre-practice is what they're doing. They have to be at pre-practice. We cannot be waiting for the quarterbacks to do this stuff because we need the quarterbacks when we go to run indies, the quarterbacks are handing the ball.
[00:47:19] Run indies is working exchange drills. It's the footwork of the run. We can't spend, we can't go have the running backs do stuff for 15 minutes while the quarterbacks warm up. They've got to get this done. Stretch the muscles using the surgical tubing program. And this should take only a few minutes, and this may be done at the end of the workout if preferred, which the stretching of the muscles.
[00:47:42] You know, I looked at the... I wanna share this because I haven't used it, I haven't used this, this warm-up, but I will There's, there's a whole separate document on quarterback warmup, and I was hoping to be able to go into it in this podcast, [00:48:00] but I'll tell you what, I'll, I will make sure that we get it up at JoeDanielfootball.com/QB- QBDrills in the coming days.
[00:48:07] It is a document that's called MJ Iowa Quarterback Warmup, so I assum- I assume he got it from University of Iowa. A- and it's, you know, arm swings, high press with each arm bar hang, hang from a, a chinning bar with the palms forward for 30 seconds, a rope stretch, fingertip pushups. Wow. Good for him.
[00:48:27] That's not easy. Sit and reach, that's kind of old school, 45 seconds, but nothing wrong with that stretch. And then the surgical tubing and there is a quarterback pulley workout, a surgical tubing workout that is 15 pulls at each level, increased by five pulls each week, and this is essentially just a, a real quick, and again, I will put this document up at JoeDanielfootball.com/QBDrills as soon as we can.
[00:48:49] Taking the, taking the throwing arm with a piece of, you know, a band basically was what we would use. And then he reaches behind his back with the other arm and he works low [00:49:00] pulls, medium pulls, and high pulls, and so with that he's got that band, he's got that tubing. My tubing's in the basement where my gym is oth- otherwise I would grab it here.
[00:49:08] And he is, you know, the first one is, is the, the elbow pointed straight ahead, that's the low pull. Then he goes to a medium pull and he's, he's going, you know, 15 pulls there. Then he's going to a high pull and, and y- you're holding as high up as you can to, to get that stretch going, and he's warming up the elbows that way.
[00:49:25] I just did a couple of, of reps of that for those of you on the audio and I may start warming up my elbows that way before lifting because th- that's a, that's a workout. So that's... I just wanted to, to mention it, but we'll put the full document up if you're interested in that. Obviously there's tons and tons of things out there.
[00:49:41] This isn't the only way. It is some, you know, some of Bill's stuff is old school but now we go to the, to the drills, and I'm gonna tell you that it's not a billion drills. It's not, it's not a, a billion different things to, to work through. It is, And there are other things. I just pulled a [00:50:00] couple of documents from Bill.
[00:50:00] I really wanted to focus on this one document because I thought it was so good with the with the basics here, and Bill has about-
[00:50:10] Maybe over the course of, of however many years, four, three or four truly what I would call quarterback drills that we worked, and then everything else is throwing your routes. Do the one-on-one game. It's taking your drop, it's shifting your weight, it's, you know, taking that, that, that mechanics, and it is it is you know, throwing the ball.
[00:50:37] So the passing warm-up drill, quarterback throwing down the line. Try... And this says passing warm-up drill, 20 minutes. That's, that's the name of the drill. The name of the drill is passing warm-up drill. This is drill number one. Quarterback throwing down the line. Start 10 yards apart and progress in increments of five.
[00:50:55] So if you wanna know how you're gonna- quarterbacks are gonna warm up, jog a lap. [00:51:00] You can do the, the other things that we talked about and I will put that up, but that can also be done at the end. Carry a ball and do air dribble with your throwing hand as you jog. I guess that... There we go. So then quarterback throwing down the line, this is your warm-up progression.
[00:51:16] Start at 10 yards apart and progress in increments of five yards after four passes each. So you're gonna do one pass, you know, your, your two quarterbacks are gonna throw the ball back and forth four times each, and then they're gonna get four throws, and then they're going to go to five yards. This is very...
[00:51:32] rubio's long snapping drills was essentially you start at three yards, and you do the three snaps, and then you go to six yards, and you do three snaps, and you go to nine yards, you do three snaps, and you go to 12 yards. They, they're like very similar the warm-up drills and the s- and, you know, initially it's just technique.
[00:51:47] So start from 10 yards apart and progress in increments of five yards after four passes each to 30 yards apart. Throw the ball parallel or straight down the line to enable you to see what your [00:52:00] particular ball does in flight. The footwork during this should start with two feet perpendicular to the line and shoulder-width apart.
[00:52:09] The step should be made forward 12 to 14 inches, measured from the heel before to the heel after, but the step should laterally rotate the left hip opening to the body of the target. So the quarterback is standing on the line, they're throwing down the line as the the step is 12 to 14 inches measured from the heel before to the heel after, so where it was, where the heel was before to where the heel is after.
[00:52:37] But the step should laterally rotate the left hip opening up the body to the target, as we talked about the mechanics. On this step, the weight should begin this, to shift from right to left, the hip turning. So he's going through the mechanics again here. The hip turning should allow the shoulders to turn.
[00:52:51] The hip turn begins the centrifugal force and the shoul-shoulder turn, he's gonna use that word- I'm embarrassed[00:53:00]
[00:53:03] The shoulder turn adds to it. The shoulders before this time should be directly parallel to the line of fire. The shoulders turn around the axis of the body and slightly down to put the throwing shoulder in a point of high release. The right side... So again, this is the mechanics. The right side should be straight from the hip to the elbow.
[00:53:24] The arm should come as close as reasonably possible to the head as it begins the last phase of the throw. In order to get most out of the form, the entire arm must straighten upon release, as we mentioned before, in order to impart the force and ultimate direction which, which centrifugal force creates.
[00:53:40] To do this, the elbow and the wrist must lock out simultaneously. The wrist should be pointed directly toward the target at the finish. The arm should follow through and down, not any further across than the median line of the body. At this point, the weight should be centered inside the left of to the inside of the left foot.
[00:53:58] So [00:54:00] there's your warm-up drill. On a line, 10 yards apart, four throws, one, two, th- you know, one, one, two, two, three, three, four, four, back up five yards. They don't both back up five yards. One guy backs up five yards. So we're gonna go throw 15 at 15 yards, tw- 20 yards, 25 yards, 30 yards. So you're gonna do 10, 15...
[00:54:24] Let me make the math here, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. You're gonna do five, four... You're gonna throw, throw 20 reps. He has 20 reps on there. I don't know why I sit there and did the math. So you're gonna do 20 throws. That's the warm-up To develop the high release, throw the ball over the goalpost. This is the goalpost drill.
[00:54:41] Pretty straightforward, standard. To develop the high release, throw the ball over the crossbar of the goalpost. So you have a, here's a beautiful stick figure diagram. Let me bring that up. There's the beautiful stick figure diagram on the YouTubes. The goalpost drill, [00:55:00] the organization of the goalpost drill, the quarterbacks are working together.
[00:55:03] The quarterback stands seven yards behind the goalpost with a receiver standing 12 yards on the other side of the goalpost. The quarterback practices getting a high release and throws the ball over the post. The crossbar sim- simulates the height of the hands of the pass rusher. The receiver is 12 yards away as if he was downfield in the medium passing area, and you can extend this drill to add the drop back.
[00:55:34] So, you know, he'll drop back to seven yards and throw. The quarterback develops the ability to throw 19 yards or so with definition as he would in a ballgame going over a 10-foot rush. So this is working on being able to throw over the line. Passer is at... And then his di- passer's at seven yards, the receiver is at the diagram says 10 to 12 yards, but you know, ultimately [00:56:00] 19-yard throw as he would in a ballgame.
[00:56:01] And of course, you're, you know, doing a five-step drop, you're seven yards up behind the line of scrimmage. This is a 12-yard throw. This is kind of your standard five-step drop throw in that, you know, if we're throwing a curl or if we're throwing a, it's about 10, 12 yards down the field. So, that's the throw that you're making.
[00:56:16] And then the quarterback trash can drill. This is the being able to float a ball into a trash can from a distance, is an off- awesome way to work on that perfect drop on a dime touchdown pass. The equipment required here, five footballs, one full size trash can, one 20 pound weight, you do need that, one partner to retrieve the balls, or you can be alone and, you know, do this yourself five to 10 reps.
[00:56:49] So all totaled here, he didn't put reps in the, In the goalpost drill, you don't need a ton. You know, I mean, you're talking a, a practice period type of thing might be what you're [00:57:00] doing there. Quarterback trash can drill five to 10 reps. The setup is you set up a trash can where you want it. If you're on a football field, place the can in the back corner of the end zone.
[00:57:13] Place a weight in the bottom of the trash can so that it doesn't tip over if he hits the rim with the pass. Set up 30 yards from the trash can on the 20 yard on the 20 inside the hash marks if you're on a football field. So you're on the 20 yard line, and probably adjust this if you got young kids.
[00:57:32] You're on the 20 yard line inside the hash. The ball is... And there's let me bring it up. There we go. Keep forgetting to adjust that. Quarterback trash can drill is he's standing at the 20 inside the hash. The ball is in the corner. Take a three-step drop, stay focused on it. It's a fade throw. Stay focused on your target and loft the ball trying to get it into the trash can.
[00:57:55] In order to settle into a rhythm, grab another football and set up for the next rep as [00:58:00] quickly as possible. And then there's a tip. Be sure your arm is warmed up before you attempt this drill. Getting a nice high arc on the ball is crucial to landing it in the trash can. This drill is fun but also challenging.
[00:58:11] Don't be discouraged if it takes several sets before you make it into the trash can. So, five football, you got your five footballs, trash can. There's some really basic quarterback drills, and then from there, you know, the, the best drill was always our pre-game drill is we would have four quarterbacks as y- and you have your four lines, and this goes with our passing game and our mirrored concepts, and you have an inside route and an outside route to both sides and an inside quarterback, one quarterback throwing the outside route and one quarterback throwing the inside route to each side.
[00:58:40] So we have four quarterbacks, and we have, We had four quarterbacks and then we had our, There we go. Where's my... There we go. Four quarterbacks, and then we had our, Four lines of receivers out there. And one of the things you always wanna make sure of is that your- you wanna try to let your quarterback throw to the receivers he's gonna throw to as much as possible, if you [00:59:00] can set this up.
[00:59:01] If you don't even... You, you don't want your starting quarterback getting used to throwing to the JV receiver that you c- brought up just to be on special teams or just 'cause he's a nice kid, because it's gonna screw up the timing. He needs, he needs to be throwing the ball to o- on time. So ideally you have some centers.
[00:59:19] We would always at least make sure that we have somebody, you know, snapping the ball or flipping the ball to the starter and the backup and if it's, you know, if you got a JV kid or whatever out there, he's, you know, he may just be doing it on his own so that the ball is getting thrown. We have a coach throwing just to have the receivers catching balls, and everybody runs their routes.
[00:59:36] And so like if you ran a you have those four lines and we say, "Okay curl route." Well, on a curl route, what the, the outside quarterback in those four guys, the outside of those four guys is throwing where the outside r- where the route ends up. And so in our curl, it is a curl and a flat route. The curl is actually the inside throw, and the flat is the outside throw.
[00:59:59] So if I had four [01:00:00] quarterbacks in a line, I've got two guys on the right. The outside quarterback on the right is throwing the flat route to the right. The inside quarterback on the right is throwing the curl route to the right. So we would just go through all of our routes, and so we would go you know, we would go i- in pregame especially, we go 60.
[01:00:18] We go 60, everybody's running 60. 60 is a hitch and a seam. Outside guy's running a hitch, so the outside quarterback's throwing the hitch, and the inside quarterback is throwing the seam, both sides. Four balls in the air every single time. If you got enough guys, you can do this. And then we would go, all right, 62.
[01:00:33] And so the outside guy is running a, a s- a slant, and the inside guy is running a shoot. That means that the outside quarterback is throwing the shoot, and the inside quarterback is throwing the slant. So we would throw that, you know, go through the line, throw, throw three or four of them. We would go... We wouldn't run every single thing.
[01:00:50] Like we, it, we'd never thrown a lot of smash concept, which is 50-51 in our pistol power offense system and in Bill's terminology. And so we would, but you and you would go smash. You would [01:01:00] go 50-51. We would probably skip 50-51. We would probably skip 52-53, because we don't run a ton of post out.
[01:01:08] So, you know, we might just go straight to 54-55 deep out, and where the deep out is the outside guy, and we go straight to, then we go to curl. A lot of times just be deep out and curl. It's wh- 'cause we, we throw a ton of those, more, more of those than anything. But, you know, throw the ones that you wanna throw.
[01:01:23] Get them warmed up. That's... At that point, you know, you're, you're playing seven on... You're, that's your routes on air, and then you're seven on seven. You're, that's your drills really. There are other drills that we have that we talk about Curl drill is a great one which is again, just it's, it's a read drill.
[01:01:38] It's training the read. And so curl drill, and you can do this on all of your, of your drill work. Curl drill, as an example, is our 56, 57 passing concept. It's a five-step drop curl. It's a nine-step curl route on the outside by the outside receiver. The inside receiver is running a two-step shoot route.
[01:01:55] It's basically a one-yard flat shoot route, flat, flat route, whatever you wanna call it. And then the running back [01:02:00] is running a check release to a hook and which is gonna be set up right over, right... He runs right at the linebacker's feet and just turns at five yards. And so it's an outside breaking route, so he's going to be reading outside in.
[01:02:14] I'm sorry, it's an inside breaking route. He's reading inside out. He almost never throws the hook, and we never throw across the middle late. And so he's gonna check for that. It's almost never thrown on the, on that one. But we basically have two defenders. So you have your inside linebacker and you have your flat defender.
[01:02:29] So you have your hook defender and your flat defender in that one. And we, you know, playing cover three and really what he looks for is the hook defender can either stay and cover the hook or he can run out and then we're gonna throw the hook. But if he stays, which a lot of linebackers don't get great pass reads so they're almost always staying, and then we really are reading off of that flat defender.
[01:02:49] If he drops to get underneath the curl, then we throw the shoot. If he attacks the shoot in the flat, the curl opens up behind him and the quarterback is learning to read that and the quarter- the coach can stand behind and just tell [01:03:00] the the defender where, where he wants to go to which one he wants to cover.
[01:03:04] So that's the... Or you, you know, you can have them both go to the, you know, the, the linebacker jumps to the hook and the curl, the curl area and the jumps to the flat and you would throw the hook. So you get just working your routes. It's, it's almost like a half field seven on seven where you're telling the defense what to do type of thing.
[01:03:20] So that's the quarterback drills and, and again, I'm gonna try to get these up at JoeDanielfootball.com/qbd drills when I can. I'm recording this late, so it probably won't be up tonight or won't be up t- t- today as this goes out, but we'll get it up as soon as we can and maybe next week. Be on the lookout for that.
[01:03:37] I think next week, I think next week we're talking some defense, some defending some stuff. I'm not positive. Do go get the practice plans. Go to JoeDanielfootball.com/practice. Get my free practice plan template so you can start putting all these drills in. Make sure to check out last week's episode where we talked about individual drills, but remember that a lot of this quarterback stuff needs to be done ahead of time.
[01:03:54] It needs to be done in pre-practice so that they can be working exchanges with your running backs because we [01:04:00] don't have passing indie time. Run indie time is, is really where we're working. Pass time is mostly seven on seven for the most part. So- That's what we're working on, especially the nine-minute practice plan, which you can get at joedanielfootball.com/practice.
[01:04:17] If you're interested in the Pistol Power offense system, it is inside JDFB premium coaching systems at joedanielfootball.com/membership. Do I wanna do a level up? I gotta... It's late. I'll, I'll do a quick level up Man, what do I wanna talk about? My son turned four. We had a birthday party. We were on my vacation.
[01:04:36] My, one of my level ups is I had a nine-day off vacation. I did no work for nine days, which is an accomplishment. Any of you who run a business know that that business becomes your life. You start sitting on the couch with the laptop open all the time, even when you're supposed to be off, and you are never off.
[01:04:57] And I have been learning through [01:05:00] Strategic Coach and Dan Sullivan, and I've talked about those trips to Chicago before. Excellent books. Who Not How is behind me. That's a big part of it having a team who can handle things while I'm gone for a week. That was amazing. But came, came back on Friday, had my son's fourth birthday on, celebrated on Sunday. All of his preschool friends came over, ransacked our house. It was probably, you know, like one of the most traumatic events I've been through. Luckily, we had cold beverages. We had a bounce house. There was a thunderstorm. The bounce house was covered, but the kids were trapped in the bounce house.
[01:05:35] It wasn't a thunderstorm. Wasn't like there was lightning and they were stuck in the bounce house. It was a storm. It was a heavy storm. So it was a great time, though. Look forward to having Daniel back on the podcast in the next week. I know that we'll probably have to do some, some fancy things, maybe have some guests and things to, to fill in for the next few weeks as we get into Season 21.
[01:05:53] If you wanna... if you have questions, you wanna contact me, joe@joedanielfootball.com. I don't remember all Daniel's stuff, [01:06:00] but he'll be back on the podcast and you can listen to any of it there. Be sure to check us out on the YouTube channel as we... if you wanna see the documents, I have them pulled up.
[01:06:08] If you're listening to the audio, they are pulled up on the YouTube of this. My YouTube channel is Joe Daniel... Joedanielfootball.com/youtube. It is youtube.com/joe4372, but if you... the that's the one I had when I was, like, not doing YouTube. So it's, like, my original one, and then I- I'm stuck with it. So that's why I set up joedanielfootball.com/youtube.
[01:06:27] You can get there. As I mentioned, I set up a, a playlist of practice planning. There's a playlist of all the 4-2-5. I'll be updating more playlists as we go. But if you're interested in the 4-2-5 defense, playlist with all the podcasts and, and other resources are there on YouTube as well. That's it for this ep- s- episode of the Football Coaching Podcast.
[01:06:45] Be sure to subscribe in your podcatcher of choice which is... Man, the last time I did this, Stitcher was a thing. SoundCloud was still a thing that we used. You're probably on Apple Podcasts. You're probably on Spotify, one of the two. We'll put the video up on Spotify soon as well. It may... This [01:07:00] may be on Spotify.
[01:07:00] I don't know. We're trying. We're working on that. We're working on doing more video content doing the podcast more video. But still Being there for all you audio snobs who listen to it like a regular podcast listener like me and, you know, listen in your car and all that. So, that's it for this episode of the Football Coaching Podcast.
​[01:07:19] Remember, coach simple, play fast, win