Turnover w/G Option

Turnovers as far as shotgun snaps? or option pitch?

our centers are all shotgun snapping right now at least 25-50 snaps each day after they lift, summer it probably doubles and I make the centers come to all the 7 on 7 to snap in the summer and during the season they will have a min. of 100 snaps per day. Our centers shotgun snap in the majority of their drills.
We have about 3-5 bad snaps per season.

As far as the option pitch, I would say there is just as much risk in putting the ball on the ground as any option offense.

JD

JD and Ebbster, what are your coaching points for the gun center snap. And how fast does it get back to the QB. We do fine with it, but I'd like for it to be more accurate.

Also, do you have coaching points (or reasons) for if it's too high, too low, to the right/left. If the snap is bad, 9 times out of ten for us, it's because it's high.

I'd appreciate anyone's input on this one.

Thanks for the info. Regardless if I put the gun in my playbook, it's a good idea to start practicing it now. Anybody have a particular book/system/philosophy that they started with? I'm looking for a place to start....

From what I have read and practiced, the majority of high snaps occur because the Center is A: Raising up rear while delivering the snap or B: Not designating a cutoff point for the wrist.

I think that it is very important to teach a flat back with your Center and continuously stress the rear getting to high. As far as the delivery of the ball, speed doesn't need to be the coaching point. Accuracy is way more important. Also, it is easier for anyone especially QB's to catch a "Flat" ball and not a spiral. Centers can deliver a "flat" ball every single time by giving the wrist a cutoff point. It seems like keeping the arm straight is great, but the center has got to get used to taking a T-Board or Bucket step every time, and naturally the arm will bend and that is okay if you have a "Cutoff" point. We tell our Center to Roll his wrist in order to give the QB a flat ball. Also, we always use the inside of the leg as the cutoff point. The wrist should hit the leg every time and this will create a bruise on the inside of the leg after a day of practicing this. If the Center continues to make errored snaps, tell him to "Hit it where it hurts." The ball should once again continue to get on the correct path. As time carries on, the Center will find this spot easier and easier and bad passes to the QB should no longer be an issue. If there are still problems with your center's snaps, you may want to check the stance of the center as some tend to tilt the shoulders slighty on the ball side. To eliminate that problem, have the center post his free hand on the ground, but remember to stress the flat back in all of this. (When in bad weather, this still continues to be successful. The most important thing is the grip by the center in bad weather. We tell our center to feel free to use the other hand on the ball to help control it.)

Tog,

We teach the thumb acrossed the lases and the other fingers on the bare side of the ball. The thumb controls everything, whether passing or catching and that is our main purpose in teaching this. By rolling the wrist, I mean that before the snap, the palm of the hand faces the inside of your left leg if you snap right handed. While snapping, we roll our wrist to where the palm will face the QB now and the arm should hit the inside of the leg. When the arm hits the leg, the Center now knows to release the ball and let his fingers control the roll of the ball. The ball is now longways and that is how the QB will receive it. We do not send it back in a spiral nor do give the QB one point of the ball. We let him see the threads by passing it to him longways. Hope that explains it further.


Coach Mays

Exactly what you said is the reason why we do it this way. "It is similar to the under the center exchange." We learned from a couple Colleges that go shotgun most of the snaps, that this is the most accurate way to do this. We began teaching this in 01' and have very few bad snaps. The QB is 5 yds back b/c it seems to be the most accurate place to time up the quick passing game.

Coach,

I use the shotgun at the youth level and we had no bad snaps that hurt us, maybe one in a game that was the center's fault and one that the QB just flat dropped. I think it's very doable and of minimal risk, but just like anything else you have to coach it up and devote practice time to it.

The option pitch is the same risk as you would take if you started with the snap under center.