Perfect Pitch Technique

Coach:

"Screw the thumb" into the ground. Also, we teach pitching off "the heels". What that means is the QB is "sitting" as he pitches. This allows him to absorp the blow.

Coach Lyle

We pitch with the hand up. If we are going to the right, the left hand will act as a guide and we push a soft floater with one or two revolutions to the pitch back with the right hand.

I don't know about you guys but I hate getting my QB hit so the idea of getting on the heels while pitching the ball to soften the blow seems like a bad idea. When the pitch key steps down to take the QB, our QB's plant off his foot closest to the LOS, squares his shoulders to the pitch key and pushes the ball the pitch back. We don't get bad pitches this way and we don't turn the ball over on the pitch and more importantly, the QB doesn't get jacked.

Coach:

I respect your approach. However, the QB is a football player. If you pitch with the hand up you are opening his rib cage up. Every coach has to make a decision about approach. As Coach CAmpbell says, you must be able to correct it if it goes wrong. The "screw the thumb" into the ground is allows for an accurate pitch. But it might not be the best approach for your system. For us, making the QB a player allows us to play 11 on 11. By the way, we are a small school (28-30 players) with most of our players playing in all three areas. I have also coached in 2-platoon situations, and philosophically believe the same.

Coach Lyle

As much as I love and respect Coach Campbell, I know he loves the thumbs down approach, my opinion is that the basketball pitch works better. Especially at a small catholic school where many of my kids play basketball. Sorry, Coach.