The snap from center to quarterback starts every offensive play and yet is often one of the most ignored youth football drills! Regardless of your offensive scheme, a mishandled snap will cripple your offense right from the start. Both the quarterback and the center need to be carefully instructed in the art of the center snap.

There are a few ways to snap the football: the direct snap, where the center snaps the football directly in the quarterback's waiting hands and the shotgun snap, where the center makes a pass of sorts to the quarterback who is several feet behind. Many pro and even some college teams have started using the shotgun snap. But obviously the degree of difficulty for the center is much higher and so many youth teams still use the direct snap. Which snap you use with your players will depend on your offensive plan of attack, how consistent the ball exchange from center to quarterback is, and which one least hinders the center's blocking assignments. .

There have traditionally been two methods to make the direct snap, which I call the quarter and half turns. Adding the shotgun, I will discuss how to teach all three styles of the center snap in order of difficulty.

The Half Turn

The half turn is commonly used by center's with smaller hands who need both hands to control the ball. This method begins by placing both hands on the ball with thumbs together on the top of the ball and with the laces on the side of the quarterback's throwing arm. Then the center moves the ball up and back to the quarterback's hands. The ball will rotate vertically 180 degrees so that the point that was touching the ground will now be pointing to the sky when the quarterback takes the ball and the laces will still be on the side of quarterback's throwing arm, ready for him to grab.

The quarterback must be ready with both of his hands facing palms to the ground and the back of his hands in contact with the center's butt. In both the half turn and the quarter turn he must start with loosely bent elbows so that he can raise both hands up and forward as the ball is snapped and the center begins moving forward to block. I call this movement “riding the snap” and failing to ride forward with the ball often leaves too much of a gap between the two players.

The Quarter Turn

Centers with larger hands can control the ball single-handedly and can therefore utilize the quarter turn method. The center places his one hand on the ball with his thumb and the laces pointing up. The ball is moved up to the quarterback with a ¼ horizontal turn and the laces still pointing up. Because the ball is arriving differently, the quarterback will need a slightly different hand positioning. He therefore forms a 90 degree “V” with the heels of both hands touching and places the back of his throwing hand on the middle of the center's butt. The other hand will securely trap the ball against the throwing hand once it has arrived. The quarterback must again “ride the snap” to prevent fumbles.

I believe that for center's who can do the quarter turn, it helps get him to his blocking assignment more quickly. The center must lean forward if he wants to move forward to block anyone, and with only one hand on the ball, he can place his other, non-snapping hand, on the ground for balance. A center using the direct snap, has no such balance help and is often leaning so far forward that he can no longer move laterally.

Shot Gun Snap

The shot gun snap is where the center snaps the ball (almost like throwing a regular pass although between his legs) to the quarterback who is stationed several yards behind the center.

Some coaches still teach this as a two-handed snap, but I choose to teach it to be made with one. Again a center with smaller hands is unlikely to be able to do a one-handed shotgun snap because ball control is so important. The two handed shot gun snap delivers the ball end-over-end to the quarterback, so while it provides better initial control for the center, I believe the quarterback has to spend more time to find the laces for his throw.

For the one-handed shotgun snap, the center's grip on the ball will closely resemble that of the quarterback's grip and the ball will spiral similarly back to the quarterback, except more slowly. Unlike the quarterback's throw, the shot gun snap is performed with a stiff elbow and almost no wrist snap. The center must aim to get the laces to the fingers of the quarterback's throwing hand every time. The center might have to adjust his own grip until he finds the grip that will accomplish this. He might have the ball with the laces up and his thumb on the laces, the laces down with his fingers on the laces or perhaps the laces on the side. Some coaches worry about the number of revolutions the ball will take, but I have found that the number of revolutions stays very consistent once the center perfects his technique.

Good Habits for the Center

I believe that the center should never make a practice snap where he stands still. Snapping the ball while taking proper steps to execute a block is quite different than snapping flat footed and so practicing not making the block promotes a bad habit that will turn into extra fumbles and/or missed blocks. So I make sure that the center always takes some full speed steps towards a block on every, single practice snap. Sometimes I alternate centers with one taking the snap and one acting as the opposing defender, or lacking a second center a manager can hold a blocking bag.

I hope you have found this article on snapping the football something you can add to your toolbox of youth football drills and skills. Good luck on the field!