All quarterbacks are taught the basics of throwing a football when they start playing.
Once you get your grip down, your stance, your body rotation, and your release point... you will be throwing the football with success and ease.
Learning these tips will get you throwing the football accurately every time.
But if you want to learn how to throw a football farther, and add at least 12 yards of power to your throws, you'll have to follow a few more steps.
There are plenty of times when quarterbacks need to make downfield throws, so they'll need to learn how to throw the ball farther.
If the quarterback can't add power to their throws, then this limits the offense as a whole.
Quarterbacks that can push the ball downfield will open up opportunities not just for longer passing plays, but also for shorter underneath throws and also for running plays.
If you want to learn how to add power and throw a football farther, follow these 5 steps.
How to Throw a Football Farther
1. Adjust the Angle
When you want to throw a football farther, you need to adjust the angle at which you're throwing.
The best way to do this is to tilt your body back and then lean into your throw.
Do this by leaning back slightly at your waist, in the direction of your throwing arm.
This will help you increase the full range of motion as you go to throw the ball.
In the process, your arm will cock the football back further, which in turn will allow the ball to travel farther when you throw.
This position will help you generate more power behind your throws by giving your hips and legs a wider range of motion when you throw it.
2. Increase the Trajectory
When you are making routine throws, your release angle will be basically straight forward.
When you make deeper throws, you'll want to increase the throwing trajectory.
To do this, you'll want to elevate at the shoulders, and then aim the football at a higher angle.
Increasing the release angle to around 45 degrees will allow you to get more distance behind your throws.
A sharp angle like that will be necessary if you want to throw farther distances such as more than 40 yards.
When you're throwing, remember to keep full extension and rotation as you are releasing the football from your hand.
Also keep in mind that you DO NOT want to tilt or lean your body forward during the release.
If you do that, you'll actually be decreasing the distance you get on the throw.
3. Perfect the Spiral
A football travels through the air farther when there isn't as much drag on it.
And the way you reduce the drag is by perfecting a spiral.
This will help you maximize the distance behind your throws.
When the football tumbles over itself in the air, it will "drag," which reduces the distance it can travel.
When it's thrown with a tight spiral, it can cut through the air with much more ease, allowing it to go farther.
In addition, throwing a spiral means the tip of the football is pointed up.
This, in turn, also increases the trajectory of the football, which -- as mentioned above -- will add distance to your throws.
This step is actually the simplest way to increase the distance behind your throws.
Even if you don't do Step 1 or Step 2, simply throwing a tight spiral every time will help you get more power behind your throws.
4. Adjust the Step
You can also add some distance to your throws with a simple adjustment of your step.
If you want to build additional power, try using what's called a crow step.
To do this, put your front foot behind the back foot as you're about to throw.
Your legs, in essence, will cross over one another when you do this.
Then, you'll step forward like normal with the lead foot as you throw the football.
This will again create extra range of motion for your body.
And, as previously mentioned, that will allow you to step deeper into your throws, causing the football to travel farther in the air.
The key to using the crow step to throw a football farther is to ensure you have at least two or three steps in front of you when you go to throw.
The area in front of you needs to be clear for you to be able to step into the throw fully.
5. Strengthen Your Core
This is an off-the-field step that will help you gain more power on your throws.
As you can see from the steps earlier, the strength of your hips and legs are just as important to throwing a football with power as your arm is.
This is why it's very important that you strengthen your core when you want to learn how to throw a football farther.
There are many strengthening exercises you can do in the gym or just out on your own to accomplish this.
For instance, grab a medicine ball and hold it at chest level, and then rotate your hips left and right.
This will help to strengthen your core muscles, your arms and your legs in the process.
Conclusion
Once you learn how to throw a football, it's very important to learn how to throw a football farther by adding at least 12 yards to your throws.
This will help you throw the ball downfield more to complete longer passes.
As a result, this will allow your offense to open up the playbook more, which will create more opportunities in the passing and running game as well.
Follow the five steps above, and you'll be throwing a football farther in no time.