Spin Factors in Throwing the Football

Very interesting discussion about "spin factors" when throwing the football. This is something I have intuitively used when calling plays and I'm sure our quarterbacks have done it when picking sides with mirrored routes, but I have never considered it explicitly.

J.C. & Darin: Having worked Dan Henning's QB Camp for 5 summers, he OVER-EMPHASIZED "spin factors" in passing. Since (right handed passer) the ball rotates TOWARDS the right (drifting clockwise) - he stessed OVER-LEADING out breaking cuts to the left, & in-breaking routes to the right (QB would "frame" the area he was overleading the receiver in to between his feet, rather than framing the receiver, since the receiver would be running into the "frame") .

If you read Bill Walsh's techniques, he stresses that he CALLS most outbreaking routes to the left, & most inbreaking routes to the right (because the ball drifts INTO the receiver). He throws "ups" (takeoffs) to the right, so that the ball will drift out near the sidelines, rather than back intoi the playing field (where it could be "picked").

Bart Starr (while playing QB for Lombardi) wrote an EXCELLENT book called "QUARTERBACKING" (maybe the best book written on QB TECHNIQUE). He devotes SEVERAL pages to "spin factors".

Read the entire thread from Jerry Campbell's football site here.