Analysis of the Development of Youth Football Throwing Mechanics
Abstract
Football coaches currently use qualitative measures to describe how a quarterback should
throw and can only describe the optimal throw verbally through what the naked eye can observe.
The goal of this research was to analyze the development of middle school and high school
quarterback (QB) throwing mechanics over consecutive seasons using motion capture technology.
To analyze the development of these subjects, interviews were conducted with middle school and
high school coaches to determine the most common pass types for the respective levels and
common aspects of the throwing motion that coaches use to teach what they believe to be the
optimal throwing motion as references for the analysis. Two separate years of analysis were used
in this research to analyze the development of subject sets. Two time points from a total of eight
subjects were analyzed to track the development of mechanics with physical development.
Improvements of the throwing mechanics of the subjects with multiple time points were observed.
The improvements were based on what was described by coaches as optimal throwing mechanics.
In conclusion the training techniques used by the coaches were effective in improving the
coaching points deemed as common from interviews with middle school and high school coaches.
Citation
Keys, Brandon Andrew (2018). Analysis of the Development of Youth Football Throwing Mechanics. Master's thesis, Texas A & M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /174419.