Is the Shotgun Snap Really That Important?

Yes. More Than Most Training Programs Treat It.

Some of the best training equipment is created by people who have lived the problem themselves. That's the idea behind Whip A Snap.

I'm a former college and professional quarterback, high-school offensive coordinator, and quarterback coach. I built this machine because I kept seeing the same problem: quarterbacks were expected to execute from the shotgun, but they weren't consistently getting realistic shotgun-snap repetitions.

The Snap Starts the Play

Catching the ball cleanly, securing it, getting it to carriage, keeping your eyes downfield, and moving immediately into the play are all connected to the snap.

If the first part of the rep is unrealistic, everything that follows is affected.

What Happens When You Skip It?

Watch enough practices, camps, clinics, and 7-on-7 sessions and you'll see quarterbacks flipping the ball to themselves, taking balls from a tray, or receiving easy, chest-high tosses.

Those methods can have a place, but they don't replace the challenge of dealing with a real shotgun-snap trajectory. They also require another person or sacrifice the realism of the rep.

Make the Snap a Training Skill

The better approach is to treat the snap as part of quarterback development—not as an inconvenience that has to be worked around.

Whip A Snap was designed around a simple set of requirements: practical size, portability, repeatable operation, and the ability to give quarterbacks realistic shotgun-snap repetitions without putting another person on snapping duty.

If you want quarterbacks to execute the play from the shotgun, train the beginning of the play.