We get asked the question often “I am xyz age and I can throw xyz distance, is that good”. So we wanted to write an article about the average throwing distance for QBs based on age. I hope this can help you out!
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So before I give you a list of average distances correlated to age- there are two things I want you to keep in mind.
1)- If you haven’t hit puberty yet or a growth spurt, I wouldn’t worry too too much about this. Your growth is coming and you will see a significant change in your arm strength levels.
2)- Unless you are below the age of 13, I don’t think your throw distance should be measured with a youth size ball. Ultimately what happens is a lot of QBs throw the youth/middle school ball for too long and their arm strength suffers when they move onto the high school/college sized ball.
We are going to break the ages up into 3 groups.
Ages 9-12: I would say anywhere from 20-25yds is good. I don’t even like this conversation for this age group because 1)- your offensive line at this age usually doesn’t even give you time to throw this far. 2)- QBs at this age should be more focused on developing form and good mechanics than arm strength. I see it so often, dads or coaches will be having their 10yr old son throw fade routes with a really long over stride, dipping their head, hyper extending their front leg etc. This is only going to lead to bad habits down the road. With my youth QBs I don’t throw any deeper than 15yds- that’s about as far as you need to throw and rep with good consistent mechanics. Play the long game-your throw distance and arm strength will come from your mechanics down the road.
Ages 13-15: I would say 35-40yds. This is usually how far you will need to throw it upon entering high school.
Ages 16+: 50+yds- it’s pretty rare to throw the ball any deeper than 50 yards in high school. Unless it’s a broken play etc. So I think 50 or above is good but I would be more concerned with making college level throws rather than throw distance. Anytime I have a QB that I train getting scouted by a college coach, they ask them to perform 2 throws. A deep timing 10-12YD out from the opposite hash and a 18-15yd comeback from the opposite hash. If you can hit those two throws, your arm is strong enough.
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