Center Brandon Yates has had to take a multi-faceted approach to cure his issues with snapping the ball.
It began as a physical issue as he banged up his hands which affected his grip of the football. That made him switch up the way that he grabbed the football, but once he started feeling better the mental aspect came into play given the fact that there were issues with high snaps in multiple games.
The injury didn’t hamper his ability to block, only to snap the football, but it created issues for him.
“I put more pressure on myself more than anything else,” Yates said.
That came to a head in the Iowa State game where there were almost a dozen bad snaps, but it spilled over into other contests as well as Yates was adjusting to the position. In that game, Yates was being told to get his snaps down, but he felt as if they were coming out right.
“Because now everybody’s watching it, everybody’s focused on it. So now, in my head I’m like O.K, now I’ve got to focus on it,” Yates said.
The redshirt senior sought the help of Dr. Sofía España Pérez, who serves as the behavioral health therapist for the team, and she was able to simplify the issue even further. Yates spoke with her about making it as simple as possible and the mental aspects that come with snapping the football.
“Just getting past that mental block after the Iowa State game,” he said.
Perez essentially broke it down to Yates as if he was driving a car and while it’s something you don’t think about while doing it, if you get in a wreck that might be different. And if you overthink it can create more issues. That’s the same situation when it comes to snapping a football.
It’s one fluid motion with the grip and releasing the football with consistency the key. The focus is on being comfortable which is easier with his hand healing up and then overcoming the mental challenges.
“It started to become a lot more fluid and the mental aspect got a little bit easier for me,” Yates said.
The senior also spoke with former center Zach Frazier who gave him some advice as well as meeting with the coaching staff and watching film on himself and other centers. The key is identifying what works for him and he believes that he has found that after some early challenges.
“You just need to go out there and realize like it's, it's you snapping a ball and make it a one fluid motion. And before every snap, just think, think, think about one word like fluid, smooth, something just to really simplify the game for you and just make sure I stay calm, cool and composed and don't let the outside factors come into my game,” Yates said.
Every day Yates would spend extra time after practicing snapping the ball and putting himself in high-pressure situations in order to simulate what he would see during a game.
“I felt like I was in a lot better space mentally and physically,” Yates said.
And it’s work that showed itself in the game against Cincinnati as Yates played one of his best all-around games of the season not only with his snaps but blocking along the interior according to head coach Neal Brown. That started in practice the week prior to the game and carried over into the contest.
“I think he really worked at it. Like a lot of things, you have to be careful of making a bigger deal about it than it already is. I wasn’t sitting there on him a lot about his snaps. We just put him in a situation where he could work it. And he found a solution through several different avenues of getting it fixed,” Brown said.
It’s a lot to overcome, but Yates was excited to see that he had the support of his coaches and teammates despite the outside noise over the issue.
“I just felt a lot better about it. And I felt a lot happier having those guys supporting me. And it's also like my first year playing center fully. It's a new position for me. I mean, it's going to be growing pains. You know what I mean? And they came around me and it was like, we understand,” he said.
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