What is the probable cause and cure for mile high snaps?

Butt too high.  Lower his tail.

--Dave

Bend knees lower butt. Have him follow through at end of snap with thumb up and point index finger at qb knee

Ditto on his butt staying low and knees staying bent. No matter what you do to fix it, always have another kid stand there and shove him while he practices. Some kids will do fine if they are uncovered but will start to struggle is they see an aggressive 0 tech.

The kid should be hitting his forearm just below the elbow with his somewhere on his inner thigh above the knee. Every kid has a different spot. Once you find his spot, take a sharpie and draw a circle on his forearm and his practice pants where that spot happens. Then tell the kid to connect the dots every time. That should improve his consistency.

Another option is to have him put his hand over the nose of the football instead of on the laces. Then he can flip it back (think of an option pitch) instead of using a spiral. This might be your best bet if the snaps are too high. It's tough to send it too high when you flip it this way because the ball will just want to float instead of fly.

Dead Ball Snap.  Focus on wrist coming up to crotch to snap. 

Dead Ball Snap.  Focus on wrist coming up to crotch to snap.

Bingo!

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It sounds like nerves got to them in a game and gave 'em the yips.  It can happen.

High snaps are usually fixable if the butt's low and knees are bent, like others have said.  His stance should be different than the other OL's flat backed stance.  Have him drop it a little lower until the snaps are where they should be.

Make sure that his wrist is locked and not moving during the snap.  His hand should go straight back through his crotch, basically throwing a touch pass between his legs with follow through.  That will prevent low or off-target snaps to the left and right.

If you can, have them snap it during blocking drills to yourself or a player at QB depth so they get experience snapping, stepping, and blocking.

Make them rep it while stepping both ways.  Some kids might need to learn to compensate a little bit when they have to step one way or the other.

Dead ball snaps are good, but it's not always a given that those snaps will be perfect and I've had idiot officials claim they're illegal.  I've had kids struggle with them hitting the QB in the shins or going wide.  It's still a technique that needs to be coached, learned, and repped.

Another thing to try would be to have him just flip the ball back with 2 hands.  This can make it a little harder for him to get a punch on his block, though, but it makes sure the ball gets where it needs to be.

It depends on the type of snap as there are many.  If he is doing fine in practice, but not game... probably nerves.  Snaps going too high are usually fixable by lowering the butt and making sure he isn't breaking his wrist (depending on type of snap).  We sort of have a reverse issue.  We started out practicing on a well groomed field that belongs to our high school.  Once school started, we had to give it up because the freshmen use the field until well after our practices start.  First jamboree scrimmage, the center did great.  We start practicing on a new field and all of a sudden he is botching the snaps over and over.  His technique looked fine.  Took me a while, but figured out it was because the grass had lumps and weeds and the ball was getting caught.  So that can be an issue... depending on the type of snap.

Have the centers arm less extended. Basically moving his body closer to the ball. I did all of the above with a center with still not much difference. Then I saw on you tube an ex NFL center talk about arm swing(pendulum) being too much sometimes. It also helps slow the ball down some. In pistol. the snap gets there so fast it better be darn near perfect. Slowing the ball down some helps with that.

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Hey I've seen that kid before...

Hey I've seen that kid before...

Yes you have.  8)