3-D Feet/Hip/Core/Arm Connection Case Study: Tim Tebows "new" throwing motion

UPDATE 5/2/10: CONGRATS TO TIM TEBOW FOR BEING RECRUITED IN THE FIRST ROUND OF THE NFL DRAFT TO THE DENVER BRONCOS!

There has been a lot of hype regarding Tim Tebow lately. It's a little "Flavor of the Day"-ish so I hesitated to write this post BUT, I think there is a lot to be learned from Tim and his new throwing motion especially regarding Functional Biomechanics as it relates to throwing.

First, I want to just say that I think Tim is a great athlete. MANY MANY MANY folks have been downing him lately and that's their prerogative. If you are going to do this on this blog, STOP. STEP BACK AND ALLOW YOURSELF TO BREATHE.

I am going to say that I will give Tim credit for what he's done. He's gone in and within a few weeks reworked his throwing motion which is not an easy thing to do. However, from most accounts of him, he's a smart athlete which helps when you are unlearning a motion that has taken you through high school to college to winning the 2007 Heisman trophy. If you are interested in learning about the learning process of skills and becoming an expert, I encourage you to check out The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle.

In this post, I will take a look at Tim's "old and his new throwing motions and give a biomechanical analysis of what is allowing him to be more explosive as well as accurate.

The foot bone con-nected to the (pause) leg-bone,

The leg bone connected to the (') knee bone,

The knee bone connected to the (') thigh bone,

The thigh bone connected to the (') back bone,

The back bone connected to the (') neck bone

The neck bone connected to the (') head bone

....must have been the song that someone was singing to Tim Tebow because he's looking very connected these days. As we know through Applied Functional Science, the body is a sum of its parts and even when one of those parts looks like its doing the majority of the work, the truth of the matter is that the whole body is involved.
 
In the activity of throwing, regardless if it's throwing a baseball, football, softball or tossing the javelin, the arm alone is not sufficient to carry out the activity. The coordination of the joints, muscles, soft tissues, nervous system, fascia, etc in a fluid and connected motion is paramount to an effective motion. Of course, we have to also take into consideration the external variables like GRAVITY, GROUND REACTION FORCES and MOMENTUM that if taken advantage of, allow the body to perform more efficiently.
 
I will not get into too much technical detail about the changes in Tim's throwing motion but it looks like he is being much more efficient with this throwing motion.

In the video below, which is not synced properly between visual and audio, we see his old throwing style where he would drop his arm low. NOW: if we were not students of Applied Functional Science, we would simply think that was the end of it. "Tim lift your arm up higher and you'll be ready" is something that probably was said to Tim. However, we know that is not the end. Looking at a lot of the video, we see that when Tim was at Florida, he was working from a shotgun offense where he would take a step and throw. He would take the ball in a circular motion, dropping it pretty low and then throwing. The question is WHY!? Well, it could be a lot of reasons or it could be no reasons. I believe it was a mix of him looking for a little more throwing power in the TRANSVERE PLANE with that circular motion and the way the offense was set up in Florida. Obviously, it worked there but will it work in the NFL? Well, the "experts" are saying no. I believe this is a case where an athlete found a way to get a goal accomplished but not in the most efficient way possible. Now with the new throwing motion we are seeing that he is really using not only his body but also using GRAVITY, GROUND REACTION FORCES, MASS AND MOMENTUM to assist him with his power and accuracy.





In the video below from ESPN, we see that his trainers have Tim doing a number of drills that are not only getting his arm higher but also connecting his body. Starting at 00:10s, we see Tim in a kneeling stance where he's upright, with his arm high. However, I would not concentrate on the arm as much as I feel that the trainers have done a good job connecting Tim's hip motion to his core to his arm. When an athlete has this full-body connection, dropping the arm in a circular motion will feel like its unnecessary. Tim is obviously a very strong athlete with a good build so the musculature is there. It seems that his trainers and coaches focused on enabling him to take full advantage of this.

We then see Tim in motion on his feet. He's doing several drills that are requiring him to be moving his feet in different planes of motion while he's preparing to throw. For instance, in the video at 00:17s, we see Tim doing a SAGITAL PLANE shuffle with out-of-sync feet while he's moving in a lateral or FRONTAL PLANE direction. There is a lot going on here but basically, his trainers have him getting his feet going to load the kinetic chain from his feet/ankle musculature up to his hips to turn on the big powerful butt muscles to his core and finally his arm. Finally, we see at 00:20s, that he's fully engaged. Watch when he throws the ball, there is transverse plane motion of the whole body from fingertips to toe tips. Another interesting thing to look at is his OPPOSITE SIDE where he's pivoting off that right leg to get the TRANSVERSE PLANE rotation of the hip. What I do see is he's getting around that hip BUT, I think he could get even more from that hip. We would think that the left side is the important side, but we know from AFS that the opposite leg is getting eccentrically loaded so that it can explode. If I were to have a session with Tim, I would take him through a 3-D Hip Activation progression that is as much flexibility focused as it is strengthening focused as much as it neurologically/proprioceptively stimulating. We want to be as connected what we are given for free as much as possible and that includes the cross body connections. Looking at some old film, I saw that Tim had a knee brace on that right leg, but I'm sure that proper rehab was addressed so that he would not have any kinetic chain weak links on that side of the body as it is VERY easy to acquire a compensation from injury.




The last video is Tim on his Pro Day on March 17th. Again, in the clips you can see the full body connection that he has with his new throwing motion. The first thing that struck me was how humble he was in this interview. Multiple times, he voiced that he just wanted to get better and was willing to take the time to rework his throwing motion to play in the NFL. However, what I took from the interview was that Tim exemplified what it means to be a 3-D Athlete meaning he was dedicated to improving his body, his mind and definitely his spirit. He said that he ultimately wanted to "affect kids lives and just make them smile." Reallly powerful and profound.

On April 22nd at 7:30pm, I will be watching the NFL Draft with great hopes that Tim will be drafted to a team that will respect his mind/body/spirit and develop him to the best athlete he can be so that he have the opportunity and platform to affect the lives of children in a positive way. Honestly, I think Tim will do that regardless if he is playing football, but I really hope he gets an opportunity to play in the NFL.

Best of luck to you Tim!!!!

Will