The more Tim Tebow threw, the more he couldn’t ignore
the pain in the front and back of his throwing shoulder. “It was this
repetitive pain, like something’s not right and you keep doing it over
and over,” Tebow said of his off-season tosses.</p>
The solution wasn’t more ice or rest. If Tebow was going to survive
as a pass-first, run-second starting quarterback, his throwing
mechanics had to change.</p>
*****</p>
And so began a months-long process of revamping Tebow’s throwing
motion, a journey that took him from the training room to a high-tech
motion analysis lab and back to the practice field. </p>
*****</p>
The motion served Tebow just fine in high school. A superior
athlete, Tebow passed for a state-record 9,940 yards in his three years
as a starter at Ponte Vedra Beach-Nease. And it was just fine as a
freshman at Florida, when as Leak’s backup, he rushed more times (89)
for more yards (469) than he threw (22-of-33 for 358 yards). </p>
But going into his sophomore year, he would need to complete short
crossing passes and deep throws while still scrambling and running the
option. He would need to release his throws from the pocket more
quickly under the pressure of the SEC’s fast defensive ends. Tebow was
willing to do whatever (Dan) Mullen suggested.</p>
“Always when you have a habit and you’ve done something for so long
it’s tough to change,” Tebow said. “That’s why you have to go out there
with discipline and really work to change and focus every day on that.”
</p>
Tebow first visited the Biometrics and Motion Analysis Lab at UF in
June 2006 and was reevaluated Feb. 28. That’s when he stripped down to
a pair of spandex shorts and had 22 reflective sensors placed on his
wrists, shoulders, hips, knees, ankles, heels and toes. </p>
Inside the 2,500-square-foot lab, Tebow threw the football over and
over, while 11 high-speed digital ceiling cameras captured every move
at up to 500 frames per second. Beneath his feet, two plates measured
the force of his plant step. The cameras and force plates fed the data
into a computer, which morphed Tebow into a three-dimensional stick
figure with detailed measurements of all angles of Tebow’s arm motion,
hip rotation and throwing velocity. </p>
“We try to look at the full mechanics and focus on what specific
areas are out of the normal range and might lead to those bad mechanics
or injuries or pain the athlete is facing,” biomedical engineer Bryan
Conrad said. </p>
Just as Conrad, Mullen and lab director Nigel Zheng saw eight months
earlier, the data revealed Tebow was using his shoulder too much and
his hips and torso too little. </p>
“Even though his shoulder is strong and he has lots of muscle and
can throw the ball very hard, it was putting a lot of stress on the
shoulder,” Conrad said. </p>
On the practice field, Mullen shortened Tebow’s stride, which
allowed him to release the ball faster. Tebow focused on maintaining
balance in the pocket and using the rotation of his hips to help guide
his throws. Mullen said the improvements were slow at first but by
August, Tebow was more confident in his new motion. </p>
“Anytime you change something you have muscle memory toward it’s
going to be a little awkward at first,” Mullen said. “But I think once
he did it, he started feeling comfortable with it, then he could feel
how to be comfortably balanced throwing the football.”</p>
