The shoulders are always very distinctly talked about for quarterbacks when it comes to their performance. Rotate the shoulders, point the shoulder, and close the shoulder are always terms that you hear quarterback coaches say when coaching the position. What about the actual shoulder complex though? We have talked a lot about how power is generated from the ground up, but what specific questions need to be asked in regards to performance of the actual throwing shoulder during the performance of a throw for a quarterback? We ask these questions in today’s blog post!
Are you in pain?
When first reading this, you automatically think I’m talking about pain in the shoulder area. Yes, pain in the shoulder is a problem for many quarterbacks that we work with, but often times is a secondary cause due to pain that was elsewhere before. For example, a quarterback gets nicked up in a game and has a sore low back. The sore low back causes him to compensate during his throwing motion which causes inefficient shoulder mechanics during the throw. The tendons in the shoulder get irritated and know there is an inflammatory process in the shoulder. The low back pain goes away, but know we have a chronic tendonopathy in the shoulder that can persist for months if it isn’t taken care of. This can be a HUGE PROBLEM!! So what do you in this situation? When nagging issues come up, take care of them! Self massage by using a foam roller, yoga tune up balls, or even a tennis ball is a great answer. Work on your mobility. No it’s not the sexy thing to do in the game of football, but mobility is crucial for a quarterback’s success. We have given a video below of an example of what a QB can do to aid with mobility.
What’s Your Resting Position of the Shoulder?
Ideally, if you were looking at someone from a side view, their shoulder would line up with their ear at rest. For most football players, the shoulder will start to track in front of the ear because of a variety of factors. These factors include performing too many press dominant activities in the weight room, bad sitting posture, the use of technology, and a lack of mobility work. Once the shoulder starts to collapse down in this bad position, this is no bueno for the quarterback. The tendons underneath the shoulder start to become pinched which causes some impingement. This impingement is inevitable due to the faulty position of the shoulder and quarterbacks now can’t lift their arm overhead. Well, if they can’t bring their arm overhead, then they can’t throw right? Yes, that’s right! This is a HUGE PROBLEM. Below is a picture of the shoulder joint and the tendons that lie beneath the shoulder bone. (acromion)
How well do you use your body?
The term “arm throwers” gets thrown around a lot in the quarterback world. It’s really funny to me how this gets talked about a lot, but never actually gets addressed like it should. When looking at the dynamic system that is the quarterback throwing motion, coaches need to think about the motion in this manner.
- Pre-requisite movement foundation (mobility, stability, motor control)
- Skill acquisition (practice)
- Fine tune the pre-requisite movement foundation
- Re-test
This process needs to happen over and over and over until the athlete starts to understand this process so well that they can perform it on their own. What coaches miss is the first portion of this. An arm thrower will always will be an arm thrower if you don’t unlock their ability to perform the movement differently. The body will always take the path of least resistance because our brains have a great ability to adapt. Once the brain knows the path of least resistance, it will always take that path. This is unless of course we unlock this potential by performing some extra work on the side besides just throwing. Below is a picture of the stages of motor learning. All players and coaches need to keep this in mind when trying to improve their game!
Writing this blog post has me fired up talking about the shoulder! Dusty and I have been pondering on this topic for a while now, so we have developed an online course for quarterback’s to decrease their shoulder pain! This course drops tomorrow so make sure you go check it out. It’s at a discounted price for a limited time! Take care of your shoulder pain quarterbacks! If you don’t, then you will miss time on the field and it’s inevitable that another QB behind you is looking to take your position. Don’t let this happen! If you have questions, or want to reach out to us, you can get in touch by phone at 812-343-4226 or email at drew@theqbdocs.com
-Drew Kiel PT, DPT, CSCS