Note from Holly: I’m running guest posts for the rest of August while I handle two legal messes I didn’t create — one with my landlord, one with Verizon — and try to keep my planned trauma recovery retreat on the calendar. For now, my Substack and art print income are going toward legal and moving costs. If you’ve been thinking about subscribing or picking up a print, this would be a great time.
This guest post by a reader is nerdy enough to appeal to me and, I hope, the football content will make it appealing to my readership, which is mostly male. Enjoy!
Whatever the eye rolls of Football mechanics of a release may induce, it is nothing compare to the benefits.
Learning something. Oh, how terrible.
Arm angles must be defined, along with other terms. The arm angles, strictly, refer to the angle, location of the elbow to the shoulder, and finally, the loading phase to the release. This is necessary as the Arm Slots (the release point of the hand and arm level or shoulder tilt) must necessarily have the arm angle to support it.
Ken Anderson of the Bengals and John Elway represented two different arm release. Another similar distinct style but with a distinction of “powerful” arm (possibly the strongest arm with select few others) is Bert Jones. The release style is linear, differing as a “explosive” force compare to”spinning out” of rotation.
But all of these men, spanning from the first quarterback to the living today has the same secret sauce to throwing. The Acute Angle.
For example, Joe Namath (or Famous) demonstrate an Acute angle in the load phase, highlighting the two different arm angle going on. In the loading, arm angle can wildly range from a almost perfect 90 to 120 (sometime more but usually a bad idea) and to 70 or less. But this is very different in the release. When you throw, the arm necessarily go into acute angle because of the load. As a result, the torque is stored when the arm is pushed back as far as it go and therefore fire.
If you look at the arm of Namath above, you can see the firing process is happening. The arm is fully loaded, either almost pushed back fully or is and therefore is currently storing the torque being generated by the hips, torso, and so on. The indicator to the release is his right leg, which is rising or lifting off the ground. This happen as a result of the hips turning and needing more room to do so. Therefore, the leg rise!
The second Photo of Namath (yes, Namath again) show what happen as the arm fires.
Pay attention to the left arm and left leg. The two serve as a stoppage, causing the hips to completely halt while the arm is in the proper place to “slide” out in a speedy motion. In the 1972 Jets vs Raiders Game1. Namath’s loading was quick and therefore, in perception appeared to have an quick arm.
Anyway, the third picture is the full release where the body halts and the arm and the wrist “flick” to avoid the forearm slamming the elbow. It is also what a Linear motion look like after the release.
Here, Namath (yes, Namath again) is in the loading phase. His arm has not yet fully loaded in preparation or storage of torque but it is “loaded” in the normal sense. Now, if you look carefully, on his right arm (left side), there is a shadow of a ball on his sleeve next to 1 of the 12. That’s the football and it reveal a crucial element in throwing a football. The Bicep must be – at all times – must be ahead of the torso. The hand, however, must be behind the shoulder or more accurately, the head. Bert Jones below, demonstrate this exact principle. (Oh no! Precision in an art form! REEE!)
The principles as I laid out above of the stoppage in the hips and others is not quite fully complete. Note the left arm. Bert Jones uses it to slow or to halt himself but to also generate Torque. Elway, in a 3/4 arm slot, does this almost every time he threw. There is also the shoulder tilt of the arm slot.
Ken Anderson demonstrate here.
This is known as a overhand arm slot. By the way, the index finger touching the ball is what generate the spiral. A tidbit if you will.
Sniff, sniff. I smell a question. And I believe the question is: “if every quarterback has the same secret sauce, why do some have better velocity than others?” And this is a complex question because the answer, in my research so far, has not been nailed down. So, it leave me uncomfortable in certainty to find a definitive cause but one.
Timing. All the timing is milliseconds. That require intuition, or talent, to take over here since the analysis process is inherently heavier, slower, and more demanding on the conscious than the unconscious calculation in term of attention. What this mean is a platinum timing will achieve greater velocity. But this is not likely true2. According to more expensive studies done, this is largely due to genetic factors. If assuming the same mechanics, no special timing that create velocity, as in the exact same with height and mass and limb to hip and so on also controlled for then the expected result is the same velocity.
What that comes down to is genetic. The disparities come down to high twitch muscles which is responsible for impossible things if with freakish strains. These disparities are like I.Q.; few people possess powerful arms such as Norm Van Brocklin, Bert Jones, John Elway, and Jeff George.
High twitch muscles is controlled by genetics and determine the amount of torque and speed depending on the location of a given object.
What that means is impossible things like Bob Munden. As such, it is logical then to assume Bert Jones’ arm was stronger than Namath.
In this example of arm strength, Bert Jones outthrew3 the receiver and blitz through forty yards. If any other quarterback with a weaker arm had stepped to throw as fast as he could (presuming a good arm, not strong) he would had made the shot.
With that, I must conclude this.
Arm angle has a secret sauce4 and it is not Namath’s legs. (Only aged or highly nerdy nerds know this.)
1972 Raiders vs Jets. At 3:56 reveal Namath’s quick release. See, also, 6:32, the “Mad Bomber” bomb. On powerful arms, theres’s only a few listed but for those interested can look at Terry Bradshaw, Vinny Testaverde, Steve Bartowski, and Sam Baugh. For strong arms, see Namath above and certainly, in the weaker category, Montana and the Mannings.
And it was a good theory too. Sad!
At the 5:03 mark of Bert Jones throwing.
I may as well say a controversial opinion in the footnotes. Peyton Manning is overrated.