A good look at Cam's new throwing technique compared to last year

[Captain Morgan]

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-network-total-access/0ap3000001033462/Mike-Rob-breaks-down-Cam-Newton-s-revamped-throwing-motion

[TheCasillas]

thank you for posting this.

[hepcat]

The comparison videos were from 2 years ago, so I would like to have seen if he made any changes from last year to this year. Also, this doesn't mean much to me because you could cherry pick a bunch of bad throwing motions from all QBs and compare it to how they look in practice and it would look wildly different.

[panthers55]

They kept saying he will revert back to his old form. My contention is the old style was in response to the injury and lack of range. 

Here was a deep throw to Funchess in 2015. It seems compact and relatively effortless. What he is doing now is close to what he used to throw.  

https://youtu.be/r_2yzDnPT6c

[TheCasillas]

42 minutes ago, panthers55 said:

They kept saying he will revert back to his old form. My contention is the old style was in response to the injury and lack of range. 

Here was a deep throw to Funchess in 2015. It seems compact and relatively effortless. What he is doing now is close to what he used to throw.  

https://youtu.be/r_2yzDnPT6c

The release angle of his throws in this video is off-right of his shoulder upon release (hybrid side arm), outside of the traditional snap release zone of which he is currently showing now. It will take time to tell if he will go back, most do. I will have to admit Cam is a different type of athlete, and those who are great and start to get older change their game and remained disciplined. 

His throwing mechanics have definitely changed, and as someone on the huddle stated: It looks tighter.

[xav8tor]

I'm really surprised (well, no...not really. It is the Huddle, after all) at how many posters are negative in some way or another about the recent efforts to improve Cam's mechanics, whether it's even feasible, or if it could have any lasting effect. Drop the irrational hate for a moment and consider another QB, one Mr. Tom Brady - along with a half dozen other marquise NFL QB names (Ryan comes to mind). Brady routinely works to improve his most fundamental of fundamentals to this very day, and has for his entire career.

Look up his work with Tom Martinez before that particular private "tutor" died, and Tom House since then. Brady incessantly still tries to improve his game, going all the way back to the very basics. Does it help? Check his stats, or ask him yourself (figuratively). According to him, it's a no brainer. Do it...or fall behind. Alternatively, you can make the choice to have a shot at populating yet another finger with a ring of all rings.

By way of example, aside from what every single NFL player should be doing in terms of a healthy diet, off-season maintenance training, and so on, it's irrefutable that, as time goes in one direction, and raw physical ability moves in another (often, opposite) direction, changes must be made in order to have any chance of maintaining peak performance. Again, check the stats, or just watch some film. Brady has done that...unquestionably, but how? The answer is complex, but simple: There's always room for improvement.

Teaching an old dog new tricks is possible by, like so may issues, attacking it head on, whatever it takes. One (of many) ways Brady and other top tier players do it is via seeking out, and inundating themselves with the proven advice of others who, unequivocally, know what they are talking about. Interestingly, well thought out coaching from scientifically oriented former baseball pitchers is a source of knowledge that directly translates to becoming a better, more accurate, and more efficient, NFL passer.  Although he has a track record of almost two full decades working on it, guess what Brady was doing this year during the bye week before he set out to win another SB?

Yep, throwing mechanics 101, e.g., using the hips to advantage. It should not have taken another injury to trigger it, but regardless, we should embrace it, as should Cam/the Panthers, and find optimism in the fact that #1 is again working on the basics, and trying to perfect them, tailoring them to his own (present/future) capabilities as he ages. Those who are skeptical have said that it's pointless: He'll only revert to the same ways of doing things that he's done for years when under "real world" pressure. No, that isn't true, or at least, it doesn't have to be. Train the correct way often enough with requisite repetition and focus, and then the desired results will follow, a fact proven time and time again in the NFL, and elsewhere. In another discipline, more than one in fact, we had a mantra, "When the sh*t hits the fan, you don't rise to the occasion, you fall to your training."

If Cam or the coaching staff has (finally) acknowledged the need to fix a few long-standing fundamental problems that almost anyone can see, I'm all for it...and have been for years now. What is finally being done doesn't require all that much effort, especially considering the potential returns on little "investment." The only knock on the changes recently mandated by his injuries is, why they were not implemented much sooner? The need was patently obvious (years) long before Watt (arguably illegally) hit him last year in week 10 against PIT.

[panthers55]

1 hour ago, TheCasillas said:

The release angle of his throws in this video is off-right of his shoulder upon release (hybrid side arm), outside of the traditional snap release zone of which he is currently showing now. It will take time to tell if he will go back, most do. I will have to admit Cam is a different type of athlete, and those who are great and start to get older change their game and remained disciplined. 

His throwing mechanics have definitely changed, and as someone on the huddle stated: It looks tighter.

Agree his throw is tighter but my point was he had more loft and threw more upright in the past. After the injury he started rearing back and changing his shoulder angle to account for the restricted motion. I pay attention to this because I had shoulder surgery similarly and lost significant  range of motion and had to throw a ball differently. I noticed the change in 2017.

[GoobyPls]

Cam is 30, no way he changes is throwing motion this late in his football career. 

[frash.exe]

cam’s 30 years old and he’s smart enough to know that tweaking his mechanics will almost certainly extend his career for several years. he’s doing all the right things. he’s starting it before training camp. it may take another year or two before he is completely transitioned to the new throwing motion but at the very least this is going to help him get through the year with a healthy shoulder, and that’s what matters right now.

[Pejorative Miscreant]

10 hours ago, hepcat said:

The comparison videos were from 2 years ago, so I would like to have seen if he made any changes from last year to this year. Also, this doesn't mean much to me because you could cherry pick a bunch of bad throwing motions from all QBs and compare it to how they look in practice and it would look wildly different.

Saw norwell was in the clip and concluded the same thing. Is it that different because of Cams mechanics or because one was an in game live action throw and the other was in a drill throwing to a stationary target while rehabbing a surgically repaired shoulder?

[Snake]

People who are saying he can't change his throwing motion have not played many sports. Top athletes improve their swings and throws every year. It takes tons of work but it happens. Bigger question will be can the line give Cam time to make plays without having to throw at awkward angles.

[Ricky Spanish]

30 minutes ago, Snake said:

People who are saying he can't change his throwing motion have not played many sports. Top athletes improve their swings and throws every year. It takes tons of work but it happens. Bigger question will be can the line give Cam time to make plays without having to throw at awkward angles.

Not trying to be a smartass here, but I can't think of a single Football player who changed their throwing motion, let alone a motion this late into their career. Swings are different than throwing motions. 

The Golden Calf of Bristol couldn't do it at 20 something. Rivers still throws like a girl (albeit competently). Brady has always had a very fundamental throwing motion coming out of college. Cam has always had a very upper body heavy, herky jerky throwing style that put a lot of stress on his shoulder. 

My concerns are as follows:

• He will revert to his old habits when the bullets start flying much like The Golden Calf of Bristol did, and much like anyone would from 3 decades of muscle memory. 
• This new motion, while more fundamentally sound, is so new and untested that his accuracy will suffer, either from being so new or from him literally thinking about how he throws every single time he drops back.
• This new motion, while more fundamentally sound, is necessary because his arm is now shot and he will no longer have the same arm strength as before. 

Of course, this new motion could drastically improve his accuracy, there might be no drop off in velocity, and it could be his new normal going forward. 

But people brushing this off as no big deal I think are being a bit too flippant. It'd be one thing if Cam weren't a decade into his pro career making these kinds of significant changes to his fundamentals. But there are very legitimate reasons to be concerned over this given his injury history. I think it would be less concerning if he were attempting to improve his motion on his own with no injury, but the fact an injury lead to this gives me and many others concern. 

[MHS831]

His shoulder was probably harnessed or taped to prevent over-extension.  And there could be pain in a full recoil. To analyze this as a new motion is stupid at this time.  He is in rehab.

[Moo Daeng]

The assumptions here are funny.