Tom Brady’s search for greatness took no breaks, even thinking about how to improve as a quarterback when he was doing mundane tasks like brushing his teeth.
In the latest edition of Brady’s mailbag, the seven-time Super Bowl winner was asked when he felt he mastered the technique of throwing a football and how he evolved his throwing motion over time. Brady preached that consistent practice over time helped improve his technique, along with a desire to continuously want to improve.
“It was a daily thought in my head. It was a daily action on the practice field,” Brady said of practicing his throwing motion. “Every time I was brushing my teeth in the morning, I was thinking, ‘OK, how do I get my hands in a better position? Do I break the ball with my right hand and use my left hand to push the ball back? How do I take a really short stride and torque my body and then stay really relaxed throughout the course of my delivery?”
Tom Brady on Mastering the Art of Throwing a Football 🏈 What It Felt Like to Play Against Patriots
Of course, Brady’s constant thinking of how to improve his passing ability helped him achieve great success early and often in his NFL career. He won three Super Bowls and two MVPs in his first 11 seasons in the league, quickly becoming one of the league’s best quarterbacks as he led the New England Patriots to a title in his first full season as a starting quarterback.
But as Father Time was approaching Brady in the early 2010s, he knew he had to switch things up.
“In order to fix it when you get older, it takes a lot of reps to reprogram and rewire your body for a new movement,” Brady added on his throwing motion. “I faced that beginning in about 2012 and on. I worked really hard through the early part of my career, through college and let’s say the first 12 or 13 years of my career. And then, basically, modified my throwing mechanics a little bit to be more rotational with my throwing and still maintaining my accuracy and power.
But, again, it was a lot of reps. Thousands and thousands and thousands of reps it took for me to make just the smallest bits of change. I was very fortunate to be supported by some great people in that process.”
Those tweaks, reprogramming and rewiring of his throwing motion helped separate Brady from other NFL icons. He won four Super Bowls and an MVP after turning 37, setting a new bar for quarterback play.
Brady’s play over that time also gave birth to the “TB12 Method,” in which he preached pliability above all else for his success. But it turns out that what was just as important as pliability was his ability to adjust with age, and that was certainly proven by the results.
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