hey everyone this is Morey Croson with the performance lab of California and we're gonna
do a breakdown today on Alex Smith and we're actually gonna kind of do a new series now where
we're gonna start to kind of compare what core device looks like when they were you know early on
in their careers maybe college maybe the you know beginning of their pro career compared to now and
just kind of see the progressions that they've made just because I feel like that would give a
good understanding to of where these programs are going in terms of better understanding mechanics
so what we're doing here with Alex mythical character comparing him from the game that he
had last night which you had a really good game we got a couple requests to get it breakdown so
that would be a good opportunity and him when he was at Utah and what his mechanics were there so
we'll start with the ones when he's at Utah this is BCS game so really the last game that he played
in in in college and there's a couple things that you know he was doing back then that I don't think
were as much of a problem but now I think that they they've spent some time to to try to address
it okay so one of the big things is his front arm he uses a lot of his front arm here so he gets it
really high up and you know brings it back back down across a lot of times or a lot more focuses
now put on really this part of the throw where that front arm is really getting driven through
and as a uses kind of a beginning part to rotate the upper body so I think that's gonna that's
something that he's definitely improved on as he doesn't use as much of that the front arm
and the loading part of it so it doesn't get his arm straight and get it away from him but instead
does it get a better job here where he's rotating through and really using that front side to make
it so that arm gets a little bit more whip another thing is and this used to be a bigger thing you
know a few years ago I would say probably like five or six years ago when I was playing is that
you know guys would really try to get that really long step you can see that he's doing that there's
not as many guys that are doing now it's not really about the long step anymore as much as
it is about getting down quickly and getting the ball out of your hands especially in an teary type
offense where it's all about you know getting those quick plays getting the ball out of your
hands and getting the athletes out in space and I'll say this though but before and I think he
probably worked on his mechanics to try to make it so he got rid of this where that in front of
it I know it's hard to kind of see but you can see that the front part of the nose is kind of
facing downwards here and we see this a lot where the ball nose goes down that elbow really flares
up and then you come around from there he doesn't do that anymore he doesn't keep that elbow really
high anymore but now he really drops that ball a lot lower so I think this is good where he gets
that 9090 position right away but he allows that ball to drop which i think is a key thing that we
don't want to have happen as you're going back is just a waste efficiency waste time basis ouu takes
longer for you to get the ball out of your out of your hand so then three three key things we'll
look at here from before and after what is that front arm doing how does he take that back arm
back in that load and then what is his step like as he's going through the throw okay so here is
throw last night it's not gonna be from the same the same position so the touchdown he threw last
night but I still think that it's a good view for for what we're trying to see so first you
can see the ball so notice how he drops that ball down there so he doesn't get the elbow up as much
it's much more kind of you know get that motion going as fast as you can sir doesn't have much
wasted motion from you know here through he just gets that ball right right up out of his hands
which is good but I do think that the better more optimal thing to do would be to go straight back
like more like he was doing in college just make it so that that elbow doesn't necessarily get so
hot but you know I don't disagree with how he went through his his throwing motion here a hundred
percent just because you know it helped him in getting a little bit more efficient I just think
that you could probably optimize this a little bit further okay next thing notice that front arm okay
that foreign army doesn't get really far away from him knows how closely drink she drives that front
elbow through as is going through the thro I think that's a big thing that he thought he improved on
the father really helps them get rid of the ball quickly because he really pulls back with that
elbow which i think is great and the next thing is that front step he still has a pretty wide step
but that's just because he really actually has a pretty wide base you know a lot quarter a lot of
times quarterbacks are trying to stay tall in the pocket he's not as much like that he's gonna be
back there and he's gonna stay in a pretty wide position with his feet as he's getting ready to
throw and then he goes from here he still gets that foot down pretty quickly as he begins to
throw but he isn't kind of a wide spot with his stance you can see that's probably about brought
a little bit more than a yard there compared to when he was playing back here where really
it probably ends up being the same thing close to like maybe a yard and a half you can see where his
back foot was when he started almost to another bag closer actually the two yards here when he
goes through that step okay so there was a bit of a difference from when he was in college where he
is now I think youth does a better job getting that foot down and getting rid of the ball but
you know he still has that tendency to be you know have had a longer stride especially compared to
some of these guys like you know who has good short strides let's say like Cam Newton could
have a good short stride and Rodgers has a good short stride drew brees and then do Brees has a
longer stride that cross get has is longer stride Tom Brady's kind of right in between has you know
sometimes hasn't really long stride sometimes has a really short stride you just you know he's
similar to how it's where when he's in the pocket he's gonna have a little bit wider stance and then
throw from there so he's gonna write right in the middle so I'd say those two probably have
the most similar characteristics would be in terms of you know the the step would be Alex Smith and
Tom Brady now obviously throwing wise that Tom Brady does a much better job getting that ball
back right away compared to here where Alex Smith really drops the arm but anyway yeah I think that
you know we could definitely see some improvements that Alex Smith made from when he was in college
to to where he is now and you know obviously did a great job last night picking apart the Patriots
defense so you know good for him kilos for him and and now we get that Alex Smith down breakdown
down so okay continue to send us requests we obviously want to be able to you know get the
quarterback so you guys are interested in seeing and do breakdowns there a lot of times gives good
ideas for you know who to do a breakdown of if you have any questions please reach out to me
my email is morey@yourperformancelab.com we also have memberships where we go over
different types of ways to throw football throw baseball run faster a really cool thing when you
throw a breakdown through sending videos of yourself throwing and we'll go and break it
down give you exercises on how you can improve your individual throw so if you understand that
please send us an email and then also check out some of the other videos on our youtube channel
we do different exercises again different types of breakdowns for speed pictures quarterbacks
a lot of cool stuff there so as always thanks for watching and we will see you soon