Ehlinger

[Oldcolt]

Zac Keefer had a section about Ehlinger in the Athletic and his work with House-the qb guru. I just liked how the guy answered the question, an insight into the dudes mind:

A tenet of Ehlinger’s offseason training was spent on the west coast, where he worked with famed QB guru Tom House for the first time. One aim: improve his velocity.

When I asked how, Ehlinger took me into the world of Tom House.

“There’s three elements,” he began. “Torque, from lower body to upper body. Functional fitness, which is the way your shoulder’s shaped, including all the rotator cuff muscles — scapula, sub scapula, all of those things. And the last element is ground force, the way you use the ground to use that power from your feet.

“You watch the best do it, you watch Tom (Brady), you watch Drew (Brees), you watch Matt (Ryan), they all use the ground really well. It’s all hips first.”

And here’s where it really gets interesting.

“I’ve been restructuring the shoulders. It’s not just muscles, it’s nerves. I have to rewire my neurological wiring, the pathways in my brain. When I say throw, what triggers? Because my pathway, it’s been so consistent for so long, if I want to change that, if I want to change my mechanical signature, I have to rep it over and over because I’m not just training the muscles. I’m training the nerves. I’m training the nerves so that when my body says throw, there is a kinetic sequence from the ground up to maximize all of that and have optimal velocity.”

Ehlinger said the process would take a few years, but when I asked if he’s already felt improvements, he nodded.

“I call tell when the ball leaves my hand,” he said. “It’s spinning better. But this is not something that’s finished. I’m just scratching the surface.”