How Tom Brady’s Footwork Drill Help In Super Bowl Success

Speaking about NFL legends, not many names stand out as bright as Tom Brady. Seven-time Super Bowl winner, three times NFL MVP, and the undisputed best quarterback of all time, Brady did not always have an easy road to greatness. Although it is one of the less touted secrets of his success, a basic but effective footwork drill that he had perfected at the start of his career is a weapon that helped him establish the platform to create the amazing story that he did in the NFL.

In this blog, we are going to simplify how this unthreatening drill was significant in the growth of Tom Brady and also how minute adjustments in footwork made him victorious in the Super Bowl.

What is NFL?

National Football League (NFL) is the professional American football league, which comprises 32 teams, which are equally distributed in American Football Conference (AFC) and National Football Conference (NFC). The league is decided at the end of every year by the means of Super Bowl in which the winners of AFC and NFC conferences face each other in one of the most-viewed sporting events worldwide.A strong arm is not all that is required to be successful in NFL and especially at the quarterback position. It involves quick thinking, instant precision and most important of all high skills of footwork. It is the start of saga of Tom Brady.

NFL Super Bowl: Footwork That Began It All

Way before the seven Super Bowl rings and 14 Pro Bowl selections, Tom Brady was a teenager who was merely attempting to make the high school varsity squad.

 Brady played junior varsity most of the season in his sophomore year at Serra High School in San Mateo, California. He had the size (6-foot-2, 205 pounds), a strong throwing arm, but his agility and footwork were poor MacKenzie, his coach, did not hesitate to point that out.

 MacKenzie told the Daily Mail in 2015, "Tom, you have a Division I arm but your lower body is not even near Division I.

 It was there that Coach MacKenzie brought a very basic yet effective training aid, the Five-Dot Drill.

For the next two years, Brady practiced the Five-Dot Drill religiously. He became so adept at it that he even began creating his own unique variations. The drill helped Brady improve his athleticism, and he went on to throw for 3,514 yards and 33 touchdowns over the next two seasons. He earned himself an offer from the University of Michigan and the rest is history. Click here to know about the football skill 

The Five-Dot Drill: An Easy Drill that Carries a Big Stick

The Five-Dot Drill is composed of five dots in the form of the number “5” on a dice. The athlete has to step on all the dots in different patterns as fast as possible to develop more speed, balance and coordination. It may appear to be easy, yet it is an intense drill that will expose the weak points of an athlete in the lower body region in a very short time.

 It was not a successful first try in the drill by Tom Brady.

According to John Kirby, who was one of Brady’s teammates at Serra, the initial attempt was not the best in terms of time taken by Tommy.

But typical of what was to come of his greatness, Brady did not allow failure to characterize him. He drill-painted it on the garage floor and started working on it every day. The commitment made him special.

Nothing can stop him. So what does he? Kirby added, He spray-paints those dots on his garage floor so he could do it at home.

Brady did the drill every single day in the next two years, making his own variations and learning the mechanics. His agility, coordination and control became unbelievable. The result? More than 3,500 yards passing and 33 touchdowns in the next two seasons -more than enough to win him a place at the University of Michigan and lead to his NFL career.

Footwork to Super Bowl MVP

How then did this basic footwork exercise assist Brady in the Super Bowl?

 Footwork is not simply running as a quarterback, it is buying time and space in a breaking pocket. It is more of controlling movements to position the body in the right direction to make proper throws. It is about avoiding sacks, making the right reads and performing under the pressure.

 Pocket presence is a legend when it comes to Brady and a lot of that is due to foot control that he established early in his career. The Five-Dot Drill not only made him faster physically, it also enhanced his mental timing, muscle memory and general athleticism. It is those same characteristics that allowed him to play in big situations, such as the legendary comeback against the Falcons in Super Bowl LI.

Summary

The road to NFL stardom of Tom Brady did not begin with a trophy but rather in a garage with five spray-painted dots on the floor. It would therefore seem that by dedicating himself to working on his lowest rated attribute, his footwork, Brady was setting the foundations of one of the most prolific careers in the history of the sport.

 It serves as a strong indication that greatness does not happen in a single day. It is established with discipline, consistency and desire to work on fundamentals - the little things that other people usually ignore.