Upper Body Analysis Paper

Wells 1

Riley Wells

26 March 2017

Upper Body Movement Analysis

Fahs

Football Pass

This particular upper body movement takes plays in American Football and the usual position who does this movement is the Quarterback. Football passes occur in football plays when the quarterback throws the ball to a fellow teammate down the field to hopefully gain yardage going towards their goal line. The typical movement for this sport skill includes receiving the ball from the center linebacker bringing the ball up to the throwing shoulder then winding up and throwing down the field. The purpose of this movement is to get enough velocity on the football with just the right amount of spin to perfectly spiral the ball making it easier for the receiver to catch it and run. The plane of motion that this movement particularly takes place in is the sagittal plane which splits your body into left and right sections.

        There are 4 main steps to this entire motion. In the stance phase the quarterback is facing the center snapper with both hands outreached in front of him ready to receive the ball. After that the preparatory phase includes taking the ball from the snapper and bringing it back to his throwing shoulder with both hands on the ball for stability. The actual movement phase includes pulling the non-dominant arm close to the body while the dominant arm throws the football. The follow-through phase is when the non-dominant arm rests at the side of the body and the dominant throwing arm extends away from the body releasing the ball.

Wells 2

In the stance phase, the quarterback is facing the center snapper getting ready to receive the ball. In the shoulder girdles, both left and right, the entire shoulder girdle is being abducted concentrically by the pectoralis major and the serratus anterior. At both glenohumeral joints the shoulder muscles work concentrically to horizontally adduct the shoulders by the anterior deltoid muscle, upper pectoralis major and the coracobrachialis muscle. Both humerounlar joints are being extended concentrically by the triceps brachia and the anconeus muscle. Both of the radioulnar joints are being isometrically supinated compared to anatomical position by the biceps brachia and supinator muscles. Now going down to both radiocarpal joints, which are being extended concentrically by the wrist extesnors which are: extensor digitorum, extensor pollicis longus, extensor pollicis brevis, extensor digiti minimi, extensor carpi radialis brevis, extensor indicis, extensor carpi ulnaris, and the extensor carpi radialis longus. While getting ready to hold the football the fingers are flexed concentrically by the flexor digitorum superfilicialis and the flexor digitorum profundus and the thumb is being flexed concentrically as well by the flexor pollicis longus.

        In the preparatory phase the quarterback receieves the ball from the center and brings it to his dominant shoulder. Assuming that the quarter back is right handed, the right shoulder girdle is concentrically adducted and elevated by the trapezius muscle and the rhomboids. The left shoulder girdle is concentrically elevated and abducted by the upper trapezius muscle, pectoralis minor and serratus anterior. The right glenohumeral joint is diagonally abducted concentrically by the posterior deltoid, teres major, infraspinatus, teres minor, and latissimus dorsi. The left glenohumeral joint is diagonally adducted concentrically by the anterior deltoid, upper pectoralis major, and the coracobrachialis. The humeroulnar joint for both arms are flexed concentrically

Wells 3

by the brachialis, brachioradialis, and the pronator teres. The radioulnar joints for both arms are pronated to the neutral “handshake” position concentrically by the brachioradialis. The radiocarpal joints are isometrically contracting in the neutral position by wrist abductors and adductors which include: the flexor carpi unlaris, extensor carpi ulnaris, flexor carpi radialis, extensor carpi radialis longus, extensor pollicis brevis, abductor pollicis longus, flexor pollicis longus, extensor carpi radialis brevis, and the extensor pollics longus. The finger and thumb joints are concentrically flexed by the flexor digitorum superficialis, flexor digitorum profundus, and the flexor pollicis longus.