It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Tim Tebow! The Broncos QB lived up to Marvel’s superhero hype by stunning the Pittsburgh Steelers with an 80-yard touchdown strike to Demaryius Thomas to win in overtime—his fourth overtime win of the season (against no losses).
Emulate this 316-yard playoff passer by incorporating his off-season workout into your program. Who knows? Maybe next year you’ll be pulling rabbits out of hats in the fourth quarter and overtime, like Tim Tebow.

Focus on Fundamentals

“I had a great off-season,” said the 24-year-old sensation. “I worked extremely hard. I had goals to get more explosive, to get stronger, but more than anything, just to be in great shape, so I can fend off fatigue and maintain my fundamentals.”
Judging by his three-TD performance on Sunday, Tebow’s goal of maintaining fundamentals deep into games has been accomplished. And since seeing is believing, why not adopt his training philosophy. First, focus on overall fitness. Once you’re in great shape, start working on specific goals.

Finding the Right Trainer

If you don’t have a coach, teammate or trainer to push you beyond your limits, it’ll be much harder for you to develop as a player. For Tebow, finding a trainer and facility where he could achieve his goals was essential going into the 2011 off-season. He found his guy in Kurt Hester at D1 Sports Training in Savannah. Tebow recalled, “That first meeting you knew [he was the right trainer], because he was blunt. He said, ‘We’re gonna work you, we’re gonna try to make you puke, and if you’re man enough, let’s go in and let’s get after it.’”
Hester told Tebow that D1 is a blue-collar place where they work 12-hour days. At that moment, the future Broncos starter knew he wanted to train with Hester. Clearly, he is now reaping the benefits of his absolutely brutal off-season regimen.

Preparing for Competition

There’s a reason Tebow trained as hard as he did prior to the season. It prepared him right from day one to command the offense without losing focus due to fatigue. He said, “When teams and other players get tired, I want to be able to be at my peak.” Using  intervals with short rest and a combination of explosive and traditional strength exercises, Tebow prepared himself well for the demands of an extended season.
After his game-winning pass to Thomas, Tebow sprinted into the end zone where he got down on one knee alongside his celebrating teammates. He then ran victory laps and leaped into the stadium, delighting home town fans in Denver.

More Tebow

Tebow’s magical performance has inspired young athletes to train like him and even simulate his game in Madden NFL 12. Take a look at these other STACK articles and videos highlighting Tebow training, then relax with some tips on how run the read option like Tebow in Madden.

• The Inside Scoop on Tim Tebow’s “Iron Sharpens Iron” Pre-Game Speech (With Video)
• Exercise of the Week: Box Step-Up
• Tim Tebow’s Power-Building Conditioning Workout (With Video)
• Tim Tebow’s Super-Charged Glute-Strengthening Exercise
• Iron Sharpens Iron: Tim Tebow Trains at D1-Savannah
• Madden Mondays: Harness Tebowmania and Run the Read Option