Flipping tires appears to be a major exercise with many teams, especially football teams. I have spoken with many coaches who believe that is one of the best exercises that the players can do not only to get stronger but also more explosive.
Before evaluating the effectiveness of this exercise you must question whether the exercise is used to make them more fit (better conditioned) or if it is to make them a better playing athlete on the field. If the exercise is to improve the players fitness or conditioning, or to increase strength, the answer is yes.
If, however, the objective is to make the athletes better players on the field, then the answer is no. The reason for this is that tire flipping does not improve any physical skill that the athlete must execute on the field. Understand that execution of skills is the key element in determining whether the team wins or loses.
Coaches often make selections of exercises based on whether it is a “good” exercise which usually means that the exercise is very demanding and requires great strength and in some cases, explosive power. However, these are components of fitness; they are not components that improve an athlete’s ability to perform specific skills on the field.
To improve skill execution on the field it is necessary to do specialized strength exercises that duplicate the neuromuscular pathway used in executing the skill. In this case the strength or explosive power gains from the exercise are transferred directly to the skill execution. If it does not duplicate the actions seen in execution of the skill, it is a general strength exercise which is good for developing general strength, but not for improving performance on the field.
Coaches often overlook the fact that most of the better athletes are not the strongest. The better athletes are strong and have enough strength to execute the skills as needed. In many cases, additional strength will interfere with skill execution. As a result, it can make the skill execution worse.
Thus, tire flipping is a good exercise for fitness and conditioning but it is not a good exercise for improving performance on the field.
For more information read Build a Better Athlete.