Our guest today is Dan Fichter, owner and operator of WannaGetFast, a sports performance facility in Rochester, New York. He is one of the leading experts in applying clinical neurology into athletic rehabilitation and sport performance applications. Dan has been mentored by a variety of elite coaches, therapists, and neurologists, and has trained numerous professional athletes and Olympians across a variety of sports. He has been a multi-time guest on the podcast, with one of the most popular episodes of all-time being a joint discussion with Chris Korfist on “DB Hammer” training methods (an old-school classic).
It’s somewhat of a “woke” term to mention the nervous system in training, as Matt Cooper said on a recent podcast. Although it is easy to pay homage to the nervous system as the ultimate controller of training results, it is much more complicated to actually observe and specifically train the CNS. This is where people like Dan Fichter are awesome resources in regards to being able to take the complex inter-disciplinary work on the subject, and tie it into simple methods we can use in our own practices.
On today’s show, Dan runs through a wide swath of nervous system training topics, centering on isometrics, as well as their role in light of long term athletic development, crawling and the nervous system, infinity walks, as well as his keys to a good warmup from a neurological perspective. There was a huge amount of practical training gold in this episode.
Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more.
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Timestamps and Main Points
7:00 The top 3 things Dan learned from Jay Schroeder that have stuck with him over his years as a coach, particularly that of isometric exercise and intention
13:30 How isometrics specifically help create a condition for the body to solve a functional problem
20:30 How Dan’s exercise distributions have been altered over time (isometrics, bodyweight and traditional lifts)
27:00 Where Dan fits on the “5 minute hold” to shorter isometric hold spectrum
31:30 Questions on, “are isometrics alone enough to help an athlete overcome their injuries”
34:45 Crawling and links to neurology, as well as why it’s important to crawl in an extended posture position and the head up
39:45 How sensory stimulation precedes motor output in athletes, and the importance of stimulating athletes on a sensory level
47:00 The power of infinity walks in empowering an athlete on a neurological and sensory perspective, and how this can tie into, and be complexed with, other athletic skills
54:45 Things that Dan finds essential in the warmup process for his athletes
56:25 The electrical ramifications of tapping the heel in an athletic movement
“As Jay says, “everybody is fast, and everybody is strong, they just can’t display it””
“Every step you take, the body finds the easiest and safest path, to complete the task”
“When it comes to neurology, you have to hit it perfect, and when you hit it perfect, magic things happen”
“Jay used to say this all the time “water will find the crack””
“One of my most favorite things I’ve learned from Jay’s was “quick style” exercises; my favorite exercise is a towel curl press, where they curl (the towel) up, they press it over their head, they pull it down, and then they extend their triceps, so there is everything about upper body movement in one exercise, and as Jay says, it’s recovering you while its training you”
“When you get into studying the brain, it’s a flexion/extension synergy”
“When you trace a complex movement, your cerebellum lights up like it’s nobody’s business”
“For a 10 year old, I have them hold isometrics as long as they can… the younger you are the longer we’ll hold it. The older you are, the more developed you are as a mover, we are going to start weighting things, we are going to start shortening times, and making contractions more intense”
“Your proprioceptive maps get compromised as you get older… my son when he was 6,7,8 could hold lunges for ridiculous periods of time, as he gets older it, as he picks up little bumps, he can hold less time”
“It’s not anywhere in the literature, “I rock to recover”, just think when a baby is crying and sympathetic is going nuts, we rock to recover them”
“Part of crawling is picking your head up to activate your extensor chain, because we are born in a flexed position”
“What starts (shoulder range of motion) is the tactile stimulation in your hand.. if we lose that tactile stimulation, that is going to jam everything up”
“People think, “I need to get strong, I need mobile joints”… you need sensory input!”
“When you see someone do an infinity walk (figure 8 walk), and then do your skill, you are like “whoa, what just happened there?”
“I hardly ever go back into the weight room during in-season training, one of those stations is always infinity walks; they’ll crawl during infinity walks, they’ll hold their breaths, they’ll do farmers walks”
“The (reading retention) is way better (while doing infinity walks)”
“Crawling doing infinity walks is crazy”
“(Regarding the warmup) Breathing is key, getting your heart rate up, hitting your heels and creating an electrical vibration throughout your body, creating structural balance, addressing your reflex system, addressing certain joint angles, addressing tactile, and then the hemispheres of your brain. Just pick something out of those 10 things, there’s your warmup”
“If you put your tongue between your teeth, and there’s some type of vibration going through it, your whole mandibular area relaxes”
“Gaze stabilization is one of the most important things to teach an athlete… if you can find ways to keep your head still, threat disappears”
“Your feet and your eyes dictate your posture”
About Dan Fichter
Dan Fichter owns and operates WannaGetFast Power/Speed Training, a sports performance training business in Rochester, NY that offers training to elite athletes. Dan is one of the leading applied neurological training experts in the world, and has made numerous connections between clinical level neurology, and athletic performance and sport training. Dan has coached athletes in all sports from all over the country, and is in two different Halls of Fame for his own athletic prowess in football.
Fichter’s clients have included pro hockey players Chris Thorburn (Winnipeg Jets), Stanley Cup champion Brian Gionta (Buffalo Sabres), Ryan Callahan (Tampa Bay Lightning, US Olympic Team), Shane Prince (Binghamton Senators), Olympic track and field star Victoriya Rybalko from the Ukraine, NY Yankee shortstop Cito Culver, UFC fighter Mike Massenzio, Oakland A’s 2nd baseman Andy Parrino, Washington Nationals Infielder Chris Bostick along with Washington Nationals pitcher Brian Dupra.
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