My introduction to RPR - Paul Dick
In 2017 I was working with a high school distance runner by the name of Amanda Vestri who at the time was the third best junior in our Section. Over a ten month period Amanda went on to make tremendous progress, literally improving her 3K time by over fifty seconds which catapulted her into the national spotlight and caught the attention of D1 coaches around the country. In retrospect, that sudden dramatic improvement may well have been setting her up for injury if it had not been for the help of my friend Dan Fichter. Dan Ficther’s Passion for cutting edge research in the field of human movement is simply unparalleled. He has literally scanned the globe and studied the world’s best systems, in fact Dan was actually the person who first discovered Douglas Heal while attending a clinic in the UK, he then introduced / shared his work with Kris Korfist and RPR was soon born.
One day in speaking with Dan I mentioned that Amanda’s back had been bothering her so he offered to help and invited me to bring her by his gym. After speaking with her briefly Dan showed her a place to rub on the back of her head (Glutes) and then another place on her belly (Psoas) a moment later she stands up from the table and exclaims “it’s better, the pain is gone?”
Honestly, it was almost too crazy to believe, If I didn’t personally know Amanda and hadn’t observed her standing there with the same bewildered look on her face I wouldn’t have believed it. However, over the next few months I brought several other clients to him and the results were always the same instantaneous and dramatic. I finally decided I needed to learn more about what he was doing so Dan encouraged me to get certified in RPR and told me he could help me hone my skills from there. ( I can honestly say my life has never been the same since that day).
I went to Columbus OH to be certified in RPR Level 1 under JL, later that year I was certified in Level 2. Working with JL really opened my eyes, he did a tremendous job of breaking things down and sharing important tips on application and insightful ideas on how to introduce and explain just what the heck is going on when working with a client for the first time.
I came back from those sessions really excited to talk with Dan about what I had learned, I remember telling him “This stuff is unbelievable just unbelievable!!! To which I will never forget his response. Looking at me with a smile that reflected my excitement he said….Yes it is, but what excites me is what could lay beyond RPR Level 2!!! I was actually speechless.
That was 2018 but what he said really struck me. I began both sharing and amazing my clients with this cutting edge RPR science and often found myself sharing Dan’s statement about there possibly being something beyond what I had been showing them. Later that year I got my first glimpse of what Dan was talking about. I brought a client to his gym who was experiencing pain and restricted mobility in his left shoulder, hip and knee. After listening to what was going on with my friend for a couple of minutes, Dan interrupted him and said “It sounds like it may be a vestibular issue” Dan then asked him to once again show us the limited range of motion in his shoulder, he then asked him to close his eyes. Dan then snapped his fingers in his left ear to cause a startle response and retested his range of motion, to his astonishment it was now normal. With a very puzzled look on his face he began rotating at his torso and then performed a quarter squat to which he just smiled and exclaimed my knee and hip feel better now as well!
For homework Dan then prescribed him to wear his head phones but directed him to listen to music in just his left ear. It was at that moment that my friend had one of those ahh-haa moments which people often have when dealing with neurological fixes. He told us about 6 months earlier his pain and mobility issues had dissipated for a period of time which he had originally attributed to the exercise he was getting from riding his bike to work each day. However, he now recalled that he had also been listening to music as he rode to work and in order to hear the oncoming traffic he had only been using his left head phone!
This past Fall I brought several of my high level athletes to Dan for him to take a look at them. One female athlete who is a D1 Thrower at Lafayette was having some issues falling off her spin when rotating. Dan did a series of checks and found that she had some visual and vestibular issues going on. He then had her focus on his index finger as he slowly rotated it in a clock wise circle asking her to let him know when the finger became blurry. At about 4 O’clock she said it had become blurry, he then instructed her to keep focused on his finger while he snapped his fingers near her ear…….she exclaimed it’s clear now, he moved to 5 O’clock and did the same, then 6 and 7 until the issue was completely cleared. Now I realize everyone reading this probably thinks I’m crazy but so was RPR Level 1 when you first experience it.
Before she left that day Dan gave her a couple exercises she could do on her own prior to throwing sessions. A few days later when she showed up for lifting her father said “Tell coach what happened at throwing practice today”. She went on to tell me what a terrible throwing session she had that morning until her father reminded her to do her visual and vestibular exercises. She then claimed to have finished with three consecutive throws which she approximated were between 4-5 feet further than any other throws on that day.
I will finish by saying the examples above are only a fraction of what I’ve had the occasion to observe. I’ve been extremely blessed to have the opportunity to hone my skills by watching, learning and being mentored by someone as passionate and knowledgeable as Dan. My world as a movement and performance coach has been turned upside down for the better from the experience.