Decoding Energy: How Ricky Stanzi Studies The Human Body's Movements
Ricky Stanzi can read a person’s energy just by their walk.
Seriously.
Call him a Zen master if you will, but the former Iowa quarterback’s passion is “wholeheartedly” understanding how the human body moves.
“The way that they walk or run forward is going to give us tons of information on how they’re going to move through space,” Stanzi told HawkeyeMaven. “Specifically, for someone who’s throwing the football, which is a forward locomotive derivative, I can look at him and find any sort of hitches in his walk or run that are going to show up in his throw.”
Stanzi currently works as a professor/coach within the GOATA (Greatest Of All Time Athletes) system. The GOATA goal is to hone in the most effective way for energy to transfer in the body and make those muscle movements second nature.
At least, that’s the simple way of putting it.
Stanzi and others at GOATA look for hitches (unnoticeable to most) in someone’s steps — essentially what they call inefficiencies.
By pointing those out and helping to institute a better movement, the goal is to create the most efficient way for energy to travel through the body, thus (in the example of a quarterback) unlocking a quicker release and higher velocity on throws.
“What we do is recode the pattern in the same way you would go to a doctor,” Stanzi said. “The doctor would say, ‘Hey, this is wrong with you. I’m going to write you a script for this bottle of pills’ or ‘I’m going to mark you down for this surgery.’ We become movement doctors. We’re going to assess where you’re making errors, and then I’m going to write you a prescription, but this prescription isn’t pills or surgery. It’s movement.”
Stanzi said one of the most common mistakes he sees lies in the footwork, and the rest of the body follows suit. From there, he helps break down the basics — how athletes walk, plant, and land on their feet.
Stanzi said when looking at other quarterbacks, the goal is to straighten out the feet. From there, it’s about funneling weight to the outside of the foot.
Once the footwork is down, energy can travel more efficiently to the rotary engines in the body, such as the ankles, hips, spine, and shoulders.
“If they know how to position their back foot to mimic a Brett Favre or a John Elway, they’re going to transfer force quicker and more efficiently,” Stanzi said. “... It’s got nothing to do with strength and size, it’s got more to do with how well the technology of your body is working… what IOS is that ankle on? Is it outdated? Do you need an update? Those kinds of things are going to give our quarterbacks the most return on investment.”
Once those mechanics are updated, so to speak, the next step is implementing those movements so they become second nature.
“It’s just like when you’re trying to learn how to write cursive,” he said. “You’re going to trace that lowercase ‘a’ over and over. You’re going to trace that pattern over and over again until your brain can’t do it wrong. It’s really the same thing from a movement standpoint.”
One of GOATA’s studies analyzes how indigenous people (hunter-gatherers) move. It’s all about how nature designed humans, according to Stanzi, as non-contact injuries (specifically in the body’s rotary engines) continue to rise.
“We are designed to be hunter-gatherers,” he said. “Advances in technology have happened so rapidly that in a span of 300 years, we really went from manual labor and using our bodies more in locomotion, to now, we’re pretty much sedentary.”
Stanzi started looking into the locomotive aspect of his game following his selection in the NFL Draft. He felt like there was something missing, so he turned to Tom Martinez, who helped clean up Tom Brady’s throwing mechanics.
Still, Stanzi dove head-first into books, soaking up all information he could and reading research from Western and Eastern cultures, but it clicked when he connected with Jose Boesch, the GOATA guru, so to speak, via Instagram.
“He was one of the only people who were talking about the spinal engine and was talking about the indigenous (people), so I was like, ‘This guy must know something,’” Stanzi said.
Staniz has now been in the GOATA system for about a year. His role is that of a professor and also a coach, helping to train new coaches while still helping athletes code their movements.
“We think the body is designed to last a lifetime, from the connective tissues and joint segment standpoint, and there’s no need for these non-contact, unexplained injuries,” Stanzi said. “We can get rid of them. We’re in the process of spreading the word and educating people.”
For additional content, follow Adam Hensley on Twitter @A_Hens83.
