BODYWORK
*POWER * STABILITY * MOTION
This is the website for the Bodywork seminars and training method being offered by Dan Harden to Martial Artists, Yoga practitioners and health professionals worldwide. Dan is bringing ancient body technology from the Asian martial arts into the modern age to develop stability, power and increased performance relevant to anyone in pursuit of more efficient movement.
What is a Bodywork seminar?
Bodywork is a Mind/body training program that Dan has adapted from traditional martial art training- eliminating the need for art-specific martial techniques or kata to develop power. Traditionally, all of the martial arts and Yogic training offered various exercises in solo training; Yoga's asanas, pranayama, bandhas, Chinese and Japanese arts offered methods of solo training as forms or katas to unite mind/ breath/ body to move as one, in order to activate and power their techniques. Activating the mind to control the body was not a simple meditative process, nor was it an ethereal, enlightenment exercise with little value on the physical form. These esoteric practices were pursued by warriors to generate power in a relaxed body in an age when their very lives were dependent on the measurable results. Unfortunately, few modern practitioners have experienced the true power and stability once available through these systems that made their founders legends in their time.
What do we seek in power, stability and motion? What do we mean by Power? We do not develop or concern ourselves with power in the sense of how much weight we can lift, or most other conventional measurements of power. Our concept of power first begins as a pronounced sense of supported and dynamic balance in our own bodies. This support has direct health benefits in supporting the skeletal frame and strengthening the connective tissues as well as building a peculiar retained balance in movement that to anyone on the outside feels like, power.
Once attained, this new sense of balance becomes a dynamic platform we can build from in all movement; sports, dance, pakour, to martial arts. Balance, or stated more accurately retained balance is a peculiar thing to encounter in a martial setting. It becomes very difficult to move someone who trains this way by pushing in or pulling them out of any shape they adapt or direction they choose to move in. The process of which usually has the person applying forces losing their balance or having to re-position. On contact this typically leaves them open. The movement of this type of supported body in any action produces disruptive forces-on contact. It is the hara (dantian in Chinese systems) support behind the outer parts of our bodies that people make contact with, that allows us to absorb and redirect any force from impacting us, compared to the conventionally trained person.
History
The idea of training the body to be immovable was never meant to simply stand still. Rather it is the qualities achieved by training the immovable body that give it connection. Thus moving the connected body as a unit afforded it rapid speed, non-telegraphed actions, incredible stability and the pronounced ability to absorb and redirect.
Down through the ages various warrior cultures have venerated this type of esoteric training. One example is seen in Shingon Buddhism, which traveled from Tibet to India to Japan. We have in Tibet; Acala Vidya. This is translated directly to Japanese as Fudo Myo-o. *Acala (immovable) Vidya (esoteric training), *Fudo (immovable) Myo-o (esoteric training)
What would have attracted the attention of warrior and civilian alike? What were the results of such powerful methods on both the health and the martial pursuits to have retained that attention across thousands of years? What is more important to consider is that these practices have not died out. They are still here for those who will take the time to seek them out. The problem facing us how to find it in the these watered down modern systems. We are faced with thousands of teachers, who simply do not know what was once contained in their own arts.
India
Yoga's original asana are less stressful and more involved with moving and working both the tendon/fascial meridians (similar to Qi-gongs) in accord with breath work and gentle manipulations, and the remaining portion of the art devoted to meditation, and energy flow. The one point in yoga is a sustained point held with opposing forces in our tissues that created the balance warriors and adepts were looking for. Staring at a single focal point on the floor or at distance was not the essence of producing strength and stability the yogis were known for.
Another corruption is the modern use of hot rooms. training in heated rooms is actually degrading to overall performance. It is the use of balanced opposing forces in the body, controlled through slow rhythmic breathing that gave rise to the heat we are searching for.
China
*The Chinese have reserved the true heart of their systems from the west, by freely offering a shell of their systems for consumption. Again the modern seekers, are largely unaware of what the shape of the solo forms were designed to achieve. Instead we see a modern dialogue of what fighting techniques may be hidden within the movements. Their value was to develop and strengthen the tendon/fascial meridians. The practice of which created a strong and stable platform from which to move freely and generate power.
Japan
*The Japanese arts-perhaps the most influenced by the modern influx of western tourists-have almost completely done away with the very practices that gave them their legendary prowess. Today they are by and large storehouse of overly complex and thus marginally successfully "fixed shape" technical approaches, devoid of any real deep teaching to change the body and they are by and large disseminated through a colored belt ranking system originally designed to attract school children to class. It is rare to see on-going Body work as part of the traditional systems.
The modern era
We have chosen to focus on what most of these systems have either left behind, or are unwilling or unable to teach Westerners. From the first hour attendees will feel a change in their structure as Dan brings people through a gradual program that organizes and connects their mind and body, softens, relaxes and teaches movement originating from their center. This center-known as Dantian or Hara in the Asian fighting arts and health systems is not to be confused with "core strengthening" seen in sport based athletics and sadly even the modern corruption that has become Yoga. This is an older, traditional way to organize and use the mind to control the body and bring about enhance stability against force and to generate power.
Training
Whether you are teacher of traditional martial arts seeking to understand how to develop the unusual power the arts were once known for, or you are a yoga instructor seeking to understand how and why the asana and pranayama were created to develop true power and health, these seminars will offer important keys to understanding, and more importantly experiencing, the results that these methods were traditionally known for. Our goal is to offer and teach, in a series of workshops and intensives, information and tools to develop teachers - who will then be equipped to bring this material back and reinvigorate their own practices.
Current workshops are focusing on the ability to absorb the materials presented and create a platform to aid teachers to teach the basics to their students regardless of the arts they are involved in. These are smaller scale seminars. While it is not the best business or marketing model, we continue to believe this offers enhanced one-on-one interaction and correction so that each student can be monitored and corrected to ensure the maximum benefit from their experience.
*Note Due to the hands-on nature of these workshops we try to keep them small. Therefore, many of these workshops are sold out before the deadlines. If you wish to attend a seminar contact us as soon as you can to reserve a space. We do not accept all requests to every event. Please use the contact page for email registration and conformation.
Check back in for Date and format changes in the seminar schedule before applying.
Look for upcoming group intensives for more advance students this spring!
*POWER * STABILITY * MOTION
This is the website for the Bodywork seminars and training method being offered by Dan Harden to Martial Artists, Yoga practitioners and health professionals worldwide. Dan is bringing ancient body technology from the Asian martial arts into the modern age to develop stability, power and increased performance relevant to anyone in pursuit of more efficient movement.
What is a Bodywork seminar?
Bodywork is a Mind/body training program that Dan has adapted from traditional martial art training- eliminating the need for art-specific martial techniques or kata to develop power. Traditionally, all of the martial arts and Yogic training offered various exercises in solo training; Yoga's asanas, pranayama, bandhas, Chinese and Japanese arts offered methods of solo training as forms or katas to unite mind/ breath/ body to move as one, in order to activate and power their techniques. Activating the mind to control the body was not a simple meditative process, nor was it an ethereal, enlightenment exercise with little value on the physical form. These esoteric practices were pursued by warriors to generate power in a relaxed body in an age when their very lives were dependent on the measurable results. Unfortunately, few modern practitioners have experienced the true power and stability once available through these systems that made their founders legends in their time.
What do we seek in power, stability and motion? What do we mean by Power? We do not develop or concern ourselves with power in the sense of how much weight we can lift, or most other conventional measurements of power. Our concept of power first begins as a pronounced sense of supported and dynamic balance in our own bodies. This support has direct health benefits in supporting the skeletal frame and strengthening the connective tissues as well as building a peculiar retained balance in movement that to anyone on the outside feels like, power.
Once attained, this new sense of balance becomes a dynamic platform we can build from in all movement; sports, dance, pakour, to martial arts. Balance, or stated more accurately retained balance is a peculiar thing to encounter in a martial setting. It becomes very difficult to move someone who trains this way by pushing in or pulling them out of any shape they adapt or direction they choose to move in. The process of which usually has the person applying forces losing their balance or having to re-position. On contact this typically leaves them open. The movement of this type of supported body in any action produces disruptive forces-on contact. It is the hara (dantian in Chinese systems) support behind the outer parts of our bodies that people make contact with, that allows us to absorb and redirect any force from impacting us, compared to the conventionally trained person.
History
The idea of training the body to be immovable was never meant to simply stand still. Rather it is the qualities achieved by training the immovable body that give it connection. Thus moving the connected body as a unit afforded it rapid speed, non-telegraphed actions, incredible stability and the pronounced ability to absorb and redirect.
Down through the ages various warrior cultures have venerated this type of esoteric training. One example is seen in Shingon Buddhism, which traveled from Tibet to India to Japan. We have in Tibet; Acala Vidya. This is translated directly to Japanese as Fudo Myo-o. *Acala (immovable) Vidya (esoteric training), *Fudo (immovable) Myo-o (esoteric training)
What would have attracted the attention of warrior and civilian alike? What were the results of such powerful methods on both the health and the martial pursuits to have retained that attention across thousands of years? What is more important to consider is that these practices have not died out. They are still here for those who will take the time to seek them out. The problem facing us how to find it in the these watered down modern systems. We are faced with thousands of teachers, who simply do not know what was once contained in their own arts.
India
Yoga's original asana are less stressful and more involved with moving and working both the tendon/fascial meridians (similar to Qi-gongs) in accord with breath work and gentle manipulations, and the remaining portion of the art devoted to meditation, and energy flow. The one point in yoga is a sustained point held with opposing forces in our tissues that created the balance warriors and adepts were looking for. Staring at a single focal point on the floor or at distance was not the essence of producing strength and stability the yogis were known for.
Another corruption is the modern use of hot rooms. training in heated rooms is actually degrading to overall performance. It is the use of balanced opposing forces in the body, controlled through slow rhythmic breathing that gave rise to the heat we are searching for.
China
*The Chinese have reserved the true heart of their systems from the west, by freely offering a shell of their systems for consumption. Again the modern seekers, are largely unaware of what the shape of the solo forms were designed to achieve. Instead we see a modern dialogue of what fighting techniques may be hidden within the movements. Their value was to develop and strengthen the tendon/fascial meridians. The practice of which created a strong and stable platform from which to move freely and generate power.
Japan
*The Japanese arts-perhaps the most influenced by the modern influx of western tourists-have almost completely done away with the very practices that gave them their legendary prowess. Today they are by and large storehouse of overly complex and thus marginally successfully "fixed shape" technical approaches, devoid of any real deep teaching to change the body and they are by and large disseminated through a colored belt ranking system originally designed to attract school children to class. It is rare to see on-going Body work as part of the traditional systems.
The modern era
We have chosen to focus on what most of these systems have either left behind, or are unwilling or unable to teach Westerners. From the first hour attendees will feel a change in their structure as Dan brings people through a gradual program that organizes and connects their mind and body, softens, relaxes and teaches movement originating from their center. This center-known as Dantian or Hara in the Asian fighting arts and health systems is not to be confused with "core strengthening" seen in sport based athletics and sadly even the modern corruption that has become Yoga. This is an older, traditional way to organize and use the mind to control the body and bring about enhance stability against force and to generate power.
Training
Whether you are teacher of traditional martial arts seeking to understand how to develop the unusual power the arts were once known for, or you are a yoga instructor seeking to understand how and why the asana and pranayama were created to develop true power and health, these seminars will offer important keys to understanding, and more importantly experiencing, the results that these methods were traditionally known for. Our goal is to offer and teach, in a series of workshops and intensives, information and tools to develop teachers - who will then be equipped to bring this material back and reinvigorate their own practices.
Current workshops are focusing on the ability to absorb the materials presented and create a platform to aid teachers to teach the basics to their students regardless of the arts they are involved in. These are smaller scale seminars. While it is not the best business or marketing model, we continue to believe this offers enhanced one-on-one interaction and correction so that each student can be monitored and corrected to ensure the maximum benefit from their experience.
*Note Due to the hands-on nature of these workshops we try to keep them small. Therefore, many of these workshops are sold out before the deadlines. If you wish to attend a seminar contact us as soon as you can to reserve a space. We do not accept all requests to every event. Please use the contact page for email registration and conformation.
Check back in for Date and format changes in the seminar schedule before applying.
Look for upcoming group intensives for more advance students this spring!