Dan Harden in Atlanta, Nov 20-22nd

[AMK]

Aikido South is planning to host Dan Harden in Atlanta, November 20-22, 2015. We are currently working on details for the seminar and I will post them when they become available. Remember that the Friday night class is reserved for previous seminar attendees.

If you are interested, you may e-mail Dan your payment and registration information:
Paypal [email protected]. $195 is the weekend rate. Send in your money and reference the ATL seminar in November - do not expect to hear a response.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. More to come. In the meantime, visit http://www.aikidosouth.com to learn more. Also see Dan's webpage: http://bodyworkseminars.org/index.html

[bruce]

I wish I could attend, I will be in europe then. someday timing will work out.

[JoeWood]

You could always pop in to Aikido South when you get back in town Bruce.

[AMK]

You could always pop in to Aikido South when you get back in town Bruce.

Definitely! Unfortunately, I was out when you visited last time, Bruce. I was sorry to miss you. Stop by anytime!!

Andy

[bruce]

I will stop by in December when I am back in town.

[Josealb]

I'm torn. I'll be here, but being a line cook in a busy restaurant makes it impossible to get away for weekend days. Ill do what i can, and worst case scenario, ill just drop by the place once a month (probably as much time as i can afford) to get some of Dan's magic from John and James. Maybe ill have better luck next time.

[Bodywork]

I'm torn. I'll be here, but being a line cook in a busy restaurant makes it impossible to get away for weekend days. Ill do what i can, and worst case scenario, ill just drop by the place once a month (probably as much time as i can afford) to get some of Dan's magic from John and James. Maybe ill have better luck next time.

Jose
If you can make it for one day at all, show up on Sat. and not Sun
Dan

[Dmitri]

Jose, you've got to find the time man. I'm just sayin'.

[PshanATL]

If I wasn't on a plane to Vegas that Saturday I would definitely make it. I definitely will be coming in February.

[Josealb]

Dan,

You're killing me. I just saw your post, and i actually asked for Sunday today (James D. mentioned this was the day for first timers), and its a maybe so far. Saturdays are the busiest days at the restaurant, so its almost guaranteed to be unavailable for me. Whatever happens, i would be grateful for whatever amount of time, whatever day i can make it, and if i dont, then i'll just catch you next time, and go soak up what i can at the dojo. Me and Bruce only went once, but i found the methods, what little i saw, to be pure, streamlined gold. I understood the language immediately, and i felt both familiar and amazed at the new territory for some of the ideas that i use in my own training.

Dmitri,

I know.

[Bodywork]

Just come anyway.
And please bring a sense of humor. Budo sucks... We might as well have fun doing it!

[AMK]

Seriously! I know it sounds sycophantic, but you will be hard-pressed to find another seminar with someone as skilled as Dan who can explain in person how to achieve what he can do. Two years ago, our group came in with a healthy amount of skepticism, and after one weekend seminar we dropped EVERYTHING else to focus on this stuff. Best decision we ever made! The changes that have happened in the last two years have been enormous, and we are only beginning this bodywork.

If you want to feel the kiddie-pool version, you are always welcome to stop by! Most of us have young kids, so we put them to bed and then train late 8:45pm-10:45pm M,T,R. Hope to see you out there!

[AMK]

Just finally getting a chance to post some thoughts on Dan’s latest seminar down here in ATL. I’ve now been to a couple of Harden seminars, and I have to say that this was definitely the best to date! Friday nights are reserved for returning students, and we got plenty of hands-on time with Dan. One of the things that I’ve seen Dan do a few times now is that he begins with questions. As distance learners, these question/answer sessions are critical to making sure we are not heading off into the weeds. The questions ranged from theoretical questions to mechanical questions/exercises, and I always find this super helpful. I’ve never seen this approach in any of the aikido seminars that I’ve been to (although instructors have always been open to answering my questions). Overall though, starting off with questions creates a personalized feel to the instruction. I think it also allows Dan to draw the focus away from himself, and constantly emphasize THE material (and as Dan emphasizes, this material has been around for thousands of years).

Saturday and Sunday were very much focused on how to generate Intent (balancing yin/yang in your own body) using various methods of pulling silk. While some of Dan’s previous seminars have been likened to drinking from a fire hose with the sheer volume of information, I felt that this seminar had a perfect balance of information and practice time. Obviously, these things have to be felt, and Dan made sure to spend a lot of individual time with each person so they could feel the correct intent. We spent plenty of time doing a combination of solo-work, push-testing, and partner drills to get better tissue recruitment and body connection, all the while Dan was going around helping people get the correct body-feeling. In-between these sessions Dan would show some higher-level applications to the movements. One of my favorite aspects of the seminar is that Dan can show you how THE material relates to whatever art you practice. We had aikido, judo, tai chi, wing-chun, BJJ, etc. all represented, and Dan was happy to demonstrate how this powerful bodywork could be applied in these various arts. Standing up or ground-work, the aiki was working everywhere! By the end of the seminar, we were doing some very rudimentary spiraling movements, and attempting to make aiki happen (balancing yin/yang forces at the point of contact). There is so much to work on, but we at least have a good understanding of what we need to work on next.

Because this is an online review, I want to quickly address some online-related issues. Some of the online detractors have noted that Dan bad-mouths other arts like aikido. This is COMPLETELY false! There was nothing in the seminar to suggest that Dan has anything less than the highest respect for these arts. If anything, there is a frustration that the arts aren’t being practiced to their full potential. Related to this, another false statement is that what Dan is showing is not consistent with aikido. Again, I have to strongly disagree. Everything that Dan showed us this weekend was perfectly consistent with what the founder of aikido demonstrated, AND wrote about (some of which is just now being translated thanks to Chris Li). More importantly, Dan can back up these statements with action. Just ask some of the higher-ranking aikidoka who have trained with him whether or not this method produces powerful soft aikido!

Just to conclude the review, I want to thank everyone for coming out to the seminar. It is a great pleasure to host Dan, and although we are only two years into this bodywork, we are seeing some measurable results. This material has been around for thousands of years because it works, and Dan has a very clear method of teaching the foundations of aiki! I am already looking forward to his next visit!!!

[Dmitri]

^^ what he said.

Nice write-up Andy

we are seeing some measurable results

Having met Andy and his group before they started this work, and then consequently a few times later (including this time), I can fully attest to that, FWIW

[AMK]

Thanks Dmitri! It is always a pleasure to work out with you, and I really enjoyed feeling your connected movements. Hope to get on the mat again with you soon!