Dan Harden: IP, aiki and application, UK and Netherlands

[yusuf]

Dan, no can do Thursday, but Friday is cool.. drop me your rent a mobile dude... we can train in between bars or drink in between training

[mrtoes]

Likewise busy on Thursday but up for meeting on Friday evening!

Tom: British beer is warm and stale and even the imported beer is usually the crap other countries don't want to drink themselves. Fortunately Belgian and German beer has become trendy recently...

Matthew.

[AllanF]

I'm sitting in a hospital room with my wife waiting on baby number 2, otherwise I'd be at the UK seminar. Hope it goes well and look forward to reviews!

[Simon]

Please anyone who is going do a review, I really like hearing about these if only Dan could come to Asia and remind everyone what this IP stuff is all about.

[Ernesto]

This is not to anyone in particular.

Besides what I and some others (in a nutshell) already wrote over on aikiweb, what else is there to share? Lest you’ve met and felt Dan, I can understand people are curious to know if the man can walk his talk but only a testimony on that won’t ever suffice. Never ever? No never ever…

It’s no use describing the drills, conditioning exercises nor applications because words bound to end up being misunderstood and or misinterpreted if one where to desire to recreate them on ones own. You need to have actual guidance from a qualified instructor who can and is willing to convey this stuff.
I suppose that in time and with sufficient development one might be able to do what I just argued against (recreate stuff successfully from a description), but I’m not inclined to make the first step that way. I’m a novice. At best.

Thus, I won’t tell you what we did plus to get a conceptual framework of IP there’s already plenty of stuff out there. But my main reason in not sharing is because it’s too damn hard to convey without having felt it in the first place.

To wrap up:
The seminar was great. Pleasant crowd. No bullshit. Lots of laughs, lots of hands on time. Dan is very caring and open to questions from whomever about whatever. He presented the material in a coherent fashion with immediate and meaningful results. He could show how working from those basics what the potential is from working this stuff for a period of time. In the end, it’s all up to ourselves whether we end up like him, pass his skill, be as powerful as our own potential permits, or remain where ever we currently are.

Will IP alone make ones MA skill any better? I don’t think so per se. You’d still need to learn how to kick, punch, strike, throw etc. It does empower one to do all of these things with the least amount of energy and in a way that is anti-intuitive to any conventional way of moving and using the body.
So thank you Dan. Thank you for openly teaching this treasure. It’s A maybe THE key to unlock all kinds of potentials that where akin to and which otherwise would have remained forever legend and myth.

My sincerest thanks.

Ernesto Lemke

[yusuf]

Hey all

Great seminar. Dans a really nice guy, albeit one who has never heard a Brit speak before so translation was needed I've heard people say he is rude on the internet, however his 'real personality' is exuberant, deprecating and self deprecating (that means taking the piss out of oneself, Dan), I now see his writing is a reflection of that and not mean't with any malice at all. He desperately wants us all to get the real goods within whatever we are training already.

The exercises and movements he teaches will be familiar to most cma guys, apart from one series, although there is a unique flavour which isn't Chinese. He also hits quite hard and it's important to keep pestering Him to hit you. Just to feel the output of what is happening. For me he explained things in a way that I've spent the past two day repeating 'so that's what my teacher meant, that's why I'm doing that exercise from my system etc etc'. I find no conflict in th movements themselves, the way Dan uses Intent is very similar to the way Yiquan intent is taught (not my way bit very effective), anyone who has see a teacher who has qing gung will recognise Dan;s stuff. He doesn't have light body skill, but he has a sort of self contained power, the arch in the crotch and power from within the unit and not having to rely on the ground.

I'd highly recommend anyone to go and spend time with the dude. It will improve your own practice in lots of ways. Peace and many thanks Dan

Yusuf

[Azer]

++++ 1

Yususf, your always the first on the ball with these things!

Big thanks to Dan! Great man, great stuff... albeit he needs some work on his English accent Thanks to Paul for helping out too... and whom ever helped organize (pardon my ignorance).

All the best!

adil

[mrtoes]

Excellent seminar.

Dan has a superb ability to break down, isolate and clarify internal principles. He also deeply cares about the progress of his students and was at pains to make sure that we grasped the material within the limits of our understanding. His approach was really hands on which was great, I can't stand it when people talk for hours about theory, I want to feel and see what's going on goddammit! I've been to seminars before with outstanding martial artists where I got nearly no hands on time, or when they felt that I wasn't responding in the right way they shrugged and walked away - no such issues here.

He is very honest and candid, and stated quite clearly that the vast majority of us didn't have the first grasp of the connection that he's looking for. This is absolutely not a problem for me as I like to hear it how it is, but if you don't have an open mind and aren't willing to let go of your ego, and think you've got these skills down then you will be expected to demonstrate your expertise! Importantly all his feedback is positive and constructive and designed to help rather than hinder, even when he chooses your inadequacies as a illustrative talking point. Everyone at the seminar was open and receptive and great to work with and there was absolutely no BS.

In terms of the material there were some things I'd heard before but really hadn't grasped the importance of (or just as likely wasn't listening), and much I hadn't. The solo and two person exercises were clearly presented but very difficult to get right. I'm planning to work on them alongside (or with) my usual training and see where they take me, and hopefully if we meet again then I will suck a little bit less

Thanks,

Matthew.

[lazyboxer]

It was a pleasure meeting Dan and training with him. He's completely open and approachable, with a real love of the arts and a wonderfully positive and supportive attitude, bringing to life these often hard to understand skills, making them available to anyone willing to invest the time and effort. Having felt a couple of his friendly taps on my ribs on Friday evening, I can attest to the efficacy of his methods, and am glad I hadn't eaten any lunch that day.

He also has some humungous dantian development - and it ain't all beer, neither! (Hope I got the grammar right, Dan)

[Bodywork]

Form Aikiweb

Alex Megann wrote:
So any reviews of the seminar?
I would have loved to have come, but it was booked up solid by the time I heard about it.
Alex

I had dozens of people on the waiting list for those two seminars combined. The follow up seminars in the UK and Netherlands will be unannounced as they are most likely going to be booked in full. I don't like large events, as I do not feel I can do a good enough job getting round and getting hands on people and they...have one-on-one time with me. A good example was discussion of dantian and dantian rotation; everyone who wanted to got to actually feel it with their hands on me, as well as with pressured breathing, and by touching various points in my body one could feel how spiraling; in itself contains so many "jins" in one move, so I am not going to be doing large events. Later, if people take the training seriously, I can then open it up because I will have help from prior attendees. Make sense?

Most people don't realize I've done 35 seminars in two and a half years. They have only seen a dozen or so here. The reason is that the rest were booked privately.
I had a mission statement at the outset, a support strategy, and an exit strategy several years into the future if all went well.
I am following that plan in the best way I can manage.

I agree with several who have posted on RSF that we didn't want the week to end. Marvelous training / Marvelous people

May I say what a joy it was (and is) to bring together people from the ICMA community with people from the Aikido, Daito Ryu and FMA community, to share in a common search and vision. Everyone was reminded that we were joining in Ellis Amdur's vision; that this work is the one thing that indeed binds us all. For my part, I reminded everyone that ...I... am just one of those who are offering to help. This work is greater than us all. It was indeed humbling to be greeted so graciously by so many people.

I have to work all day, then train tonight. I will write more tomorrow.
Cheers
Dan

[Void]

i suspect his constant refrain will be 'you suck' to all of us

It was! lol

I can't place who everyone from here was:

Yusuf was the one I offended with my toast.
Mr Toes was the one I pulled across the floor - only for him to use my energy against me in an attempt to steal my sandwich!
Lazyboxer, I self consciously pointed out wasn't a very good window ....

Beyond that I'm not sure ?

In a light hearted vein - one of my favourite moments was seeing Dan help Yusuf open his Kua .............. for the first time since 1972....

[Iskendar]

For me he explained things in a way that I've spent the past two day repeating 'so that's what my teacher meant, that's why I'm doing that exercise from my system etc etc'.

This. +1. x1000. Seriously, like I told Dan, he basically went over my entire collection of internal power factoids, and explained them from first principles, all in a neatly wrapped seminar package. It was teh awesome! Suddenly, a bunch of drills and exercises and sayings start to make sense. Made me a little pissed about the level of instruction I've been getting before though... A lot of this stuff seemed familiar, though strangely enough the resemblance was more with some of the hakka stuff I've learned than with taiji. Intriguing.

Anyway, Dan is very clear on the theory, shows how it works, and most importantly, gets it to work in the students! There is also no stylistic padding whatsoever: every little admonition on how to do it correctly is referenced back to the theory, so you can both understand why it's necessary, and experience the difference yourself. Like the "look forward" thingy: it's not about tactics (look at your enemy) or about "we do it in the form like that": the mechanical advantage is clear from the theory, and easily felt in practice. Awesome stuff....

Also, Dan's a nice guy, and a lot of fun. (OTOH he did make the Sven cry... ) Go see him!

[yusuf]

In a light hearted vein - one of my favourite moments was seeing Dan help Yusuf open his Kua .............. for the first time since 1972....

second time.... madame bertha did a great job in 1993 if i remember correctly ....