Since the age of 13, I’ve been introduced to the idea of
principles, and the importance they can play in helping you understand yourself,
and through that…better yourself.
Efficiency, Simplicity & Practicality were the first
main principles I was introduced to. Efficiency at first meant no wasted
motion; just using the right amount of effort. Simplicity means it had to be
something anyone could do. Practicality meant it “had to work” for real life.
It later evolved to adding, “Flow” – learn to adapt to the situation; give and
receive, receive and give. At the same time I was also introduced to “Breathing
& Centering” – Through the power of breathing one can have a heightened
awareness that centers the mind and body to be able to act accordingly.
Throughout my life I continuously try to apply those
principles to all areas of everything I do. When it came to exercise, I was
never a fan of lifting weights, at
least not in the way those two words came to mean in my little world as I grew
up with those around me who were interested in “getting in shape”. For them
“lifting weights” always consisted of bench pressing, bicep curls, & using
machines in a gym. Rarely were squats, or deadlifts ever pursued as religiously
as the all mighty bench press. Looking back in retrospect, it’s understandable.
Motivation for weight training was where things were different between myself,
and some of the others I hung out with. I was motivated by functionality. “How
will this make me better at things I already do? Basketball, Martial Arts,
whatever?” The looks were a side factor. Where as for some of my friends it was
priority, and functionality was secondary. This is apparent now as I see them
on Facebook, or in person, and they have “let themselves go” now that they’re
in their perceived “old age” of 30, 31. I’ll never forget being at my best
friend’s birthday party and one of his guests who was the same age as us at 27,
say he’s not going to play basketball because he’s “too old”. And implying that
we were foolish to play thinking we were young. Shortly after hearing that
ludicrous statement, I decided to start running to at least get active again.
First, I got tuned into Chi Running. I found good results in
my running, recovery and reduction of injury when started applying what I had
learned from Danny Dreyer’s book into my running. As a martial artist I really
appreciated how he applied the principles of tai chi to his running (always
adapting principles to everyday life situations). Then for the heck of it, I
looked up Barefoot running on Google. It was one of those weird moments. Why
did I even look up barefoot running? I honestly don’t know. The idea just hit,
and what I found was Barefoot Ted’s site. I enjoyed what I read, and then
through Barefoot Ted also found Barefoot Ken Bob’s site. Finally I took the
plunge into doing barefoot running myself. I found a joy in it that to this day
puts a smile on my face when I think to how I felt when I ran barefoot and
thought to myself, “Wow I’m doing this, and this is FUN!”
Being a follower of Barefoot Ted’s Blog, I then learned
about Erwan Le Corre & MovNat. Almost immediately, I was sold! Here was a
guy talking about all the principles I had held dear and did it towards
FITNESS! Constantly checking in on Erwan’s website, or Barefoot Ted’s blog I
was eager for any opportunity to learn more about MovNat. Unfortunately, due to
adjusting to a new life of being married, and being married into a ready made
family with two boys who needed a father, and the financial toll that that positive
life change made, when I finally heard of the opportunity to train with Erwan,
here in Seattle, I only had 1 to 2 weeks to come up with the money that we
didn’t have. So I missed out. Over the years it’s been awesome to read about
MovNat’s evolution and refinement that Erwan was making.
The idea that we’re creating our own Zoo with us as the
animals in the zoo made total sense. I immediately thought of High school and
having to go into the shed that was the “place of exercise” where people had to
lift weights even on a sunny day. And how the movements were really not
adaptable, or practical for potential situations. Or how my oldest, newest son
loved doing nothing but sticking his nose in a book or his Gameboy. Movement
was highly lacking for him.
I had already been
dabbling with functional exercises thanks to the influence Ron Ogi had on that
train of thought; regular push-ups had no value for our method of punching.
When I finally participated in an official MovNat workshop it was like the
flood gates of connections just opened up. I realized that even functional
exercise was not enough. Practical exercise is! I saw how MovNat just brought
together everything I had already experienced in life in some way; especially
the martial arts! Every movement engaged every part of me, instead of isolating
a section of my body, to allow my body to work as a team to move efficiently,
rather than relying on one body part solely and expending more energy than I
needed. Crawling had value with the DeMile lineage method of striking; jumping
& the mechanics of lifting and throwing were the same as our Power sources
of convergence and whipping. Selective tension was the same thing as flow. Proprioception
development through balancing and body weight transfer and shifting were the
same as sticking and closing.
You look at Erwan’s 10 principles of MovNat, and you see a
man’s intelligent articulation of what I’ve been searching for in my life, that
I had only been able to experience through the vehicle of Self-defense training.
But yet, MovNat, Erwan, took it further than Gung-Fu could- due to it’s
limitation of being specialized; to a degree. Or at least due to Gung-Fu &
the Martial arts movements more superficially
related to combatives only. With MovNat it’s related to moving from a
locomotion standpoint, manipulative – with lifting, throwing, catching
carrying, and finally combatives (though I am limited in my experience of
MovNat’s interpretation of it…in fact I haven’t experienced it at all). At
least from the standpoint of reaching more people, and helping more people,
MovNat is not so specialized as Martial arts is; only certain types of people
will participate in martial arts/self-defense. In Gung-Fu I was already
realizing through my interaction with Ron Ogi & Steve Smith that
specializing to the degree that I had in the past where it was this attitude of
“DeMile’s stuff only” was becoming not only limited, but negative, close
minded, & unhealthy for my growth. It’s interesting considering that DeMile
never encouraged me to be “DeMile only”! In fact it was him who convinced me to
try out Special Forces Combatives, and was supportive of me training with his
senior, the late Jesse Glover. It was just some of my classmates and peers in
the DeMile lineage who look at DeMile as a God (which he doesn’t like) that had
that attitude, and being around them spread a little onto me. Reading Erwan’s
thoughts on being unspecialized just made sense.
That doesn’t mean to me, that you just keep accumulating,
adding TOO MUCH to your plate. To me it means, exploring, refining, adding
flavor, or “adding color” (as I’ve heard Steve Smith say) to what I do.
Especially if you can stay close to the principles; to what you have created as
the structure. In my case, my Self-defense structure and the MovNat structure
that I’ve been exposed to marry very well.
Everything around you is an
opportunity to train, to work out, to move. Why? Because you adapt, you flow,
with what you have around you. MovNat is about being skillful with your
movements through the goal of being efficient; which can only happen with
breathing and centering. It’s universal, what I used to think of as simplicity,
because it’s raw movements are innate in everyone and can be something everyone
can do. And it’s practical in so many ways!
That’s why MovNat.
It’s FUN! It can be immediately
gratifying. They day I was able to use the Forearm Pop-up to get over the
horizontal bar was such a happy moment for me! Hearing my class mates cheer me upon
accomplishment, and seeing coach Brian Tabor smile because I proved he was
right, that I could do it (despite my issues with falling or jumping down from
anything taller than 5 feet) was just an awesome feeling. Overcoming fear,
achieving a goal, and feeling the “first step being made” on a journey of
movement and skill development is so gratifying! MovNat just makes sense! It
will expand you to a world outside of limitation, yet refine and improve you –
in your fitness, in your abilities, and in your mind & perception…in
whatever you do! And it’s just fun!
I’ve bonded in the last year
with my oldest thru Gung-Fu, because he’s ready for it. But my relationship
with both my oldest and middle has also improved because of MovNat. Learning to
develop skills in these moves together, and playing different variations of crawling
in tag has been the greatest vehicle for bonding. Moving naturally, moving in
nature, moving naturally to develop a skill, moving naturally to have FUN! Literally
playing and seeing so much being produced in a positive way – especially seeing
myself trim up, and seeing my kids’ confidence grow, as they don’t feel so
awkward with their growing bodies; it all makes sense! Maybe it shouldn’t be
Why MovNat? Maybe it should be Why not
MovNat?!
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