Tracking and the art of being a great coach

Tom Brown is one of America’s most acclaimed outdoorsmen. He explores and explains his deeply spiritual approach to tracking derived from the Apache Scouts. The following quote nicely crystalizes the philosophy:

“The Scouts were masters of the wilderness… They could glace at a track and read into the maker’s very soul. To them the track was not only a window to the past, an intimate knowledge of the animal, or man who made them, but also a means of keeping them and the tribe safe. Tracking was their doorway to the universe, where they could know all things through the tracks…”
- Tom Brown

This is a level of mastery I believe is a worthy pursuit, and after reading Tom’s books I try to have in mind this level as my ambition. Not in tracking even though I enjoy the outdoors, but in my own chosen paths. So now when I teach or coach I constantly try to ask how every little detail describes the whole. Maybe someone will come to me to learn a technique or to get a training program, and I will notice slight disharmonies in the persons movement, posture, mobility etc. These details all relate something about this person’s health, culture, lifestyle, beliefs etc, and am I to be truly a master of my craft I will need to explore the meaning of each and every one of them.

In that sense you can treat everything in your chosen path as tracks. In my case it may be bruises, tension, soreness, tightness, discomfort etc. For a teacher it might be specific questions, particular grades, facial expressions, body language, jargon etc. The point is that the minute you start treating your path as a path to mastery you will connect with yourself, your path and the universe in a sincerely more profound way. Not only will you soon be in a higher state of flow and being more focused, you will also start to enjoy yourself more as you immerse yourself in your path.

A wise mentor of mine recently told be that true spirituality isn’t to be found in isolated meditation. It is found when you immerse yourself in the world, thus making entrepreneurship, innovation, leadership, business, science etc. among the most spiritual activities as long as you allow it be.

In the end it is all about awareness. Tom writes that he considers tracking to be the ultimate extension of awareness. As stated above I think tracking extends to nearly all activities in life, allowing us to connect yourselves with the tangible track and out towards everything surrounding it, the entire universe included. Thus nurturing a closer kinship with the earth and spirit.

Tom’s mentor, called Grandfather, would kneel before the first track and bow his head in prayer. I will finish this post by relating his words;

“Grandfather, Great Spirit,
Master of all things, you who are called by so many names,
and worshipped in so many way;
allow me to become the Earth,
teach me to surrender to the tracks,
so that I may become that which I follow,
and if i am worthy,
allow these tracks to lead me closer to You.”

Love and health
Dennis

CSA.dk

 

Combat Sports Academ

Combat Sports Academy

For the past couple of years I’ve had the pleasure and honor of teaching strength and conditioning at world class martial arts academy in Copenhagen, Combat Sports Academy Copenhagen (www.csa.dk). The gym was started by two enthusiastic young martial artists, Christian Graugart and Carsten Ettrup, who wanted to teach combat sports in an environment they would enjoy themselves. The result is a gym with probably the best training atmosphere I’ve ever encountered. There is always cool music playing, a nice playful and friendly competitiveness along with a fun loving approach to the sports.

Here Christian explains the thoughts behind MMA, while you get a nice view of the gym too  (it’s in danish).

This has attracted a great amount of people who enjoy martial arts and combat sports, but doesn’t enjoy rituals and strict ranking systems. Some have argued that this philosophy is removing martial arts from it’s roots and thus eroding the philosophic and ethical foundation. I respectfully disagree, since a core belief of mine is that the art of moving is at it’s heart supposed to be play. Being playful and having fun is not the same as making it easy. Anyone who knows anything about mixed martial arts know that being successful requires discipline, talent and time on the mat, so while making it fun may enhance the learning experience, the time and effort is still the same.

So the bottom line is, if you are looking for a place to train thay boxing, boxing, grappling, brazilian jiu jitsu or mixed martial arts I highly recommend you come by the gym. Should you at the same time be interested in rebooting your movement skills and learning in my little branch of the RKC school of strength, then the match is made in heaven.

CSA was the first gym in Denmark to recognize kettlebells as a valuable training tool, and Kenneth Jay, Master RKC, started the first Danish Hardstyle kettlebell class in the gym. Since then I’ve picked up the gauntlet from Kenneth and have expanded so that we now host 9 classes of Hardstyle kettlebell conditioning and Rosstraining (conditioning class partly inspired from the works of Ross Enamait). 

Here is a video of Kenneth teaching kettlebells in the gym back in the day:

Here  you can join the CSA facebook group for more pictures, videos and news.

CK-FMS, RKC, MovNat, Bare Feet, CST and more…

Please stay on track with the many abbreviations. Everything will be explained in time.

So what’s up?

On the personal side I had the amazing experience of becoming a father on April, 21st, 2009. My wife and I had our beautiful baby boy. His name is Magne, which is old Norse and means “strength”. In Nordic mythology Magne is the Son of Thor, the God of Thunder, and when he is three days old he is so strong that he can lift a dead giant away from his father, who is pinned underneath. Magne is one of the few gods, who survive Ragnerok, the nordic armageddon, and rebuilds the new world.

I have taken a good deal of time off from school and work to spend as much time with my family as possible, which has proved invaluable.

Circular Strength Training

This spring I attended and completed Scott Sonnons Circular Strength Training Certification, and it was a very rewarding experience. I’ve long admired Scott for his innovative ideas and insight into esoteric training practices from Russia, India, Persia etc. The concepts of bodyflow, being breathed, compensatory exercise and joint traction resounds very well in my training philosophy.

Russian Kettlebell Challenge

Again this year I had the honor and pleasure of serving as an assisting instructor at the Danish RKC certification. Many of my good friends attended this year including my brother Rudi, the great MMA coach Thomas La Cour, kickboxing coach extraordinair Thomas Clarup as well as many others.

I was assigned to Team Cheng lead by the brilliant Dr. Mark Cheng, RKC Team Leader, and I learned many new aspects from Doc this year, including detailed knowledge of the new turkish get up approach described in Kalos Sthenos by Brett Jones, MRCK, Gray Cook and Dr. Cheng. A book and DVD I highly recommend by the way.

The new RKC performed admirably, and I look forward to the new RKC Masterclass we will put up in the future.

CK-FMS

Two weeks ago I had my first trip to the states in order to attend the Certified Kettlebell – Functional Movement Screen Course, sponsored by Dragondoor. Presenters included Gray Cook, inventor of the FMS, Brett Jones, MRKC, Jeff O’Connor, Sr. RKC and Dr. Mark Cheng, RKCTL. 

This course is THE course to attend for the up and coming RKC. My head was spinning with profound insights, and as one Sr.RKC put it, taking the information in was like drinking from a fire hose. It came fast and furiously. So three days in our heads was swimming and we started getting frustrated with the complexity what was shown us. Luckily many things started dawning on day four, and in the weeks after new stuff still become clearer.

Not only did I learn a lot and got my training paradigm turned upside down, I also made some amazing friendships along the way;

• Dustin Rippetoe, RKC II, CK-FMS, www.wayofstrength.com
• George Spears, RKC II and very experienced yoga instructor
• James Neidlinger, CK-FMS and all around madman, www.5ringsfitness.com
• George Samuelson, RKC, www.thisfeelsgood.com
• Jon Engum, Sr.RKC, www.extremetraining.net
• Taikei Matsushita, RKC II
• Many others…

As often before I am amazed my the generosity, humility and knowledge within the RKC family.

Movement Naturelle and Bare Feet

One of the big issues at this years CK-FMS was the role of proper foot conditioning and thus proper footwear. Vibram Fivefingers is definitely the next big thing in kettlebell training. Curiously enough I have my self recently started looking into the Method Naturelle methodology and came upon Erwan Le Corre, who works from a similar perspective:

He calls his method Movement Naturelle. What I find interesting is that brilliant people far apart come up with very similar ideas. Pavel wrote his book “Naked Warrior” at the same time that Gray Cook wrote “Athletic Body in Balance” with many of the same philosophical arguments presented in different ways. Now Erwan presents Movement Naturelle, including barefoot running, climbing, crawling, lifting, fighting, climbing, walking, swimming, throwing etc, while Gray presents fundamental movement as the foundation for conditioning and advocates training like Tarzan, getting good across a wide variety of modal domains. These wholesome and very natural approaches to training the human animal I believe will revolutionize the way we consider movement in the future.

Born to Run

While on the subject of Natural Movement I have to recommend you read the book “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougal.

Before you buy your next pair of running shoes you need to read this

End Notes

This was one of my longer posts. I hope you have enjoyed it.

No Excuses

This guy is just phenomenal..

The are so many people out there, who do great things..

There simple is no excuse good enough to not do exceptional things.. Simple strive to be outstanding! Simple because you are!

The Diamond

“The diamond is created under pressure”

When you are facing a challenge or your life seems to be closing in on you remember that you cannot grow without stimulation. The more the intense the challenge the more you will have learned of life and yourself when you are at the other side of it, regardless of the outcome. So head up, chin low and go out and meet the world head on!