Responses to Intuitive Running Roughly one week ago, I released my video on intuitive running. In the process of making it, I realized that style of running, and the philosophy of attunement to all our relations, touches upon so many facets of our lives. In order to dialogue with the most people, I injected the video into a number of subcultures (many through the site www.reddit.com) and was able to garner a good deal of feedback. Here's the best of, make of it what you will. The Teaching Drum's YouTube Channel Intuitive Running Video Transcript Workshop on Sept 22 in Milwaukee Firstly, this is the internet, and what better place to receive anonymous insults! “I'm just here waiting for the sarcasm and shredding...” -anticonsumption on reddit “Wow. I don't know where to start. This is pure cringe.” -anticonsumption on reddit “lost me in the first 30 seconds.... hippie who calls himself 'Adjul' creeping through the woods... no thanks.” -runner on reddit And at the same time, just as many took away inspiration: “Yes! I have been thinking exactly this for quite some time.” -meditator on reddit “This video reminded me of how much I miss playing around in forests. Just Googled and found one near my new place.” -meditator on reddit “Haha, that looks really silly and also fun. This seems really natural, the way I've always wanted to move in forests... but haven't because no-one has given me a permission. That's kind of frustrating to realize how I've been placing more trust in other people's words over my own intuition.” -meditator on reddit While others had already made similar discoveries: “I do a lot of this myself. I started running about a year ago, as you said I would focus on the numbers, hitting the concrete every day whilst listening to music. About 6 months ago I started just running and exploring the forests and having fun.. I really feel like I'm where I am supposed to be when I'm out there.” -meditator on reddit “It's an important reminder as we get caught up in learning how to do a vault, or stuck in bodyweight training for strength. We (I, at least), try to run for the sake of running. obstacles are no obstacles in that mindset; they just are, and we get to deal with them however we choose.” -parkour/freerunner on reddit “If you let the randomness of the forest dictate your movements there is no way you'll end up with strong biceps but a weak core.” -barefoot runner on reddit Many already had pre-existing practices and belief-systems, which either resonated with intuitive running, or didn't: “In slow walking meditation you'll easily focus more on your form (am I doing this right?) than what the purpose of the practice actually is. And so the practice becomes pretentious. With this you'll always move the right way and it's easier to live in the present.” -meditator on reddit “From what I've learned in the last year, there's not any specific activity that you can separate from amy other activity that "should be done mindfully" that's different than anything else.” -meditator on reddit “Everything stimulates the brain. But when somebody starts talking about spirituality and claiming our ancestors understood how the brain work, my b.s. detector goes off.” -Neuroplasticity on facebook “The best way to practice this...is to chase or be chased. Really helps you tap into the deeper, psychological parts of the practice. I lived in a cow pasture one summer and those bastards would leave their nasty manure all over our camps. In order to instill a healthy fear of our camps, we would chase them as far and as fast as we could. It was absolutely exhilarating.” -anticonsumption on reddit “I think this would be one of a palette of ways to connect with nature. I have chosen foraging as my primary means of nature interface but I'll have to give this a try sometime.” -rewilding on reddit “It's good to see reclamation of our own wellness through movement expressing itself through out the landscape and especially through ancestral skills. Thanks for not only sharing, but confirming the importance of all of our emergent movement programs. From our fire in Maine, a hearty hello.” -Maine Primitive Skills School “I think its exactly the same concept [as Parkour], adapting to the environment rather than expecting it to change for you. The difference is? in the ambiance and how we choose to traverse our paths. Training in nature gives you strange angles and weird paths. This makes you more aware where as training in the city is much more objective.” -YouTube commenter “This is easily one of the most elucidating videos on parkour that I have ever seen, and he only mentions parkour once.” -Parkour/freerunner on reddit “One of my disagreements with the commonly accepted definition of Parkour is that it was created by David Belle (or passed down from his father, as he has said). This video shows that the desire to find uncommon paths through our environment is a fundamental instinct of humankind.” -Parkour/freerunner on reddit “...it seems... silly... to entertain an argument that a Bi-pedal hominid finally invented running and jumping in the 20th century. Good thing we figured out computers first!” “...Find The Path That Is No Path.” -Parkour/freerunner on reddit “Mate, check out 'Erwan LeCorre movnat'...this stuff is a copy of that...terrible copy...sorry” -YouTube commenter “I...have shared with other bodyworking students at the Guild for structural integration where I am currently and find it to be very related...” -Facebook friend “CrossFrolic?” -One of the cameramen “[I'm located] In the UK, just outside London. Not an ideal place for this kind of running but I make it work.” -meditator on reddit Some enjoyed having their beliefs challenged, particularly with 'acting your age': “Wow! I now realize why I think running is boring, yet it does me good at the same time. Looking forward to try this with the kids!” -YouTube commenter “When i tell friends that running through the woods and just having fun is really relaxing they just say "wow youre like a child" “What a great complement :)” -me “yeah, im very happy that i still have the ability to be a child...” -meditator on reddit “And at about 16:00 there is information about 'wolf running' and you see some elder humans with INCREDIBLE mobility” -Martial Arts/Systema program director on Facebook Others stoutly defended their beliefs and limits, internal or environmental: “If this guy actually cared about the environment, he'd stay on the damn trail. Also, running without moving your arms looks really strange.” - trailrunner on reddit “I would love to do this, but living in the city makes it problematic for "off-trail" running and whatnot as there's really no forests around me.“ -anticonsumerism on reddit “If I run through the woods of NC for an extended period of time while trying to just be mindful of the spiderwebs on my face, my face will basically become a giant spiderweb with god knows how many spiders biting my head.” -meditator on reddit “...You must become one with the spiderwebs. Be the spider webs. And most of all: try not to squeal like a little girl and flail around in the spider webs, cause it just makes it worse.” -meditator on reddit My most in-depth critique was from a barefoot runner on reddit. What I found most revealing was the focus on quantifying and defining running. My response is below his excerpts: “I used to scoff at the people who had monthly schedules written out in advance, people who wore Garmins, you know the type. Then I realized that they were running at a level I couldn't get near...At a point I began to notice I could only improve by using these structured tools as well...” “While I'm sure there is some physical effort involved in the form of running you undertake, it would appear to be very limiting...” “Particularly the emphasis on leaving your arms at your side leads me to believe that the movement you are undertaking is not what we would classically consider running...” “Running is a very specific and largely non-variable set of motions designed to move the body efficiently at a greater-than-walking speed. Swinging the arms is just as much a part of the suite of moments as bending your knees. It does not change where the center of balance lays, it simply counteracts the torque from your legs. We evolved to run in the open. While the plains of Africa are a far cry from the pavement many of us find ourselves out on today, they were distinctively open and flat areas of land. The forest is not conducive to running in the sense that we evolved to do...” “However, it should be noted that these moments of mental engrossment come only during peak physical effort. It is distinctly different from the awareness I feel while fox-walking through the woods.” -barefoot runner on reddit “I question: Can we really quantify what speed is, what endurance is, what improvement is, and especially: what running is? What gets lost when we do quantify and define them? What would it be like if we tracked the connection between quantifying these aspects of running and the way we relate to ourselves, each other, and our world?” -me I also received an honest critique from an online reporter from Milwaukee who interviewed me. I was taken by her openness and curiosity even though she was well-established in the modern running culture and asked her what she thought about other runners who struggled with the idea: “For a new idea to influence the "masses" it needs to be outside of the norm but not too far outside... it. If you want more people to "by in" and not reject the idea I recommend making an intuitive running video in the city so that it is closer to peoples current context...Right now the idea just looks too different than what most runners are used to...keep the beard, cause right now for some runners that is trendy, but maybe wear a cooler running outfit...it is just to easy for them to say "that is too different for me, what I do is working, I am not going to listen to that persons idea." and then they miss out on the cool deep philosophy of intuitive running.” -Milwaukee Running Fitness on Examiner.com One thing to note is that the meditators far outweighed anyone else in their reception of the video. The video received about 1200 views from that segment alone, and it was upvoted to the #1 slot on the meditation sub-reddit (with close to 100,000 readers) for a few days. The only reception that came close to this was on the anticonsumption sub-reddit, with about a ¼ as many upvotes and many less comments. Running, trail-running, barefoot running, parkour, movnat, yoga, and rewilding all gave very little feedback or votes to the video. What I would like to work on, whether it is on this topic or another one (they're all connected), is to help to break out of the box of "I can't do that, because my environment doesn't lend itself to that". As far as "I can't do this in the city," a few people shared it is indeed possible, and I think learning that for myself would stretch my own limits.