David Smart

Playing with some pieces taken from personal programming.

All fields of study are open for learning, boxing included. The field matters less. What applies across fields matters more.

In this case: footwork, coordination, reactivity, responsiveness, conditioning, precision, attentiveness, creativity.

Also, personally: the fear of fighting. Being dealt and dealing damage. Ankle instability. Losing.

Still new to this work, but wanted to expose and share progress.

This is work that can be taken anywhere. No fancy equipment. No partner necessary. Just you and your shadow 🙂

Programming comes from

I’ve been trying to chain together two of these handstand presses for who knows how long. Just wanted to share. :) it’s still unrefined in many ways but a win is a win.

Skill acquisition is useful to me. Skills show me what I’m not. They teach the importance of sticking to something for a long time even if it seems like nothing’s happening. Non-linear development is real.

Trusting a process works. Exploring and tinkering works too. Both when combined are a deadly force.

Much keeps unfolding at

While many obsess over skills, positions, and archetypal postures, it’s easy to lose sight of the essence: movement.

There’s a place for creative expression, for skills, for positions, but these are totally secondary to the essence of how we move.

What we call archetypal postures are not isolated position. They’re movement patterns based in time and rhythm. There are principles that govern these positions. Study the principles, not the positions, and you will go far.

One big shift for me has been, whenever I want to default to some isolated position, to intentionally change toward connecting the parts into the whole.

It’s clear when one has become a bag of skills without connection. Or when one has connection without skills.

In writing, it’s clear that one can write the most beautiful, introspective and exciting story about a man sitting on a bench, drinking a cup of coffee. Meanwhile, the most epic, flashy journey can lack the same beauty and attention to detail.

To grow in movement, move. Connect the dots from one moment to the next. If you cannot step in a continuous, controlled, manner, adding skills atop this foundation won’t lead to higher quality movement. That’s like slapping a bunch of colored bandaids atop a wound. It’s so simple and yet it’s so easy to make it seem complex.

First, make stepping beautiful. Make crawling connected. Spend your time here just as much if not more than skills and positions.

Exploration is free. A process helps. Reach out if you want individualized programming.

These three practices continue to inspire: movement, meditation, and writing.

It can be difficult to balance so many interests and practices at once, but when each serves the whole, there are few more nourishing ways to spend time.

If you want structured learning, programming, or guidance for any of all of these paths, let me know.

Letting you in on the process. From first draft to second draft, many changes need to occur. Working on descriptive writing and sentence structure. What do you guys think?
The Legend of Taro is an epic fantasy novel inspired by stories like The Alchemist, thinkers like Carl Jung, and films like Spirited Away. Samurai, demons, good vs. evil, following your dreams, all settled against a background of Japanese-folklore.

True Transformation

Awakening threatens survival.
The more conscious,
the less need to uphold.

Becoming less identified
does not mean letting go completely.
It means viewing the game from above,
Witnessing and acting as an observer.

Rationality and the senses are finite
but God is infinite.
We’ll never fully understand
because a finite lens
cannot view infinity.

Science has overtaken religion
Because it’s better at survival.
Both have become corrupted by humans.
Better to experience directly:
the true scientist,
the true mystic.

Most practices end with a need or no need for survival.
Awakening is to die many small deaths
in preparation for the ultimate truth.

Seeing our conditioning
does not guarantee awakening.
It reveals what is not absolute truth.
Often, more or different conditioning
is layered on top of the previous,
thinking some change has been made.
More akin to lateral shifts.
To see through,
Is to keep peeling back.

There is no map for who you are and what your path holds.

There instead exist many conceptual maps we try to layer on top of ourselves in an attempt to understand. But they will never be exact and can never tell you where to go.

I have tried and love many maps. Christianity. Buddhism. Vipassana. Spiral dynamics. Positive psychology. The five pillars of movement. They can help direct attention but a map is not to be confused with reality. The Dao that can be spoken is not the Dao. And yet, if we want to live and love in this world, we must adopt maps, wear masks, and embrace these necessary layers. Only in brief, fleeting moments can we connect to the mapless map. The vast majority of our lives are built on preexisting maps, which are nothing special to you as an individual but incredibly potent for accessing the illusion of change and growth. Once you see the maps you hold onto and default to, you can now choose where you want to go. Or at least attempt to choose.

Find a map or two and embrace it with a loose, effortless grip. Identify with it. Dive all in and see what it has in store for you. Play, build, and create… but do not mistake anything that comes of it for your essence. Even the sensorial map of the body, which can be experienced directly and helps guide the ex*****on of conceptual maps, is still only a piece of the path. Know which one you’re missing… connection to body, senses, and sensation or connection to thoughts, concepts, and maps. Integrate the two and watch as something new emerges.

I filmed this video “Maps of Movement” a few days ago, which you can watch fully on YouTube, but I wanted to add something else in writing.

thanks y’all 🙏