Dao Lu is the path of least resistance and a way of life that takes shape as one trains the form and the partner exercises.
Dao Lu
Dao Lu is the blending together of Chi Kung, Tai Chi, and Lu Kung Fu. It is a journey from the inside to the outside and back again, in a continuous and harmonious cycle.
To live well, we need to learn how to tap into, harness and guide chi from within us to the outside world. With this objective in mind, through specific exercises and relaxation techniques, I teach you how to calm down, open up, connect, dissolve conflict and harmonize with yourself and with another.
Chi Kung
Inner awareness
Chi Kung is a moving meditation. It is the foundation in Dao Lu of mind and body awareness. Through carefully designed exercises the whole body is trained at once as a single dynamic unit, and the mind is fully in the moment, aware and listening, but not interfering. Chi Kung is similar to mindfulness except we incorporate movement into the meditation.
Tai Chi
Energy flow
Tai Chi is functional movements from head to toes, with every bone, muscle, and tendon in action in the gentlest of manners. It is the natural continuation of Dao Lu from where Chi Kung started off. Tai Chi is a mind and body awareness workout where the mind listens internally and also externally, to where the energy is aiming at. Tai Chi is intense yet relaxing, similar in some ways to yoga, except that the principles are based on martial arts.
Lu Kung Fu
Listening and reacting
Lu Kung Fu is the art of self-defense by flowing along with what comes our way. It is learning how to connect by listening and feeling, and then using an opponent’s power against them. Through repetitive drills and a group of basic principles, you learn how to sense a threat before it begins and how to resolve it the moment it appears. The practical applications of this modus of being is life-changing – from how you interpret your own thoughts to how you communicate with others, from how you trust your instincts/intuition to how you act/respond – there is no corner untouched within or without that will not change and develop to make you an improved version of yourself.
Objective
To find balance within, to be at peace with ourselves and with others, to have integrity, self-confidence and clarity. By training Dao Lu, we can build up a vast array of skills. It certainly requires patience and repetition, but the rewards are life-long and life-changing. It is a form of self-development through movement, partner training, soft energy and, occasionally, explosive energy.
Dao Lu helps us to tame our ego and reach a deeper level of awareness by learning to listen, I do not only mean auditory listening, but also physical listening through touch. Sensing when a threat is building up, feeling it and learning to deal with it in a controlled and calm manner.
By training we become physically stronger through repetitions of movement that work simultaneously on our joints, tendons and muscles. It also makes us more robust emotionally as we confront our fears and anxieties and, especially, our ego. In time, we discover our true power as these emotional hurdles dissolve. Our self-confidence grows and we become whole, acting with integrity.
Through Dao Lu we cater to our overall health as well as enhance our physical and mental resilience.
Further Information
Having been a Dao Lu practitioner from 2005 till present, and having been teaching since 2009, I know the amount of patience and work it can require to realize that a soft-style martial art is effective for both self-development and self-defense.
Sessions are often begun with push-hands, including various variations of that before moving on to other techniques like form training and self-defense techniques. The basis of this method of training is to always want to be in contact with the other, for through contact we can listen and feel the intention of the other and we can sense what they are going to do. It is a remarkable method that heightens our awareness to a whole new level while we remain calm and relaxed under pressure.
I always match the client’s level and then one step further, so that the client is always challenged and developing. I explain what we do and why, and I enhance those explanations frequently as the client’s skills and understanding build up. The sky is the limit!
Dao Lu Origin
Dao Lu was created by my teacher, Mark Sluijter, who after more than 30 years of intensively training Chi Kung, Tai Chi and Lu Kung Fu, wisely chose to blend the most efficient and effective movements and techniques from all three fields into one harmonious method. The advantage of which is to shed off years of unnecessary training for practitioners by making a more robust program that quickly starts to work on the client internally and externally.
Dao Lu is based on a handful of key principles such as centreline, aiming, opening up and so on, that, when sufficiently trained and practiced, allow the practitioner to move with purpose, act with intention, react with clarity, listen with calmness and, above all, be able to stay relaxed no matter the pressure. Dao Lu is a very effective system that can be applied from communicating with clarity to resolving conflict, or even for physical self-defence.