Feb 19, 2008/issue #3 In this issue:

• TrackersNEWS
• TrackersClub PDX
• Dr. Michael Owen talks about staying healthy naturally
• Willem Larsen helps you work on you Body Skills
• New 1 day a week After School Program
• News on our Adult Immersion FREE Taster

And featured on our YouTube channel:

• Video SHIFT BLOG, see the crew training boxing
• Video Dr Mike teaches us some Basic Boxing

Upcoming Events:

• Fri-Sat, Feb 22-24 Earthen Floor Workshop STILL ROOM
• Thurs, Feb 28, 7pm FREE REI Clinic: Traditional Boat Building
• Sat, Mar 1, 10am Summer Camp Fair
• Sun, Mar 9, 7pm Scout Pit Grand Opening: Day activities, evening music and more!
• Sat, Mar 8, 10am-2pm Teen A-Team Camp & Immersion "Trailer"

Also, check out our Community Events Page for more FREE Events!!!

TrackersNEWS

We now offer SHIFT: Martial Arts two days a week! Monday and Thursday nights are the place to be at the Scout Pit. Now you sign up for one night or sign up for both. And of course, you can always try SHIFT free for you first night!

SHIFT: Indoor to Outdoor Fitness Our two instructors, Mike Owen and Willem Larsen bring in an exciting blend of Philippine Kali stick fighting, Taoist Standing Exercise and good ol' fashion American Boxing. We are be different than Martial Arts dojos, where training can be stern, even at its best. Our martial arts classes are welcoming, fun and friendly to all levels while also being one of the most intensive and effective fitness & training regimens around. We also ensure a space where all genders feel welcome.

Come to SHIFT and train at your pace.

Who Ages 10-13 & 14 to Adult
When 7pm-8:30pm Monday Nights, and NOW Thursday Nights.
Where The Scout Pit, 5040 SE Milwaukie Ave, Portland OR
How Simple monthly memberships for one or two nights a week
Fee FREE to sample & then...
For one night per week: $30 every 4 weeks
For two nights per week: $50 every 4 weeks

Plus TrackersPDX Club This is a $10 Adventure that is 2 hours of tracking in the Wildlife rich areas of the Scout Pit. I happens the first weekend of the month, Saturday for youth and Sunday for Adults. We will look for animal sign in the morning and train in Naturalist Skills in the Afternoon. This is an opportunity for long term Mentoring in Tracking.

Saturdays Youth (ages 6-8 & 8-10) TrackersClub PDX
Sundays Adult* TrackersClub PDX*
*ages 11-12 must be accompanied by parent

Natural living is Natural Health

by Dr. Michael Owen

I am continually educating patients on how to prevent some of the most common diseases in the developed world today, and surprised to find that most Americans are not knowledgeable in the teachings of our forefathers and mothers as to eating well, living with nature, and having balance in their life. It is as if the New World is helping us to forget how to live a natural and healthy lifestyle and making the norm a sedentary, overworked, lifestyle while eating processed food that has little nutritional value and then taking medication or receiving medical treatment for the results of these choices. Unfortunately, the result of living the standard American lifestyle is a high incidence of chronic disease and with the healthcare system of the day, little is done to prevent disease, and the system has a difficult time with the management of chronic diseases or educating patients on how to get back to a healthy lifestyle.

It is important to realize the value of emergency medicine and what it has to offer, as well as the value of preventative medicine.  Take a step back in time when diabetes, cancer, and heart disease where not common diagnosis and see what was different about the lives of those people. A time when humans did not rely on a “magic pill” that they would take the rest of their lives to manage a preventable disease and will eventually have to take other “magic pills” to stop side effects from the first one. A time when eating fresh food from the farm gave the nutrition required for building a healthy body and your doctor was a family doctor who knew you and your family and helped with nutritional and lifestyle education as well as the treatment of infectious disease or injury.

To live a natural lifestyle is to have natural health. Not only will the benefits be, feeling better, having more energy, living with and being more connected to nature, but one will also be preventing the D

Dr. Michael Owen is our in house naturopath for our Residential Immersion Program. After training most of his life in his parents world renowned Martial Arts school in Grants Pass, OR, Mike went on to work with key masters in each of many respective styles, including Jeet Kun Do and Kali stick and knife fighting. He become a naturopathic physician and practiced medicine for over a year in small Nicaraguan village. Meet Dr. Mike in his YouTube bio!

	Body Skills By Willem Larsen Many cultures see the intimate knowledge of how to use one's body effectively as a technology in and of itself.
Willem practices "standing"

Unlike wild animals, modern humans have the overwhelming excess of calories to make moving inefficiently and carrying constant tension an option. A person with an efficient body will find many wilderness skills far easier and pleasant, even with little or no actual change in "technique".

Relaxation and Going Barefoot Learning to really relax will go a long way towards rewilding your body. A simple experiment may revolutionize your ability to go barefoot:

1. Find a gravel path or area.
2. Walk barefoot on it for a few feet. Notice how it feels.
3. Now imagine that instead of feet, you have rubbery flippers, unable to carry any tension. Walk the same distance as before, allowing your feet to flap down on the gravel. Notice the difference.

For anybody who had an urban childhood, this will probably blow your mind. Imagine all the ways in which our bodies actually create pain and discomfort where life does not require it.

The Use of Center Many cultures acknowledge a place in the human body as a main "center", one of several that, when focused on, creates more stability and power in ones movements. You can begin experimenting with this Center by locating it about where your belt buckle hits, between your belly and the small of your back. Tucking in your tail bone a little bit helps to activate this center, but don't do it too much (or too little!). Think of the pelvis of "dog body" instead of "cat body". Look at a house cat, versus a dog, if you don't understand the difference.

Try pushing on a large car. Placing your palms on the rear of the car, concentrate on bringing force up from the soles of your feet, through your Center, and directly into the car, bypassing your arms. Do not lean into the push. However much you take a step by, the car needs to move. If your arms give, this signifies that you've choked off the power coming from the ground in the muscles of your arms.

Another simple test standing next to a partner, push gently but firmly on their shoulder. Ask them to concentrate on their Center. Describe its location. They will notice an increase in stability - allow them to experience this without commenting on it yet. You can increase the sensation by asking them to imagine it shrinking infinitely, or expanding. After some moments, lightly tickle the crown of their head. Your partner will experience a remarkable transformation in their stability as they, without understanding it, allow you to draw their psychological center away from their physical one, up to the highly unstable location at the top of their head. When testing, prevent "bracing" by withdrawing your hand from the push unexpectedly. If they fall forward, even a little, they had begun to use you for support, by bracing themselves against your push. Instead, ask them to allow your push to flow through their center, into the ground via the soles of their feet. Sink, rather than strain.

NEPALESE mountain porters who climb steep Himalayan slopes carrying more than their bodyweight are the fittest and most efficient load-lifters in the world, scientists have found. Their combination of technique and physical ability makes their performance far more effective than that of Western soldiers marching with backpacks, according to research. It even surpasses the most efficient carrying methods studied to date: those of African women whose loads are balanced on or suspended from the head. From Gospel of the Redman, 1966, Ernest Thompson Seton:

The most famous runner of ancient Greece was Pheidippides, whose record run from Athens to Sparta was 140 miles in 36 hours. Among our Indians, such a feat would have been considered very second-rate. In 1882, at Fort Ellice, I saw a young Cree who, on foot, had just brought in despatches from Fort Qu'Appelle (125 miles away) in 25 hours. It created almost no comment. I heard little from the traders but cool remarks like, "a good boy", "pretty good run". It was obviously a very usual exploit, among Indians. The two Indian runners, Thomas Zafiro and Leonicio San Miguel, ran 62 1/2 miles, i.e. from Pachuca to Mexico City, in 9 hours, 37 minutes, November 8, 1926, according to the El Paso Times, February 14, 1932. This was 9 1/4 minutes to the mile. The Zunis have a race called, "Kicked Stick". In this, the contestants each kick a stick before them as they run. Dr. F. W. Hodge tells me that there is a record of 20 miles covered in 2 hours by one of the kickers. The Tarahumare mail carrier runs 70 miles a day, every day in the week, carrying a heavy mailbag, and he doesn't know that he is doing an exploit. In addition, we are told: "The Tarahumare mail carrier from Chihuahua to Batopiles, Mexico, runs regularly more than 500 miles a week; a Hopi messenger has been known to run 120 miles in 15 hours".

Willem mixes collaborative team tools employed by some of the top tech development firms with ancient Taoist training philosophy to form a highly effective model for movement training and wilderness education. As one of Dr. Mike's key students in SHIFT he blends his experience as trackers to renew what we understand as Martial Arts into Natural Arts Meet Willem in his YouTube bio!