The Art of Play

Explore elements of human movement as tools for creative expression & performance. Improv & creative problem solving will be explored deeply.

We use physical practices that are simple, enjoyable and repeatable. We design play-based activities that encourage physical freedom, creativity and vitality. And because we are artist, creative movers, we are not bound by any one discipline or way. 

We use, we steal and repurpose ideas, tools and resources from the old ways. We cultivate a way that is adaptive and alive to create a beautifully moving, adaptable and creative human being.

And if you’re a coach, trainer or teacher I got you covered.

Our Art of Play Workshops are directed towards fitness & performance professionals that want to learn how to incorporate Physical Creativity, Play and Exploration into their very own teaching, training or coaching practice. This includes personal trainers, group fitness instructors, physical education teachers, coaches, yoga instructors, MMA trainers, and even physical therapists.

Please join me at Nourishing Storm Studios on February 25th from 1-3 to discover The Art of Play.

You can register here: The Art of Play

Flux Lab April Workshop

Rediscover the joy of movement and find ways to weave play and creativity into your strength and movement practice: and vice versa.

Empower yourself to chart your own path and find joy and exploration whether you are a beginner or seasoned professional. Chip and I have combined 50 years of experience teaching human movement and physical expression.

Designed for the fitness enthusiast and professional trainer, Flux Lab workshops will teach you how to reinvigorate , revitalize and reinvent your training.

Let’s develop real skills and find ways to create a better relationship with your body through strength and movement.

We use, we steal and repurpose ideas, tools and resources from the old ways. You can register here: Flux Lab Workshops on April 29-30th.

“We cultivate a way that is adaptive and alive to create a beautifully moving, adaptable and creative human being.”

— Jason C. Brown

Creative Movement Live

My signature workshop: Creative Movement Live is an intensive training, a meeting between an artist and their body. It’s a workshop that gives you permission to be yourself fully.

Not in a way that is meant for other people or for their approval or pleasure, but your own. This workshop is about you and your creativity and physicality.

It is a workshop that ask for a lot and in return gives back just as much.

On this creative path is trust, and I’ve been blessed to help facilitate a curious, playful exploration of possibilities.

Thank you to everyone who has taken my Creative Movement Live , shown up fully, and trusted me to help guide and shape your relationship with movement, play and physical expression.

It’s your journey, your pilgrimage, but I’m so honored to have been there for you. Thank you.

7 Super Skills Every Movement Coach Should Know

What is a Super Skill?

Super Skills are skills that have a guaranteed result on your investment regardless of your professional circumstances or otherwise.

Super Skills increase the value of nearly every activity , as well as the value of all of your other skills.

There are many Super Skills but I have carefully curated the Top 7 for movement coaches and created the brief yet comprehensive guide.

This guide contains 7 videos and PDFs that you can download onto your own computer and study at your own leisure.

You can order your downloadable copy below.

The Physical Creative as a Teacher

I am very apprehensive about sending out “workouts.” This is not because I have some secret sauce that I can’t share with the general public. It’s more about my experience in doing so. The workouts and practices I design are usually created for a very specific person, or for a very specific group of students/athletes.

Most times, I have personally worked with them in the physical world — I know their 3 ages…their biological age, their training age and their chronological age. I know their abilities, their injuries and their strengths.

If I cannot work with my student directly I will have a coach that I trust administer their program.

“When the student is ready the teacher will appear. When the student is truly ready, the teacher will disappear.”

— Lao Tzu

I think that Lao Tzu quote above underlies my approach quite well also. Personally, I consider myself much more of a teacher than a trainer or coach.

If I work with a student or athlete over an extended period of time, I truly believe they should be able to coach themselves. If they cannot, I have not truly done my job. I’m always trying to teach myself out of a job. I work hard to help people understand why they’re doing what they’re doing.

It’s always about much more than the exercise or workouts. It’s the context, the practice and the greater approach to quality of life and vitality. Here’s to creative longevity.

Play Your Way to Better Movement

Play is vital for functional and effective living.

In our Physical Creative Workshops , we place a strong emphasis on physical creativity. The lead coach may be an expert with a great knowledge base and experience, but all participants are equal in their ability to innovate new games and physical expressions.

In our practice, every group seems to create their very own expressions and interpretations. In fact, many of the new games come directly from mistakes, accidents and what-ifs.

This is the true beauty of human movement.

Please take ideas from my work if you need a new idea, but please expose yourself to spontaneity; force yourself to improv and you may create something brilliant.

If you’d like to be notified when I start running Physical Creative | Play Craft workshops in person again please join my newsletter below.

Teaching and Creativity

Teaching and coaching are creative activities. We often talk about the art and science of coaching the physical arts but then we always bias ourselves towards the science. Why is that? Is it more important? I’m not sure it is. I’m not even sure it’s more important than the art even for reaching our desired outcomes.

I’d like to change that in my own simple way.

I appreciate the science but I absolutely love the art, the act of creating and designing a physical practice for a student completely lights me up. Talking about the Krebs Cycle… not so much.

This is where my passion lies, the joy of enhancing the dance of human movement through life or athletic activities.

Too much science equals too much mechanic and not enough bio.

When we focus too much on the science we lock ourselves into dogmatic approaches, drudgery and other artificial methods that are completely disconnected from the dance, the game, the roll. A creative coach, A Physical Creative however, will look at the same movements and see it with different eyes, the eyes of an artist.

If you’d like to experience this approach in person please check out our Physical Creative Live Workshops.

The Simplicity and Unity of Play

What is it that we’re doing here at The Physical Creative ?

We use physical practices that are simple, enjoyable and repeatable. We design play-based activities that encourage physical freedom, creativity and vitality. And because we are artist, Physical Creatives, we are not bound by any one discipline or way. We use, we steal and repurpose ideas, tools and resources from the old ways. We cultivate a way that is adaptive and alive to create a beautifully moving human.

In this video we use nothing more than a yoga block and a medicine ball. It could be any ball and any block.

I call these live workshops “Play Craft” as there is a deep physical creativity, utility and artistry in this approach and practice.

If you’d like to be notified when I start running these live workshops in person again please join my newsletter below.

The Physical Art of Creativity & Joy

Should we try to teach absolutely every movement and then coach it ? Or should we allow the student the joy of discovery through exploring their own movements and capabilities ? There’s a real worry about them getting it wrong. My thought on that is …” What is wrong ? ”

There must be spontaneity, a joy and anticipation in movement, a true sense of discovery of skill and training, not a programmed robotic approach.

We’re too mechanical and not enough bio.

It’s been my experience working with students and athletes at all levels, in a wide variety of settings and contexts, that people will find their own best way of doing something if they are put into a position where they have to adapt.

Each student/athlete has their own unique movement signature. It is their stamp, their personal interpretation of the skill. They are very adaptable. We need to encourage this approach, much like the art of improv. That’s exactly our approach in our Play Craft | Physical Creative Workshops.

I’ve written a few post on this here:

Adapted or Adaptable

Adapted or Adaptable Part 2

How to Get Smashed & Keep Smiling

Thoughts on the Mountain.

This weekend I went to spend some time in the mountains of my home town. They were calling and I needed to go. I also longed for the cold fresh water of the local creeks. While sauntering next to one of those creeks I had a few thoughts I’d like to share with you:

• I’d have to say that the mountains have had the greatest impact on the way I behave. More than any one person or thing.

• The lessons you learn from the mountains. The relationship you have with them covers so many things. The harmony of being in them, with them. Sauntering through them is an act of harmony and reverence.

• You do not conquer mountains. You have the fortune to be with them for a moment.

As for my physical practice, and my creation of a physical space , I’m reminded of this highlight from many moons ago.

Perhaps one day my friend.