Ok, folks, I know this is a long thread, and yes, its from an aikido website. But there is a guy here, Dan Harden, who has been around the TMA community for some time and who does his own brand of "internal martial arts."

At any rate, if you just read his posts, you will see he is making all sorts of statements about things he can do, and implying he's done them to Judo, BJJ and MMA guys. He's been getting more and more open about his claims.

He's in Massachusetts. Has anyone ever heard of him or have any experience training with him? Do tell:

http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12252

I heard he is the second coming of Sokaku Takeda.

I heard he punked Randy Couture.

I heard he said Chuck Lidell is his biatch.

I also heard that he stopped a crashing freight train with his aiki.

That's what I heard, but people are probably lying or exaggerating.

LOL!!!

I think I have met Dan. He posts on emptyflower under the name Bodywork if he is the person I am thinking of.

When we met I was left with the feeling that he had skills, although we didn't do much really.

He did not strike me as someone who would make assertions he couldn't back up.

I asked to visit his school, but he replied that he didn't think it would be of interest to me. As a lot of other things came up in my personal life, I haven't pursued it any further.

Walt-

Do you do Judo, MMA, or BJJ?

Kit,
No, I'm an old timer who started with kenpo, progressed through northern chinese arts and settled in with taiji and bagua. Especially when I was training kenpo we worked on throws and reaps and various take downs (standing grappling) but never got into the ground game.

I know that may seem like a limited approach to things, but I'm 50 now, and when I first heard of BJJ or MMA I was studying bagua and taiji, all from a fighting perspective, but spending a lot of time on shen fa and neigong.

I'm not a chi-hugger, but I don't have the extensive fighting experience that you do. We trained for self-defense and sparred regularly when I was coming up, but the fighting scene has changed a lot since the 80s

I have had the chance to work with Luo, one of Tim's teachers, and I like to think my viewpoint is a practical one, but I know my limits.

Dan projected an interesting relaxed power(though not as relaxed as Luo, or Wang Hai Jun) when we did some push hands type stuff. Some of my friends did a little more work with Dan, and they spoke well of him and what he had showed them.

Dan comes across as a nice, no b.s. guy in person, and I've never seen anything to contradict that impression. I'm guessing he is in his 40s. He has strong opinions, but he is still willing to roll with anyone to back it up.

Most of his earlier neigong/internal work is from the Koryu (sp?) arts of Japan(I think, if I remember correctly) but he has met up with some of the Chinese internal guys that claim a fighting practice more recently.

Hope that helps. By the way, if you go to emptyflower and register, you can send a private message to him. He may not get it for a while, but he is good at responding and loves to meet up with other skilled fighters.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall should you two ever meet.

Walter

I hate Dan Harden.

Walt

Yeah, I've heard and don't doubt what you write, but I'm specifically looking for someone with a deep MMA, Judo, and/or BJJ background who has sparred or randori-ed with him.

He actually was talking about bringing Tim out to his club on the East Coast, to experience his jits and check out what Tim knows about "the internal."

Wow, hate is pretty strong....

Kit,

I understand what you're saying, sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

Hate? Sounds like someone's belief systems have been challenged to me.

WTJ

No, I'm just sick of him changing what we are talking about every time he gets pinned to a subject.

If he is being honest about what he says he can do, then he sure talks about it in a sneaky rhetoric filled manner.

If he's ever around I'll go see him.