True Genius

I guess I am hung up on the issue of guruism and it effect on our field. I was struck by it again this weekend while I was teaching a seminar in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The pollution and bastardization of ideas is truly astounding. Why is everyone trying to make it so complicated? Here is an anecdote about the great scientist Richard Feynman, from the book Portraits of Discovery – Profiles in Scientific Genius. “One day a colleague of Feynman’s asked him a technical question. “I’ll prepare a freshman lecture on it,” Feynman replied. Several days later, however, he was forced to admit defeat. “I couldn’t do it,” he said. “I couldn’t reduce it to the freshman level. That means we don’t really understand it.” (P135) This is from a Nobel prize winner in Physics, one of the most intelligent men ever! Why can’t we reduce movement to the freshman level. Do not try to make it more complicated. Try to simplify. From the simplicity will come the complexity and the mystery. We must realize that the more we learn about movement and the body, the more we learn how underrated the body real is. It will do amazing, almost magical things if we let it.