01Early arts
Judo, wrestling and self-defence established a practical education in balance, pressure and consequence.
The wider martial education →Consultant · Teacher · Author
R. Allen Pittman
A life shaped through practice, attention and the intelligence of the body.
Movement, history and bodywork — more than five decades of practice, teaching in nine countries; knowledge tested in relationship and passed on as useful tools.
Consultant · Teacher · Author
01
A life in practice
Four strands · one continuing inquiry
The work has a history before it has a name.
Early physical education, Taiwan, formative teachers and yoga became one continuing education in how a body moves, learns, meets pressure and changes.
01
02Taiwan & internal arts
Training and household life in Taipei made transmission daily: form, application, trust and time.
Open the Taiwan archive →
03Teachers & relationships
Robert W. Smith, Hung I-Mien and Tim Geoghegan shaped different parts of the path in different ways.
Teachers & influences →
04Yoga, bodywork & dream
Yoga Nidra, Egyptian practice, bodywork, myth and dream widened the inquiry beyond martial categories.
Yoga & the living body →What emerged
Wisdom of the Body
Allen gathered these histories into an adaptable practice built around floor work, reaching, crawling, squatting and standing.
Now teaching · August–October 2026
Allen in Zürich
Open evenings, weekly classes and private sessions during Allen’s stay in Zürich.
Weekend workshop · 17–18 October 2026
Mazdaznan Breathing & Walewski’s Arcanes
Ekkehart Jenetzky and Allen Pittman set the Mazdaznan breathing teaching of O. Z. Hanish side by side with Walewski’s arcanes — breathing practice and conversation.
Sat 17 Oct · 10–13 & 14–17
Sun 18 Oct · 9–12 & 13–16
65 CHF per day · 110 CHF for both days
Mainaustrasse 53, 8008 Zürich (Seefeld) · in German and English
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What the path became
Wisdom of the Body · a practice by Allen Pittman
Where the paths meet.
Allen developed Wisdom of the Body after decades of teaching and study across martial arts, yoga, physical education and bodywork. The practice moves from supported floor work toward crawling, squatting, standing and partner exercises.
Participants explore weight, coordination and different ways of responding to a task. Movements can be adapted to the people in the room; no fixed form or previous experience is required.
Assessment · exploration · orientation · relationship · choice
Enter Wisdom of the Body →
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Index
The wider field
Yoga, internal arts, teachers, writing and study.
Each has its own history and depth. Together they show the range of practices, relationships and questions that continue through Allen’s work.
01Yoga & the Living Body
Earth yoga, anti-hurry yoga: a slow Egyptian body practice, breath and Yoga Nidra. Practice that begins with a body that can be felt.
02Teachers & Internal Arts
The human relationships through which Hsing-I, Ba-Gua and related internal-arts studies arrived.
03Studies, Writing & Inquiry
Talks, books and conversations on physical culture, myth, history and spiritual traditions.
The bow
Attention held in form.
Tension · direction · release
04
Journal & library
Read · study · practise
Books, papers and recordings carry the work beyond the room.
Young Atlas
Allen’s account of Tim’s training path — wrestling, SPAN, Yoga Nidra and a physical culture in which strength, healing and inner life remained connected.
→
Talks beyond the movement practice
Talks and conversations on physical culture, myth, history and spiritual traditions.
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Practice, study and source material
Curated PDFs, scans, practice notes and longer records — arranged for reading, return and practice.
→Live on Zoom · every week
Online with Allen
Two weekly classes on Zoom, open to students anywhere.
All online classes
Study directly with Allen
One private hour. One clear question.
Wisdom of the Body, internal arts, yoga, meditation or an existing movement practice. Sixty minutes, one-to-one on Zoom, with a fixed price shown when booking.
Private online lesson →