Dutch Flow Academy
ABOUT
Dutch Flow Academy is a platform that teaches essential skills for rotational training equipment to gain mastery in handling momentum.
The academy was founded in 2017 with the simple goal of bringing flow and functionality into movement. Harbert became obsessed with the mace, aka steel mace or macebell and this led him to discover the clubs too. He pursued many travels to India to reveal the history and has met countless inspiring teachers all over the world.
Dutch Flow Academy brings his knowledge to a worldwide platform where you can learn the skill to master and teach rotational training equipment. Our mission is to give you the freedom to move through skill, flow, and creativity.
The first platform in the world that has united all the swinging tools under one method: the Dutch Flow Method
Freedom of Movement through Skill Creativity Flow
Harbert realised that the way he was teaching was not was he was being taught and it confused him that no system was explaining what he was discovering and embodying in this search and teachings. He launched his first online course in 2020, The Six Week Workout Program and this was an instant hit. People loved it. He had stumbled upon a way to break down flows into bits and teach them in a way anybody could understand.
He then went on a long hiatus to create the biggest mace course ever created: the Mace Masterclass Series. And this process had him stumble upon the method that later became the Dutch Flow Method. A way of simplifying and comprehending the endless possibilities of the swinging tools. He had discovered the roots of all the tools. He then categorised all the club and mace variations into five segments and in two years created an entire course path and structure for each of them.
As Harbert was developing the courses he also finalised the long awaited mace certification and the first one launched in 2022 and was an instant success. This has set in motion a movement of international instructors that are spreading the method everywhere in the world. Dutch Flow is about quality education, growth, play, creation, connection, and so much more.
India
The mace as we know it now has part of its origin in India, where people train with Gadas in Akhadas (ancient holy gyms). Harbert visited India in 2017 for the first time and was captivated by it’s original culture and training styles. Every culture around the world has had some type of mace as a weapon or tool. The Gada is basically is a bamboo/wooden stick with cement/stone at the end of it. They have been using the Gada for strength in Kushti wrestling, a specific type of wrestling in India. It simulates throwing someone over the shoulder.
Dutch Flow Academy Mace Principles
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Swinging is balancing between momentum and control
“Chaos is were things are so complex you can’t handle it, and order is where things are so rigid that it’s too restrictive.” (Jordan Peterson). In between chaos and order is a place that’s meaningful, this place is what I call flow. What is the first thing someone does with a mace that doesn’t know what it is? Yes, swing it around chaotically. What is the first thing most people do when they try to swing a mace? Yes, trying to control the mace and tensing up enormously. Let’s say chaos is momentum and order is control. Swinging a mace is therefore finding balance between control and momentum and to create a space where you flow between the two.
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Every Inside has an Outside
“For every outside there is an inside and for every inside there is an outside, and although they are different, they go together” (Alan Watts). Insides go with outsides. You need eyes to see the world, but you also need a world to perceive with your eyes. In a sense they need each other and are therefore one. This is also true when using a mace. When you perform a certain exercise you can always reverse that exercise and create a new movement through that action. This seems logical, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve performed a certain exercise for a long time until I found out I could do it the opposite way too.
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Aim to give Direction
We succeed when we score a goal or hit a target. We fail, or sin, when we do not (sin = to miss the mark). We cannot navigate, without something to aim at and, while we are in this world, we must always navigate” (Jordan Peterson). Think about an archer who is about to shoot an arrow. The archer cannot shoot the target without properly aiming his bow. Aiming correctly is the singular most important thing when swinging a mace to give direction to it. Aiming correctly will ensure that the momentum travels in the right direction and you will not have to interfere with the momentum and are therefore able to let go.
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Let Go, Let God
Strength training is typically done in a tension creating fashion. Activating the muscle throughout the movement will ensure maximum activation of the muscle within hypertrophy, and quick and explosive activation will ensure maximum load moved within training for maximum strength. With the mace this attitude will leave you swinging small maces. You need to trust the leverage of the mace, and use it in your advantage. Letting go once properly aimed will ensure a powerful and efficient swing.
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Become the Eye of the Storm
“In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you” (Deepak Chopra). Once you’ve aimed correctly and let go, there is momentum or chaos happening. The body shifts from one side to the other and needs to stabilize itself. You will need to have to be connected to the ground from the toes up.
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Make the Mace an Extension of the Body
The idea of swinging a mace is to become one with the mace. Instead of resisting against the mace you make it seem and feel like it is simply an extension of the body. In this way you’re now able to follow and manipulate momentum. Using momentum to shift the body into a pivot using the momentum of the mace to bring a relatively heavy weight to a position with ease that would be strenuous without the momentum.
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Feeling is Understanding
One of the most important tools in your toolbox as a coach is to be able to get people out of their head and into their body. Teaching them a new skill will do this quickly, but what’s really important is how they cope with learning a new skill. The mace can invoke fear as it’s swung and that fear is all from the head. Letting people tune into their bodies allows them to avoid overthinking and learn how to make the mace an extension of the body.
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Complete the Circle
The mace is a circular training tool. Sure, it can be used as a off-weight barbell, but in its essence it’s designed to swing. The torque that is created when swinging a mace or club has a completely different effect than a static movement that moves in one line. To create multiple circles every circle has to be a complete circle, otherwise you would lose control and have only chaos. Therefore completing the circle means ending at the starting position. Every combination or flow that is created can eventually be cut into separate swings. In this way it is possible to distinguish a chaotic flow from a flow that is executed with precision.