Martial Arts
East and West, ancient and modern — taught as one continuous conversation across millennia.
The martial arts, when you stand back far enough, are one long conversation across millennia — between people trying to stay alive and stay honourable. I teach the conversation, drawing from several schools of it.
I started at eleven, in a Tae Kwon Do / Moo Duk Kwan studio in Georgia. At sixteen I walked into the house of Robert W. Smith — the man who brought Tai Chi to the West, as far as the West was ready to hear it — and I remained his student for twenty-five years. We wrote Hsing-I and Ba-Gua together. Both are still in print, which is more than I expected of them when we wrote them.
In 1982 I went to Taipei to study with Hung I-Mien, and returned in 1984 to live in his house for the second year. What came down to me from Hung is a traditional Chinese lineage which is, simply, rare now in the West. From that foundation the work widened — to Japanese Judo and Kendo, to Western fencing (épée and foil, at the Atlanta Fencing Academy), to the large shield and long spear of the Greek hoplite, on which I have written academic articles for the University of Dublin. It widened further to the reconstructed weapons of Tibet — about forty standard forms world-wide, which I began to put back into living bodies after years with the iconography — and to medieval armoured combat, which I have been studying since 1999 at the Royal Armoury at Leeds. It widened further still to Thang Ta, the sword-and-spear art of Manipur, which I studied with master Khilton Nangmeithem on his visiting professorships in the early 2000s.
The through-line is simple enough: technique serves principle, principle serves the body’s own intelligence — and that intelligence, I have found, is older than any of us.
Hsing-I Quan
Direct, linear, forged through five elements and twelve animals. The internal art of the warrior. Co-authored with Robert W. Smith.
Ba-Gua Zhang
Walking the circle. Eight trigrams, eight palm changes. Evasion, rotation, the hidden geometry of the I-Ching.
Tai Chi Chuan
The grand ultimate. Taught in the lineage of Cheng Man-Ching and the Yang school as received through Robert W. Smith.
Thang Ta
The sword-and-spear art of Manipur, properly called Huyen Lallong — the 'method of safe-guarding'. Studied with master Khilton Nangmeithem on his visiting professorships in the early 2000s.
Japanese
Long study in Judo and Kendo — the grappling and the long sword. The patient Japanese clarity of form.
Korean
Tae Kwon Do / Moo Duk Kwan — the early foundation, from age eleven in Georgia. The first door I walked through.
Irish Wrestling
Collar-and-Elbow and Catch wrestling — the old jacketed and grip-based fighting of Ireland and the British Isles, received over ten years with Tim Geoghegan in Black Mountain, North Carolina.
Western Arts
Épée and Foil at the Atlanta Fencing Academy. Hoplite warfare as practiced for the University of Dublin. Celtic and Greek traditions of physical culture.
Weapons
Some forty traditional weapons — from Greek hoplite spear and shield, to Tibetan blades, to medieval chain and plate. Research at the Royal Armoury, Leeds.
Short demonstrations — the forms taking breath.
An introduction to Hsing-I and Ba-Gua, in Allen's lineage.
A movement study within Wisdom of the Body, developed and taught by Allen Pittman.
How the instruction works.
Private lessons — in-person in the UK and US, or online by arrangement. The most direct path.
Workshops — running regularly in Zürich, Bournemouth, Atlanta, and periodically across Europe. See the Events calendar.
Research requests — academic and film work considered on case-by-case basis.