This is part 8 of an ongoing series bringing the Georges Hébert’s “Natural Method” training protocols to an English-speaking audience for the first time. In this installment, I present sections 27 - 33 of Chapter 1: Principles of Natural Movement – dealing with the topics of the instructor's pedagogical role, the importance of joyful expression in training, cultivating manliness and noble sentiments, assessing the value of training sessions, and establishing an effective training ground. First is my commentary. If you just want to read the translation, you can skip ahead.
I know I've been pretty quiet lately, and I apologize for that. Life has been a whirlwind - between my other work, the new podcast, and managing the menagerie of animals on our little homestead (dairy cow, chickens, and bees - oh my!), not to mention keeping up with the three kids, I've had my hands full. But even amid the beautiful chaos of rural life, I always come back to Hébert and the wisdom in these pages.
We're bracing for a heatwave later this week - temperatures are expected to soar above 100°F. Thankfully, we've got the creek nearby to keep us cool when the sun's at its most unforgiving. Elemental conditioning! Hébert would be proud.
As I was translating this latest installment of Hébert's work, I was particularly struck by the section on singing and shouting during training sessions. It brought me back to the 50-mile march experience two years ago.
When Aku and I were in those final grueling miles, exhausted and aching, it was the power of song that kept us going. We belted out made-up marching tunes, riffed on gospel chants, anything to keep our spirits high and our feet moving. Hébert knew the value of this kind of joyful noise - it's about more than mere expression, but about tapping into a primal source of energy and motivation.
Which brings me to an exciting announcement: we're gearing up for this year's 50-mile march around Sutter Buttes on June 22nd, coinciding with the full strawberry moon and the summer solstice.
The theme? "Turning Up the Heat."
It's going to be a challenge, but that's exactly the point. We'll be pushing ourselves, finding our limits, and hopefully, surpassing them. If you're interested in joining, or organizing your own march sometime, drop me a line. There are many reasons to do a 50-mile march, but community building and muscular bonding is the biggest.
On a related note, I'm still plugging away at the draft of my book, tentatively titled JFK50 - it's shaping up to be part American history, part motivational guide, part training manual. I'll be honest, I'm torn. Part of me wants to just get it out there, even if it's not "perfect." But another part of me keeps agonizing over every detail, trying to synthesize all these new ideas I've been marinating in.
That's why I'm finding some refuge in this translation project. It's relatively straightforward - sure, I can obsess over making the language a bit smoother or more readable, but at the end of the day, I'm trying to leave the original spirit intact. This information, this wisdom, it needs an audience. It's too important to keep hidden away. And AI tools like Claude make it possible for a diletante like me to pretend I’m a translator (no, monsieur, I do not speak French).
So, as the heat rises and the challenges mount, I'm going to keep pushing forward. I hope you'll all do the same. Remember, in Hébert's words:
"Become strong to be useful to others."
That's what it's all about.
Stay cool out there.
And now, here’s Hébert:
27. The Instructor's Pedagogical Role
The instructor who leads group training has a pedagogical role to fulfill. The results—general fitness (cardiovascular), speed, toughening, aptitude in various exercise types, energy, enthusiasm—all depend on how he conducts the workout. He must give his all and communicate enthusiasm to his students, demand from them only what is possible, skillfully adjust the intensity, allow them to catch their breath and recover at the right moments, avoid wasting time with idle or puerile observations or explanations, constantly gauge the students' state, watch for signs of fatigue, and specify the goals to be achieved in each exercise.
He must adapt his teaching to the nature of his students and, despite the similarity of exercises, not lead a children's session like an adult session, a beginner's session like an athlete's session, or a girls' session like a boys' session.
He must plan his training program in advance, basing it on the principle of incremental challenge ; in other words, he graduates the efforts and staggers the difficulties in each new session according to the measure that suits the subjects he is training. He rectifies and modifies this program as often as necessary, even during a session, based on the results he observes, the effects produced, or the students' immediate state of fatigue.
For everyone, especially children and young people, the training session must be a real pleasure and never a chore, and certainly not an exhausting ordeal. When a session is conducted with the proper rhythm and composed of exercises adapted to the students' abilities, they should finish it on a high note, in good humor and high spirits.
The instructor's pedagogical role also includes cultivating manly virtues and moral development, which should not be neglected (see nos. 29 and 30 below).
28. Free Expression of the Joy of Movement. Desired Psychological Effect. Singing and Shouting.
Complete training – exercising all parts of the body in the only way that truly satisfies instinct – gives rise to joy and enthusiasm due to the sense of well-being and euphoria.
This psychological effect must necessarily appear, and the degree of its importance can serve as a criterion. A session executed without enthusiasm and with constraint proves that a mistake is being made in the way it is conducted or composed. The instructor can judge the value of his teaching by how his students react.
The joy of movement should be able to manifest freely at certain moments of the session (especially with children) through shouting and singing. The session is thus made more lively. Moreover, the voice is naturally cultivated in this way while respiratory capacity develops.
The happier children are to move, the more eagerly they shout and sing. The instructor should therefore not neglect the use of these simple, natural means (shouting and singing), whose psychological influence is considerable.
The shout should not be an unpleasant screeching but composed of one or more harmonious, powerfully articulated bursts of voice with meaning (call, rally, etc.). There are still shouts of this latter sort, such as the Arverni war cry1, perfectly preserved in the Auvergne countryside, or the call of certain mountain dwellers.
The songs should be chosen from those that exalt noble sentiments.
A psychological effect can also be achieved by executing a small recreational game. In principle, the game should be part of separate sessions and not incorporated into the methodical workout session. Moreover, it should not be ordered or commanded; otherwise, it loses its true recreational character. However, in certain particular circumstances, short games involving mainly running, jumping, and throwing can totally or partially replace the timed races at the end of the session. If the students are girls, dances and rounds are also feasible at this same moment, i.e., at the end of the session.
29. Manliness or Cultivation of Energy
Developing energy and other qualities of action (courage, willpower, composure, firmness, etc.) can be achieved through:
Executing certain difficult or dangerous exercises that require the use of these various qualities, for example, by seeking to master the fear of falling, jumping real obstacles, rising to heights (vertigo), walking in unstable balance, etc.;
The instructor's exhortations and injunctions such as: "Energy! Push a little! More ardor! Courage! Don't be afraid!"
Mutual encouragement during collective work;
The firm resolve to succeed in an exercise, to surpass a comrade, etc., which requires an effort of will and leads to an act of energy;
Finally, the instructor's personal example, who must show himself to be energetic, courageous, strong-willed, firm, etc.
30. Moralization or Cultivation of Noble Sentiments
Cultivating noble sentiments—devotion, solidarity, altruism, honor, loyalty, etc.—can be pursued as follows:
By adhering to one or more guiding principles, the main one being that the instructor must constantly recall and exalt: become strong to be useful to others2;
By providing effective mutual aid in certain exercises;
By citing exploits or great deeds involving physical vigor and energy;
By the example of the instructor's own high conscience.
31. Elements for Assessing the Value of a Training Session Proper
The overall value of a training session proper depends on the particular value of the following elements and how effectively the instructor uses them. Estimating this overall value also assesses the instructor's competence:
Workout location (in the middle of nature, outside in an inhabited setting, in a covered place, etc.);
Undressing of the performers. Relationship of this undressing to atmospheric conditions and the need for hardening against the elements. This element, like the previous one, may not be entirely under the instructor's control when a higher authority determines, for example, the workout location and regulates the exercise attire;
Applying natural movements. How to produce it. Relative importance of this application in the overall session;
Alternation of opposing efforts. Alternation of fundamental types as well as types of exercises within each of these types. Periods of relaxation or relative rest;
Workout intensity. Regulation of paces and durations. Agreement of the general workout rhythm and the particular rhythms of the exercises with the students' organic possibilities and aptitudes;
Dosage of workout in intensity or difficulty. Individualization of dosage. Limitation of dosage by the appearance of objective signs of fatigue;
Freedom of individual action in collective workouts. Free expression of the joy of movement;
Flexibility of workout. Muscular and nervous relaxation in relaxation or relative rest;
Voluntary cultivation of speed. Speed of mental, nervous, muscular action;
Breathing. Frequency of deep exhalations. Respiratory appeasement through amplified movements;
Posture. Amplified movements of straightening or correcting common posture defects (hunched back, sunken chest, neck forward);
Execution technique of exercises. Degree of perfection attained or required;
Manly action (cultivation of energy, willpower, etc.), moral action (by the instructor's exhortations), psychological action (joy, enthusiasm, enthusiasm of the students);
Emulation and self-emulation;
Appearance of the students at the end of the session.
32. Elements for Assessing the Value of a Pure Technique Session
The value of a pure technique session depends on the following elements and how the instructor uses them:
Teaching and application of general principles of execution of an exercise before any search for secondary improvements;
Technical dosage or gradation in difficulty;
Progressive refinement through ranges of exercises of the same type or movements of the same kind of exercise. Ascending or descending ranges according to the nature of the exercises;
Natural dissociation of the elements of a synthetic exercise (when this dissociation is possible) and not decomposition by conventional analysis;
Form of the natural movement: rounded, continuous, free of any unnecessary contraction;
Amplitude of movements;
Adaptation of movements to individual conformation or structure. Personality of style;
Flexibility and finesse of execution. Precision and accuracy of execution;
Skill. Sense of balance. Nervous mastery;
Nervous, mental, muscular speed. Relaxation and "timing";
Practical demonstrations of exercises by the instructor. Technical value of these demonstrations. Learning by imitation and vision, not by incomprehensible or superfluous explanations;
Value of the technique taught from a utilitarian point of view.
33. Establishment of a Training Plateau. Complete Stadium.
When the training session is performed on a restricted space, a special place called a training plateau (plateau d'entraînement) is delimited, rectangular in shape.
Any flat ground, even if not specially developed (meadow, lawn, field, clearing, schoolyard, square), can serve as a training plateau.
The plateau has average dimensions of 30 meters in length and 20 meters in width. These dimensions can be increased or decreased according to the number of subjects to be exercised, their age (children or adults), or their degree of training, or according to the space available. Large plateaus are always preferable to small ones. But the more experienced the instructor, the less space he needs to make his groups evolve.
A tracing on the ground itself or corner stakes indicate the perimeter of the plateau, whose corners are rounded to facilitate turns during running and walking exercises.
A complete stadium includes, in addition to the training plateau:
A circular track calibrated for distance races (from 125 to 500 meters).
Preferably take as length a submultiple of 100 meters to facilitate timing;
A straight track calibrated for sprint races (from 50 to 125 meters);
Jumping pits for high, long, and deep jumps;
A track for jumps or obstacle passages, ditches, embankments, walls, barriers;
Various apparatus and equipment for climbing: single bars, parallel double bars, fixed ladders, plain ropes, vertical walls or faces, climbing gantries;
Fixed apparatus and mobile devices for balancing: fixed and mobile ladders, double ladders, horizontal beams, narrow crosspieces, small objects (flat stones, wooden or iron blocks, stools, etc.) serving as foot rests, elevated places to combat vertigo;
Special locations for throwing and objects to throw: balls, balloons, weighted balloons (for juggling), stones, spherical weights; additionally, various targets;
Equipment for lifting exercises: weights, pigs, bags, wooden or iron masses (to be moved), baskets for carrying on the head;
Arenas for wrestling; ropes and bars for collective tug-of-war and repulsion wrestling;
A swimming pool or at least water and receptacles for skin care; a sheltered place serving as a locker room;
A shed.
The number of locations for jumping, climbing, lifting, throwing, wrestling must be based on the number of groups to be exercised at the same time.
Ideally, there should be enough fixed and mobile equipment, as well as special locations, so that the greatest possible number of students, if not all, can exercise simultaneously on the same exercise. This greatly facilitates the management of the workout and supervision.
Footnotes
The Arverni were a powerful Gallic tribe that lived in what is now the Auvergne region of central France. Their war cry, which served as a rallying call, has been passed down through generations and is still preserved in some rural areas today.
"Become strong to be useful to others" became Hébert's motto and rallying cry. It was intended to motivate people during difficult training sessions and to give a higher purpose to the development of physical strength and energy.
Turning up the heat: Check! Strawberry moon: Check! 50 Miles? Well, sometimes 50 meters in another medium (say, cool water over mossy rocks) can do the trick.