My research grows directly out of practice. Over more than a decade and 13,000+ hours of one-on-one work with people living with Parkinson's, I've studied how movement, learning, timing, and effort interact in everyday life.
Darbe Schlosser, MA
Founder, Think & Move Well
Darbe Schlosser, MA
Founder, Think & Move Well
Geroin C, Artusi CA, Nonnekes J, Aquino C, Garg D, Dale ML, Schlosser D, Lai Y, Al-Wardat M, Salari M, Wolke R, Labou VT, Imbalzano G, Camozzi S, Merello M, Bloem BR, Capato T, Djaldetti R, Doherty K, Fasano A, Tibar H, Lopiano L, Margraf NG, Moreau C, Ugawa Y, Bhidayasiri R, Tinazzi M — on behalf of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society Task Force on Postural Abnormalities.
Darbe Schlosser
Artusi CA, Geroin C, Nonnekes J, Aquino C, Garg D, Dale ML, Schlosser D, et al. Movement Disorders Clinical Practice, 2023;10(11):1585–1596. doi:10.1002/mdc3.13879
Through the Motorvation Foundation, I created ARISE, a humanitarian adaptation of my cognitive-motor method for underserved communities, currently piloted in Uganda. Young local leaders learn the method, adapt it to their own language and culture, and teach it to elders in their community, with the goal that people with Parkinson's become their own exercise programmers, able to lead their own movement long after we leave. In partnership with Nate Ward at Motorvation Academy of Martial Arts and Hannington Kabugo of Parkinson's Si Buko Uganda.
The Kirk Gibson Foundation sponsored a 5 person Brain Blast team led by Kim Rotundo. Kim has PD and is a 5.0 ranked competitive pickle ball player. She lives in the upper peninsula of Michigan. This experience has give Kim the tools and confidence to hopefully start an exercise program in her rural hometown of Michigan to help more people with Parkinson's.
Label Daddy sponsored a 5 person Brain Blast team for 16 sessions to be taught by Nate Ward. Nate is one of Motorvation's head trainers and a person kicking Parkinson's butt. The sessions began on April 4th, kicking off Parkinson's awareness month. This team has blossomed together and is forming such an amazing bond. We have participants from Indiana, to Las Vegas, to Juarez Mexico all the way up to New Foundland and down to gator country in the Louisiana Bayou. The team is led by Nate who lives outside of Flint Michigan. Each individual is going to make a tremendous impact in their community. Stay tuned!
Motorvation is providing Parkinson's athletes with individual training to learn how to implement Motorvation's Methodologies within their sport of choice. These individuals are also receiving 6 hours per month for one year of synchronous learning of motor learning principles to better instruct other individuals they are working with who have PD. This grant is pivotal in building the foundation of a Parkinson's Peer based Community. The photo below is of a grant recipient who also runs a Rock Steady Boxing program in Peoria Il. The video below is a grant recipient leading her first pickle ball clinic for PD.
Motorvation's methods are built on motor-learning principles that produce measurable skill transfer at the highest levels of performance. I trained Connor throughout his high-school years as a competitive epee fencer, developing the timing, coordination, and motor control that the sport demands. Connor now competes in Stanford University's fencing program. The same principles that build elite athletic skill are what make the method effective for Parkinson's, because both rely on how the brain learns, organizes, and refines movement.
In 2013, Mariette was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. She trained with me over 21 sessions funded by the Parkinson's Foundation, and an additional 10 funded by the Roger and Delores Odell Private Trust. Mariette made tremendous improvements in motor control and motor learning, but what set her apart was how she learned: dedicated and prepared every session, she took notes, reviewed her own videos, asked questions, and developed the ability to truly observe movement.That skill changed her trajectory. Today she runs a group program for people with Parkinson's in the Netherlands at ParkinsonSport.nl, teaching others with the tools she developed through the Motorvation system. Our work continues as mentorship: she records each 90-minute session, I review it, and together we work through how to improve it from beginning to end. Even when her class is conducted in Dutch, I can read movement and personality through observation alone, which is central to how this method works. Mariette keeps growing, both as someone helping others and as an athlete in her own right.Mariette is an example of what this method is built to do: transfer deeply enough that a person can carry it forward and teach it to others.
The Roger and Delores Odell private trust funded consulting sessions to help bring a boxing program implementing Motorvation’s Methodologies into the Texas Panhandle. I coached Dennis Nichols from 2017 to 2019 in Las Vegas. In 2019, he moved to Amarillo Texas and continued training at Nick’s Fight Club. This was not a Parkinson’s program; however, Dennis developed so much skill and control with really understanding boxing biomechanics and footwork that he was able to fit right in and excel. During Covid the gyms closed down and Dennis took a few steps backwards. Perseverance led him back into Nick’s Fight Club in April of this year where he met Bobby Murray, a coach and athlete training out of the gym in addition to being the gym’s new owner. Dennis and another individual inspired Bobby to develop a program specifically for Parkinson’s disease. Bobby and I were introduced in June of 2021. We have been meeting online to build the confidence to market and expand to the program with the proper foundational knowledge.
These 960 sessions have been critical in providing insight into real world application while influencing the development of future programs. There are a multitude of variables that must first be addressed to fully maximize the benefits of exercise. Comorbidities of Parkinson's disease as well as normal aging decline which are many times intensified by the disease may create a domino effect that negatively impact the consistency of exercise, injury prevention, and the transfer of learning. We have taken an individual centered approach
