The origins of ConTact C.A.R.E
Born from a lifetime of learning
ConTact C.A.R.E Flinchlock Release was developed in Ngatea, New Zealand by Dale W. Speedy — farmer, 6th dan Black Belt in Kiaido-Ryu Karate, and someone who has spent a lifetime asking a simple question: what does the body actually need?
Dale grew up on the Hauraki Plains, the fourth generation of his family to work the land. Farming gave him what he calls the "stockman's eye" — the ability to spot what isn't moving right before it becomes a problem. Martial arts gave him a deep understanding of how the body defends itself instinctively. Eight years of Ortho-Bionomy training gave him a felt sense of how everything connects, and how much changes when you offer comfort instead of force.
In 2004, after years of study across multiple disciplines, Dale did something unusual. He walked away from all of it. "I realised there was something still missing, so I dropped the lot."
What emerged from that clearing was something much simpler — and far more durable.
A seed planted by a wise teacher
Before that moment of clearing, one encounter had quietly shaped everything.
During a visit to New Zealand, Grandmaster Leo Fong — martial artist, close friend and training partner of Bruce Lee, and a man whose guiding philosophy was that real mastery expresses itself through presence and stillness rather than force — shared a set of exercises with a young Dale Speedy. Noticing that Dale suffered from persistent migraines, Fong offered him practical movements to build fitness and focus. Dale has spoken about how much that experience shaped his understanding of the body and the effect of the daily practice of these exercices.
Those exercises remain the foundation of the daily self-care practice that every ConTact C.A.R.E practitioner carries today and they are taught in Foundation courses.
Grandmaster Leo Fong (1928–2022)
The discovery of the Flinchlock phenomenon
In the early 2000s, Dale began working with a question that none of his previous training had fully answered: what happens in the body when surprise impact occurs?
What he observed — and eventually mapped with precision — was this: when impact arrives without warning, the bone contracts at the site before the brain has time to respond. Pressure becomes trapped. The body reorganises around it, compensating silently and faithfully, sometimes for years, sometimes for decades.
He called these stored sites of impact pressure Flinchlocks.
Wanting to remove any possibility of "mind over matter" influencing his findings, Dale tested his theory first on cows, horses, and dogs — animals chosen precisely because they cannot be persuaded or reassured. What he observed was consistent and repeatable. The Flinchlock Release method was refined through that animal work, and ConTact C.A.R.E was made available to the public in 2006.
In Dale's own words: "It is SIMPLE, SENSIBLE, SELF-EVIDENT and SAFE. It just works."
Kym Summers — co-founder
Alongside Dale from the beginning was Kym Summers, a qualified Ortho-Bionomy practitioner who had found her way to this work through her own search for something more lasting. Kym brought a quality of presence and philosophical grounding that became equally foundational to the discipline.
When Dale showed her what he'd been quietly developing in 2005, she was astounded. Over the following years she contributed her knowledge and perspectives as the method took shape. Dale formally acknowledged her as co-founder in 2008.
Kym now practises from her clinic in Mangatarata and offers monthly training for practitioners and students throughout New Zealand.
A living lineage
Practitioners of ConTact C.A.R.E — including ourselves — are students of the dojo in Ngatea, continuing to learn under Dale and Kym. The daily self-care practice passed down from Grandmaster Fong, the stockman's eye, the discovery of the Flinchlock phenomenon — all of it lives in every session.
Evidence is anecdotal. ConTact C.A.R.E is a martial arts discipline, not a medical treatment. For full course and training information visit contactcare.co.nz
Kym Summers, Fabian Low, Stephanie Saillour and Dale Speedy. Ngatea, 2026
We’ll be straight with you: the founders are clear that “evidence is anecdotal only. There has not been a scientific study conducted into how ConTact C.A.R.E gets its results.”
What does exist is a long track record of consistent observation — starting with animals. Before this work was ever offered to people, Dale spent years using it on horses, farm animals, and dogs. He chose animals deliberately: they can’t be reassured or persuaded or influenced by what they think might help them. If something shifted in an animal, it shifted. That consistency gave the founders the confidence to bring the work to people.
Like Tai Chi, or any other movement discipline, ConTact C.A.R.E is really something you have to experience to understand. We’re happy to talk it through if you have questions — and even happier to let a session speak for itself.
What about evidence?
