Margot Ciccarelli

 

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Part 1 : Lately I’ve become fascinated with the idea of what a complete practice is; what is a nourishing practice? The idea of sustainability and longevity is not the first thought that comes to mind to average person when they think about jiu-jitsu. There’s still a certain stigma attached to the art, that it is one full of a certain type of machismo and that it is a ‘hard’ art. How many practitioners out there have at least one bust knee or shoulder, let alone mentioning other joints? This is often attributed to the larger amount of sparring (live) time in our training practice compared to other martial arts. My personal perspective is that the art has something to offer for everyone; not everyone comes into the dojo with the aspirations of becoming a competitor or learning a very linear and structured curriculum. In my eyes, being a martial artist is also about being free of judgment and not being exclusive; we must be open to new ideas and adopt certain paths to facilitate evolution of the art or a movement skillset. To cultivate a practice that both encompasses the hard and the soft element of the art is a big part of my research at the moment. I require the ‘hard’ as an athlete, but as the artist I require the ‘soft’ for both exploration and understanding how to increase longevity. By having a soft practice I am able to put my body through familiar movement patterns but still with enough variation that my movement practice does not become static. As an athlete, we often prioritise the refinement of our A game, so to be able to broaden the spectrum of movement we have in our body, whether a specifically jiu-jitsu movement or general movement is beneficial to improve both movement awareness and body vocabulary. It is my belief that the more extensive your vocabulary is, the ability to improvise in battle or flow is greatly improved. – ? : @lucianamjiujitsu | ? : walk away – DRAMA – #hyperfly #doordie #wantvsneed #moveyourbody #moveeveryday #nomadicid #modernguard #creativemovement #contemporarymovement #sharetheknowledge #movementculture #jiujitsudreams #jiujitsuparatodos #artesuave #womensbjj #cirque #flowmotion #competitor #movementtraining

A post shared by Who? Margot Ciccarelli | 鄧嘉寶 (@thenomadicmars) on Oct 22, 2018 at 2:06pm PDT

 

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Part 2 : As @danaherjohn has previously mentioned, there are benefits to having both a proactive and reactive approach in fighting, and I believe that through training both the soft and hard practices we are able to refine both approaches in ways the other may not be able to offer. We become better communicators; we are able to read our partner more correctly as our sensitivity is better trained. A shared conversation earlier this Summer with @martial.movement.arts inspired me to think a lot about questioning movement practices and my own training. We often seek outside of our art to heal our body – many jiu-jitsu practitioners seek out yoga to try solve their body ailments and pains, but we go through another significant learning curve and energy expenditure to learn something new to solve a problem when this time can be better translated to the practice we actually currently participate in. Why do we not have something that can nourish our bodies that is closer to our practice? Do you have any tools that you use to cultivate a softer practice? – a flow exchange with @soojinhong.kr – flow | surrender | collaborate | lead – #hyperfly #doordie #wantvsneed #wvsncrew #unityjiujitsu #ingloriousgrapplers #nomadicid #modernguard #creativemovement #contemporarymovement #sharetheknowledge #movementculture #jiujitsudreams #jiujitsuparatodos #artesuave #womensbjj #cirque #girlsingis #jiujitsulife #competitor #flowmotion #daretodream #dreamchasers #teamasia #YCTH

A post shared by Who? Margot Ciccarelli | 鄧嘉寶 (@thenomadicmars) on Oct 22, 2018 at 7:18pm PDT