Okay, I'll try this again...

FLOREIO ART


This is a video of Ido Portal, my friend from Isreal who we (Ramman and I) met in May when he came through Portland on a U.S. circuit. He held a hand balancing workshop as well as an acrobatics conditioning workshop at CrossFit Portland and taught us lots of valuable training tools for achieving perfect handstands, among other things. He is now developing and posting (for free!) a training program for Floreio Art, the style of movement that he practices and teaches. I started his workouts today and was very satisfied with the difficulty of the beginner movements. I want to do this right, starting with the easiest versions and progressing through the levels as I get better. Floreio combined with Parkour and acrobatic training is going to keep me busy with incredible skill and strength development for a long time. And it is something that I am fired up about.

For the last two years I have lacked a true passion for my training. I have been training just for the sake of training. Ever since I quit playing Frisbee, I have been an independent athlete. Being on a team my entire life, I had goals, personal goals and more importantly a common goal. Now, I am by myself in this sense. And I think for the past two years I have felt a little lost… so I just trained. I have very much enjoyed getting stronger (exponentially!), learning some basic gymnastics skills, dabbling in rock climbing, diving into CrossFit, and experimenting with Parkour, but I have not focused on any one of these because I have not felt a burning desire to. The closest to passionate I have been has been for Parkour, but I have not dedicated myself to training hard for it because it HURTS. These knees can only take so much pounding now. Florieo is much the same kind of discipline as Parkour, and I think it will help develop the fluidity needed to be a good traceuse. But I also want to do Floreio for itself, not as a means to become better at something else. Floreio requires flexibility, controlled breathing, strength, balance, flow, dance, focus, and stamina, many of these things I neglect to train but wish to be good at. Now is the time to practice and become a master of movement.

Finally, I have a focus for my training. Seeing this kind of movement (Floreio and Parkour) is inspiring me to connect with a different kind of athlete inside of me. Not the power athlete, or the teammate, or the play-all-types-of-running-sports athlete, but an athlete who has a way of moving through space that is graceful, strong, meditative, controlled, and beautiful; an athlete who has complete control over and connectedness with her movements. It is just me and my body. Weaknesses are revealed and I am faced with challenges that I have avoided in the past. Strengths are made stronger but are also unable to cover up shortcomings. I am very excited to explore myself in these new ways; on physical, mental, and emotional levels. It is time to evolve as an athlete, person, and movement artist.