My students projects

Lately I've asked my students to work on a 30 day artistic project, using their Capoeira skills as a means of expression.
I asked for something innovative, new, fresh as opposed to the typical Capoeira video so abundant on the net.
Here are three of the projects that provided in my opinion a more refreshing presentation and didnt fell into the 'unoriginality pit' that is so easy to fall into.
Mind you, the girls presenting are young artists (all under 18) and has a long way to go, but still let us know what you think..

The first one is by Adi Pinhassi (Pantera Rosa) and it is called 'Brincadeira' ('Child's play' in Portoguese)


The second one is by Karin Bensabat (Avestruz) and it is called 'Shadow Game'


And the third one is by Gal Moskona (Apache) and it is called 'Thinking Inside the Box'




I hope you enjoyed them and we are waiting to hear your opinion..

Playing Capoeira

For a long time I have been getting many requests for posting some clips of me playing capoeira.
I guess people are intersted to see how my thinking and physical abilities translates to a capoeira game.
Well, I dont have anything new and interesting to show you, but I found out if you search youtube you can find a lot of clips showing me playing around with some good friends. Here are a couple of examples:

Things America taught me

1. Life can have brighter and stronger colors than any film.
2. Happiness can be a big, empty, depressing room.
3. Politeness is a big blanket you can hide many things under - stupidity, darkness, hostility, anger, love.
4. Success is not just a sum of items. It is a formula with a time factor. a+b+c at 10am does not equal a+b+c at 11am.
5. Too much knowledge can take you away from the goals that knowledge was aquired for in the first place.
6. Get off your fat behind. Now.
7. Lots of variety and endless selection does not allow you to make better choices, on the contrary.
8. 'We catch on quickly'.
9. Endless needless remarks CAN make up a conversation. Who said otherwise?
10. Brown water is not coffee. Calling it Espresso will only make me more angry.
11. It doesnt matter where you come from, home is way more exotic here. I wasnt aware Krav Maga and the secrets of the Israely special forces can be mine for 39.99$ a month.
12. Latest additions to the American-English dictionary: Superfoods, Metcon, Kewl (I wasnt aware it was back, or is it just Parafina?!), Cert (short for Certificate), Greens.
13. Some people still believe in 9-5 existance. Daring to dream of something brighter is supposedly dangerous...
14. I shouldnt loose my Israely accent. It is an asset.
15. America is a beautiful place. If I'll stop traveling outside of it from now on, I will still have endless and different sights to see until the day I die.
16. A hug is not a miometric movement. (concentric-eccentric) It is Isometric and can go up to 45 seconds sometimes! Just ask anyone. In Berkley.
17. Competition can take the fun out of anything. Sometimes there is no going back. People should be careful when implementing it.
18. America is big on Quantity. Quality? ok, but only in large quantities.
19. Quality Originality is a Rarity.
20. If you are born and grow up inside the box, it is very difficult to see the box and to think outside of it. If you come from another box on the other hand..
21. When parking one should never use the Hand-Break!!! (Also known in Israel as 'Ambrex'...) Apparently that is a dangerous habit. Americans! The damn thing exists for a reason! Give me a break...
22. I wouldnt let anyone else run this world besides America.

Ido.

Playing around on my hands

Here is a recent clip of me training at my place one fine morning.
I have decided to capture a couple of basic exercises used to develop better handstand control, after that I perform a small progression into one arm handstand work and show the three basic positions on one arm: closed legs, half a straddle and full straddle, in the end of the clip I just play around and show some implementation work I have been doing into my capoeira practice. Enjoy...

A small interview

My interview with Steve Atlas from Atlas Training System in Spokane, Washington, after a successful workshop. Enjoy:

New workshop in Portland

This Wendsday, May 6th I'm giving two workshops in the Crossfit Portland training facility, if you are in the Pacific Northwest area and want to drop by, here is the gym information:
http://clients.mindbodyonline.com/ws.asp?studioid=3915&stype=-8 contact Scott.

Anyone interested in private consultations or private training in Portland, SF, Miami, LA, Arizona, Las Vegas, please contact me directly through email at: portal.ido@gmail.com
I have been getting a lot of emails, and I am on the road, so be patient when waiting for a response, I will answer each and every email, I promise.

Corta Capim

I've started training acrobatics in a quite a late stage in my life - 16 years old.
And even then it was a very disorginized and random kind of training. I was basicly thrown into the waters - jump and do it.
Years later, and through the experience of training myself and others, I came to the realization that some kind of a systematic and thought-of aproach is needed, even in the field of self expressive, freestyle work.
I've started to devise a way to better prepare the body and teach some of the basic progressions to this kind of aerial work. I am not only talking about traditional gymnastics work, but other, more flexible and directed aproach, more suitable to this type of style.

Let me know what you think...
Ido.