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The Importance of Progression in Capoeira

Writer's picture: Instructor MikeInstructor Mike

The goal of our classes at Mao Pelo Pe is to help as many people as we can people maximize their potentials to learn the many aspects of Capoeira. To accomplish this, one important part of our curriculum - and learning complex movements in general - is the idea of progressions.


Progressions are not really a new or revolutionary idea: you take a complex movement or skill, reduce it down to more manageable steps, and start your learning at the simplest most achievable step. Once you've mastered a step in the progression, you advance to the next and repeat the process until you've achieved the goal skill or movement. Most of our successful learning and skill development happens this way and it allows us to build mastery in a safe and less frustrating way. If you want to squat 315 lbs, you don't start at that weight. First you squat your bodyweight, then an empty bar, then gradually adding weight over time until you get to your goal.


Old school movement training across mainly disciplines relied on "show-and-repeat" strategies. This is pretty common for young arts and can be a fast way to progress, but it makes injury much more likely and leaves many people behind who either are lacking some requisite skill or who simply cant interpret skill learning that way. Progressions are a way to make skills much more accessible to all different kinds of people and makes the learning process a lot safer.


Wall-facing handstand progression
Wall-facing handstand progression

There is an art to designing progressions as well. It is not enough to just make an easier version of a movement and assume that will get you to your goal. You have probably seen progressions on social media where the jump between the final two levels seems impossible. Progressions must be designed with skills and strengths in mind. We have to consider: what are the actual important skills that the student needs to do the final movement, and how can I structure progressions so that they gain them in a safe and consistent way? There are many additional factors to this such as the student's age, prior experience, and physical limitations, that must also be considered when structuring a progression.


As an example, we can look at handstands. Handstands are particularly challenging due to the unique strength and mobility demands they have, as well as requiring you to control your body while being inverted. There are many ways to to a supported handstand with a wall, but not all of them actually teach you what you need to do the movement without support. I am a big fan of *facing* the wall when doing supported handstands since it puts your body in a more similar position to the free-standing version and builds much more transferable skills. This is just a tiny example but shows a bit of the thought process behind how we construct this teaching.


We spend a lot of time in our curriculum building on progressions, and it has not only helped our students make a lot of great progress, but has also helped to keep our injury rates very low. I encourage you to think about how you can apply this concept to other goals you are working on!


-Instructor Mike

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