Practicing in the park during COVID times, Maca Navas is known to the locals as “The Sword Lady.” They didn’t know her name but they saw her grace and committed practice with the sword in the park. Learn more about Maca in her interview here: https://anchor.fm/andrea-harkins/episodes/Maca-Navas—The-Sword-Woman-el35ne
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Maca practices Kung Fu and Tai Chi. In this podcast, she shares how she struggled with anorexia for many years and describes it as a “disease of her soul” where she did not feel comfortable in her own skin. Martial arts helps her cope with her personal obstacles and allows her to be the person she feels she was meant to be. Professionally, she is a marketing and branding entrepreneur. See Maca’s bio below.
Bio:
My name is Maca Navas, I was born and raised in Santiago Chile.
As far as I go back in my memories, Martial Arts have been an interest to me. I remember being young and asking my parents to take me to Karate (when you are young I guess all Martial Arts tend to fall into one big Martial Art, the most popular of all being Karate) but they could not afford it. Plus, my mother told me at a young age that I was uncoordinated and lacked fine motor skills which I believed and accepted. My dream went dormant.
In college, I had the opportunity to join a Judo class which I enjoyed and learned, to my surprise, that I was not bad at all. Two years later I got very sick with Anorexia and had to stop my training. Again, I was disappointed.
I don’t know how, but somehow the dream of being a bad-ass stayed alive!
Many years passed (15), and I learned about a workout called Turbo Kick that combined funky music with dance type moves and kick boxing. It was so much fun to do that I decided to become an instructor which then lead to becoming a group fitness instructor and personal trainer. Next to the gym, there was a small mixed Martial Art dojo that my son who was 4 years old joined.
I suppose a part of me wanted him to have the opportunity I was denied.
Sensei always invited me to try it and I refused. Eventually, he insisted so much that I gave up just because I wanted him to leave me alone! It was fun and I was a fast learner. He later invited me to teach the little ones. For a while I felt good there. I was learning and teaching and I was surrounded by talented Martial Artists. But three years passed and I started to feel that I needed something more, that my clock was ticking (age wise), and that I wanted to compete. Most importantly, I wanted to compete and be #1 in my category.
So I found a small Shaolin school, and Shifu invited me to try. I will never forget my first class. I was in so much awe seeing the students learning Chinese traditional weapons. There were flowers everywhere with broad swords, straight swords, nunchuks and spears. I wanted to learn and felt I had found the space I had been longing my whole life.
7 years and 4 weapons later, I practice 5 days a week and compete when possible. During COVID I have been going to the park in the evenings and people in my neighborhood call me The Sword Woman. I feel so complete when training, I feel so grateful to have a body that endures the stretch pains, bruises and cuts, etc. My dream is to go to China to study Kung FU with the Shaolin monks and compete at International level.
Links & Info:
Kung Fu instagram @macarenita_navas
Andrea’s Motivational Books:
