Anyone tried Capoeira?

[goldwarrior]

• The women in capoeira classes are unbelievably hot and delightfully bendy

Oh! I think I know what I'll choose!

 

[goldwarrior]

My schedule just cleared up enough so that I actually have time to go try out a class! Will be going soon... I hope!

 

[Supra Vijai]

My schedule just cleared up enough so that I actually have time to go try out a class! Will be going soon... I hope!

good luck

 

[blindsage]

Hi GW,

Could you tell me the name of the teacher and school you are looking at?

I trained in capoeira pretty seriously for about seven years. It was a lot of fun, tho I ultimately drifted away from it and haven't done it in a number of years now.

Capoeira has a rich curriculum of movement, as well as a rythmic, cultural, and physically expressive aspects. People who don't really understand it tend to fixate on the "dancelike" aspects of it, and honestly that makes me a little crazy. It is definitely a fighting art, and it is NOT a dance.

In my opinion, most people today who train capoeira train for the roda, meaning they train to play the game of capoeira. The roda can be anywhere from light and playful to harsh and scary, but it is still within a certain game-like context. This is different from training to fight, tho there is some overlap between the two.

If one wants to fight with capoeira, they need to train differently, and in my opinion most schools in the US probably do not make fighting a heavy priority, tho some schools do tend to play more roughly than others. I will say that I have met some capoeiristas who I would NEVER want to have a fight with. They are big and strong and fast and have good technique, and are more than just a little bit psychotic...

anyway, have fun with it, check it out and you might like it. It's like nothing else that I've seen.

I think Flying Crane's post above is dead on. You need to have a teacher who teaches you a little more than just for the roda. I trained for a little over a year, and though I can't use it particularly well, I learned a lot, and I would never.....ever....want to mess with my instructor in a fight.
The other thing most people never discuss, even most people who have trained, is that most schools in the the U.S. are capoeira regionale not 'traditional' capoeira. Most schools that practice more 'traditional' capoeira call their style capoeira angola. Capoeira angola is a kind of generalized term for all of the styles of capoeira other than capoeira regionale. These styles have a loooot less spinning kicks and acrobatics, although they exist. Capoeira angola styles tend to teach capoeira how it was traditionally taught in the region that style is from. In capoeira regionale Mestre Bimba added a lot of other techniques that didn't exist in capoeira at the time. According to the Wiki page for Mestre Bimba, he added these techniques because he thought the capoeira of the time wasn't effective anymore. Conversely, what I was told, and some research I've done on my own seems to support this, is that capoeira was considered a criminal and low class art that was banned and slowly disappearing, Mestre Bimba added the elements he added because he wanted capoeira to appeal to the Brazilian upper classes who were much more interested in Asian martial arts at the time. He added some elements of those arts so that his capoeira would look more similar to what the elites were already interested in, and it worked. Take what you will from that.
I trained in an angolan style of capoeira. I much prefer it to regionale. Regionale people love what they do and will defend it to death. Personally, I feel that the angola styles are much more cutthroat and true to what capoeira was intended for, deceptive fighting. Of course this all depends on having a good teacher, and you being a good student.

 

[SuperFLY]

Cool! I'm surprised the karate guy chose to deliver a mae konate, though. Nowhere near as fast as a roundhouse, otoshi geri, or other side-delivered kicks, I would think. The nice thing about a front thrust kick like that is that it is hidden inside your silhouette, it does not impinge on your opponent's peripheral vision.

i cant remember the guys name but he's NOT a karateka, in fact he has no love for the art at all. i cant remember what style he does. they just asked him to do a karate kick and he basically did that. i.e. copped out.

personally i would have thought a good mawashi geri would give the best result

 

[chinto]

I have seen it, and I would not chose it myself for self defense. It is incredibly athletic, has some real power in some of the kicks. it is however not very efficient in motion. I understand it has been used in SD in Brazil, but I would say there are more efficient styles out there for that.
that said, I am sure there are people out there who are skilled and talented enough to make it work for them in sd. On the ground of sheer athleticism I think it is about as good as it gets!! those folks are in incredible shape physically!!! the seem to be very flexible, and have great cardio! so I would say perhaps try it and see if it fits you.

 

[Champ-Pain]

My 8 year old son, who hates Martial Arts, including Judo, BJJ and No-Gi Grappling - just started Capoeira in San Diego, a couple of months ago. He loves it. Lots of gymnastics, acrobatics, dancing and such... Many of my Brazilizn friends in Miami, swear by it.

 

[Black Belt Jedi]

Capoeira is a great art that I never tried before. I watched a number of videos of Capoeira before.

 

[Cyriacus]

Have you seen the women in tkd classes?, or maybe thats just here in australia.

That. Is *WEIRDLY* True.
Ive NEVER actually thought about it.

 

[ATACX GYM]

Everyone in this thread should check out my capoeira thread if you haven't done so already...ATACX GYM CAPOEIRA YOU CAN FIGHT WITH. Putting up some more footage soon...

 

[Calado]

If I had to choose between TKD and capoeira, I'd go with capoeira. Following reasons:

• Capoeira is more fun
• Capoeira is harder to find - you might live somewhere without it and miss the opportunity
• Capoeira is a young man's game - you can do TKD when you're too old for Capoeira
• Capoeira will get you in much better condition - which is more important in SD than many other factors, especially for beginners
• The women in capoeira classes are unbelievably hot and delightfully bendy

I'm certain you'll make the choice that's right for you.

Just wanna add, Capoeira is not a yound mans game, a mestre in brasil passed away about a year ago aged 94, he played in a roda for 6 hours the day before he died.

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

My schedule just cleared up enough so that I actually have time to go try out a class! Will be going soon... I hope!

Did you ever start training capoeira? If so, let us know how it is going (hopefully great!).

 

[Flying Crane]

Just wanna add, Capoeira is not a yound mans game, a mestre in brasil passed away about a year ago aged 94, he played in a roda for 6 hours the day before he died.

might be that is what killed him...

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

might be that is what killed him...

He was under evaluation by scouts from Heaven. He was drafted, first round.