Any other capoeiristas in the house?

**Mago** · Posted On: 12/02/2006 2:32am

Good whatever-time-of-day it is!

I'm Mago, a capoeirista in San Antonio, Texas. I have been training in capoeira (Capoeira Regional Contemporanea, to be specific) for the last two years. I stumbled onto this place when I read the *shudder* Wikipedia Talk:Archive on Ashida Kim. Ha ha, funny to see, done been beaten to death.

As I said, I am training in Capoeira Regional Contemporanea. A nutshell of capoeira is that it originated with Angolan slaves who were taken to Brazil. Since the various tribes didn't speak the same language, but all had their own fighting style, slaves often used fighting skills to communicate.

So, the slaves developed a fighting system. Slaveowners naturally discouraged this, so the slaves added music and some dancelike moves to camouflage the art. It worked, especially when you train someone since youth. The songs told how to escape, and of the free-slave cities in the jungles.

In 1920, capoeira had evolved into a slow-played art of cunning and deception. It was also fading. Manuel Dois Reis Machado, or Mestre Bimba, decided to change it about. He sped up the movements, added strikes from another dying art called Batuque, and called in Capoeira Regional. The older art, capoeira angola, almost died. However, both were revived and spread throughout Brazil.

Capoeira Regional split when some kept Mestre Bimba's traditions intact, while others innovated. Thus, why there is Regional, and Regional Contemporanea.

there will be a test later. lol.

**spirez** · Posted On: 12/02/2006 9:44am

Capoeira looks fun and i admire the use of strength, balance and flexibility but i've never seen it used in a full contact fight situation. Is there a reason that there are not many video clips about?

Do you have any clips of sparring or fights that you could upload?

**From Bell2Bell** · Posted On: 12/02/2006 4:57pm

Originally Posted by spirez

Capoeira looks fun and i admire the use of strength, balance and flexibility but i've never seen it used in a full contact fight situation. Is there a reason that there are not many video clips about?

Do you have any clips of sparring or fights that you could upload?

A good friend of mine does Capoeira and they let me visit a class one night. They did a lot of cool stuff and they had some impressive athletes in there but it was not a class on how to fight. Here and there in the dance you could see strikes and take downs but make no mistake, what they were doing was dancing. The people in the club I visited aren't trying to learn how to fight and they don't pretend to. They're legit and good at what they do but if you expect them to be fighters you're kind of missing the point. My impression is that that's a pretty common attitude among Capoeira schools.

**Mago** · Posted On: 12/02/2006 6:56pm

Originally Posted by From Bell2Bell

A good friend of mine does Capoeira and they let me visit a class one night. They did a lot of cool stuff and they had some impressive athletes in there but it was not a class on how to fight. Here and there in the dance you could see strikes and take downs but make no mistake, what they were doing was dancing. The people in the club I visited aren't trying to learn how to fight and they don't pretend to. They're legit and good at what they do but if you expect them to be fighters you're kind of missing the point. My impression is that that's a pretty common attitude among Capoeira schools.

Much like any other class, there are some that are intended to teach cardio and fun, and others that teach deception and setups, and others that deal with fighting - all depending on the instructor.

For example - I get the 'dancing' thing a lot. My cousin who thinks he's the King Turd of fighting (he had the standard Marine hand-to-hand courses, so he says. I'm not a military guy myself) said the same thing. What you see in a capoeira class is art and pretty movements designed to showcase skill - much different that what we see on the street. I wouldn't backflip in a fight, nor spend a minute posing upside down in a handstand. In a fight, it would be about breaking the other guy down as fast as possible.

I've been in a few fights since I started training. Granted, in class, we throw kicks not to hit, but to give our opponent a chance to react. In a fight, I'm not gonna sail kicks over some joker's head.

Is it as effective as other martial arts? I think so. Capoeira is a fight of deception. That pretty ginga swing camouflages punches and hand strikes (I favor open palm strikes to the ear and nose). Lots of capoeira is a lie hidden in a falsehood on an uncertain premise. A good capoeirista is going to show you a lot, or a little, and never the same thing twice.

Its works, effectively.

**MacWombat** · Posted On: 12/02/2006 7:06pm

That's a great post. You should post it in the Your Martial Art Sucks forum so discussion can be had!

**sasquatch989** · Posted On: 12/02/2006 9:30pm

Best post I've read in a while:icon_chee

**Mago** · Posted On: 12/02/2006 10:07pm

Originally Posted by Gabster the Bad Elf

I like the concept of communcation through fighting. Like smoke signals by the native americans.

Hook kick to the face = "Hey there, nice to meet you"

Groin smash = "What'd you eat for lunch today good man?"

Elbow to face = "Well, I am off now, gonna go round me up some money for my youngest child's 4 H club rally!"

Love that stuff man.

Welcome to the bullshido.!!!!! = "foot stomp with a spit in the eye"

thanks... and actually, in most capoeira rodas (the circle you play in) the idea is to show mastery of the technique by throwing hard enough to make the other person react, but soft enough to not paste him/her... although pastings do happen.

[foot hovers an inch from your eye] = "maybe you should esquiva when someone does this."

[takedown sends you flying] = "I like you well enough, but for some reason I felt like you needed to be on the floor."

**nomamao** · Posted On: 12/04/2006 3:27pm

Is there any video footage you can direct me to of capoeira fights with semi/full contact?

I'm just curious as to what it looks like.

**triggrhaapi** · Posted On: 12/06/2006 10:08pm

It looks like the movie "Only the Strong Survive" complete with 80s music.

**TehDeadlyDimMak** · Posted On: 12/06/2006 10:15pm

Originally Posted by MacWombat

That's a great post. You should post it in the Your Martial Art Sucks forum so discussion can be had!

Stop trying to trick them. Just be blunt, it's not the same as flaming.

Copoeira has a bad reputation on this board for several reasons. The main one being that the training methods involved in most copoeira are more effective at developing breakdancers than fighters.

Copoeira students have not faired well in any sort of professional combat sport for example. Some kickboxers/mixed martial artists have used Copoeira moves to make a statement every blue moon. That statement normally is "I'm beating you so bad that I can fool around with these copoeira moves." The fact is that a Muay Thai fighter trains by kicking another person who's moving around freely trying to kick him back. A Copoeirist is trying to kick the air above his partner to a rhythm. Naturally the Muay Thai practitioner will be better accustomed to fighting since his training methods resemble actual fighting more than those used in Copoeira.

That said I have huge respect for the athleticism and talent showcased in Copoeira. I even took a course when I was much younger. However, there is no empirical evidence to show that Copoeira is one of the more effective fighting arts out there.