I like a lot of the ground movements from Capoeira. I wish I could combine that with the ground movements of Maphilindo Silat.
I've never had the chance to train in Capoeira, but I did fight a very talented Capoerista (spelling).
I was on the outside watching him dancing around. His footwork and movements were confusing me. Before I knew it, I took a spinning heel kick to the temple.
It hurt a lot. I got mad, and I rushed in. I crowded him, and started throwing boxing punches in combinations. It was an all out attack on my part. I figured, if I stayed at medium to long range, I would get eaten alive with stuff I've never seen.
I thought if I close the distance, that will take away a lot of his kicks.
Wrong. The next thing he did was put his foot on my hip, and jump up and knee me in the chin. It was done in a running motion.
I had my mouthpiece in, and I felt my teeth crunch. He landed, and I throw a right uppercut, and right overhand elbow. This technique knocked him out.
Before anyone says I was in the wrong, I treated the thing like a sparring match. The spinning heel kick and the flying knee were extremely hard. Those weren't done at half force. They were full power strikes.
Capoeira? I think it is as it is with all martial arts, it depends on the practitioner. Two of my sons lived in Brazil for a while at different times and had the opportunity to meet Capoeira practitioners. Both engaged in friendly sparring matches just to see the differences. Since both my sons had a couple of decades of good Karate training under their belts they won the fights as the Capoeira practitioners were not near as much experienced but both my sons said that there is a lot of possibility if one trains hard and diligently as in all martial art. The deception in the moves is confusing and my sons had to pay attention. It really is what you practice where you are comfortable and can dominate, and I love it when ignorant people say that it does not work about any martial art. Those are the first ones to get hit by that martial art and I also do not believe that just hitting hard is martial art. It is martial but not art.
The video showed the first three basics and if you put it out as an example of the art, I think it was a poor example of the arts possibilities.
Im a huge fan of capoeira. The main purpose of the art is deception. The ignorant commenters on that video are the exact kind of suckers capoeira works best on. Capoeira means war dance, I have never fought a capoeira practitioner, but I certainly know not to take them lightly. Capoeira is a well respected art in Brazil.Their very theme song goes:
Zoom
Zoom
Zoom
Capoeira
Mata
Um.
Which literally means capoeira kills a man.
The presentation's a bit "meh". I'm a little surprised by their choice of martial art. I think there are martial arts that are far better suited for multiple opponent defense than Capoeira, and that claim wasn't even explored in the segment. I think Capoeira is a nice "add on" that works best when you have what would best be described as fundamental kickboxing. I know the "roda", their "game", is one of the most artificial constructs in the martial arts world, and you can get away with a lot of what they do there because of its construct.
Back in the early 80's I worked in the Village in NYC, in a health food restaurant as a prep cook.
Loremil Machado, a Capoeirista from Brazil lived nearby and I befriended him. He invited me one night to a "Roda" and I went. It was incredible. I found out that he in fact was a "Mestre" and was highly respected in the art. He was a principle in the Sarava Bahia Band, who played on Broadway
I can tell you this much - the people I saw could use their art and you would not want to be on the receiving end of a leg coming at you with absolutely no restraint whatsoever. These guys are in serious shape and many people believe it's a dance, and harmless.
But what the Brazilians did was exactly what the Okinawans did. They hid their technique and its original intention within "formal exercise" called kata.
Like anything, I'm sure there is watered down versions of it, but don't kid yourself. \
Loremil was the nicest guy you could ever meet, but when you saw him and his group in the Roda, you were sure there is more to Capoeira than most misinformed want to believe.
Mestre Machado died in the mid 90's.
Great exercise. Great movie martial art.
I imagine it was a great martial art when they tied knives to their feet.
The main issue I have with capoeira is that I'm not sure how they would use it with a sprained ankle.
I love the art. I cant imagine me attempting to do some of the things taught in the art because of some injuries that I have because of a car accident that has limited my mobility.
I like the attitude of this video,:) I haven't practice the art to be able to tell you more though.
It's a dance sport.
Not much
http://screen.yahoo.com/mansome-244-capoeira-040000008.html
