[Capoeira] Capoeira + Contact = Yohan Likes

Discussion in 'Other Styles' started by Yohan, May 13, 2008.

  1. Yohan

    Yohan In the Spirit of Yohan Supporter

    So I created this thread as a repository for people playing Capoeira with a little contact. I've got one video here that shows some good play with some good contact. Really enjoyed it. I'll post more as I find them.

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMX9KKzG4-0"]Capoeira Fight - YouTube[/ame]
     
  2. dormindo

    dormindo Active Member Supporter

    Is someone about to be bitten by the bug? Anyway, you already know about the Elite Carioca videos, so I'll just post a little capoeira angola.

    <object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Q-F0-k6AiCw&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Q-F0-k6AiCw&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>

    I hope I did this embedding thing properly.

    paz,

    dormindo
     
  3. dormindo

    dormindo Active Member Supporter

    Oops, I fail at the Internet, so here's a link:

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-F0-k6AiCw"]mestre Moraes GCAP Rio 1991 - YouTube[/ame]

    paz,

    dormindo
     
  4. Yohan

    Yohan In the Spirit of Yohan Supporter

    Man I've always had love for capoeira - especially the guys who make it work with a little contact. I've seen a few good contact vids you've posted and just been thoroughly impressed. It looks like major fun too! Those guys are mostly just playing around and having a good time - exactly what Martial Arts is all about. Plus, it would really benefit me if I took some because I'm a non-dancing white boy.

    The entries into wrestling and takedowns are so clean too. I love you guys stuff.
     
  5. dormindo

    dormindo Active Member Supporter

    I hear you. Here's some more capoeira angola that's a little rough around the edges.

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=CQI0ix-o1uw

    paz,

    dormindo
     
  6. 19thlohan

    19thlohan Beast and the Broadsword

    A big fat ouch for that spinning back kick in the last vid.
     
  7. slipthejab

    slipthejab Hark, a vagrant! Supporter

    hahah the spinning back kick in that last one. Looks like maybe the cat hit the bong a tad too much before playing. :D

    Some of the guys we have rolling with us are big Capoeira players and they always seem to find themselves in great positions for sweeps and takedowns. Working with them really got me interested in Capoeira. Good stuff. I mean I always thought it was interesting... but not sure how much I really rated it in terms of effectiveness... but after playing around with some of the guys down at the gym who've lived in Brazil for a number of years... well... it's pretty damn slick.
     
  8. cafezinho

    cafezinho Valued Member

  9. dormindo

    dormindo Active Member Supporter

  10. Martial_Mathers

    Martial_Mathers Capoeirista

    Damn! All of these nice vids and I can't view them at work. Grrrr!
     
  11. Bronze Statue

    Bronze Statue Valued Member

    I don't get it.

    If their goal is contact practice, why those flagrantly-easily-missing-everything compassos and queixadas and those floreio while withing range of even the most simple of direct attacks?

    If their goal is dance, then why the direct martelos and the takedowns?
     
  12. cafezinho

    cafezinho Valued Member

    Neither are goals.
     
  13. Bronze Statue

    Bronze Statue Valued Member

    Quite a concise answer. What then is the purpose of the techniques and choices thereof being used in the rodas video'ed above?
     
  14. cafezinho

    cafezinho Valued Member

    The first video is a kind of sport version of capoeira that was developed in the 60's and 70's to be Brazil's national sport, but instead turned into what you see. A kind of hybrid of capoeira and taekwondo point sparring.

    The last video, the student didn't seem to understand his own limits or what what the mestre feels would have been the proper way to play the game and the student got shut down. The one previous to it, the kick to the head was an accident. The kickee was just unable to avoid getting kicked. It happens sometimes. The video before that was showing Mestre Moraes playing, and had a few sweeps in it.

    Leg sweeps are pretty common and are part of the fun of the game. The idea is to be able to stop a sweep, be solid enough to avoid the sweep, or beable to step out of it. A lot of times, someone will be nice and not complete the sweep, which is just as good as giving it.

    Hard contact can make the respective players want to fight in the roda, and that's just not what the roda is about. It's not a competitive sporting event, there are no gloves, or protective gear, no medical supplies or personnel on standby, it's not a bout to see who is the strongest fighter.

    The goal is to have a good game, demonstrate your knowledge of and ability to play the game, to play the music, sing the songs, to understand unspoken ethics of behavior and ritual and to use those things just as you might use a particular technique.

    I don't like the word "takedown" as it implies a transition to grappling. Some schools of capoeira have been attempting to fuse capoeira and bjj, and use some takedowns in order to grapple. They belong in the new sportive branches of capoeira that are still trying to evolve into a practice that can be understood more easily in the western context of sport fighting.

    The capoeira that we might consider traditional has larger spiritual component-not so much in the modern judeo/christian/islamic sense of the word, but as relating to central-western African points of view. There is a whole cosmological underpinning to the movements, the circle-space, ideas of personal protection, etc... There is also a strong historical perspective that can't be dismissed, but is often mischaracterized. So someone watching these videos on Youtube, or even in person, will most likely be coming from a modern or classical western perspective on fighting and competition, and will be asking the same bewildered questions as you do. But there is no easy answer because it requires an entire shift in your frame of reference, which is not easy to do without immersion.
     
  15. capoeiragreen

    capoeiragreen Valued Member

    What Cafezinho said hit the mark on the spot.

    Cookie time *gives happy cookie*
     
  16. slipthejab

    slipthejab Hark, a vagrant! Supporter

    Thanks for that post. Informative. It's answers a lot of questions I didn't have time to post. It also brought up more questions that I've been meaning to ask... and will do in a bit. Most of them are based in the 'classical western perspective' so what you wrote broke down some of it in an easy to understand way. Thanks.:)
     
  17. Polar Bear

    Polar Bear Moved on

    So the roda is a cultural exercise rather than a martial? Kinda explains alot.
    I guess it could be compared to the early structured tribal warefare systems of Africa.

    The Bear.
     
    Last edited: May 21, 2008
  18. aaron_mag

    aaron_mag New Member Supporter

    I always liked watching Capoeira as well. Definitely looks like fun. And one of my friends (also a TKD guy) has had Capoeira seminars (guest instructors come and give seminars) and he really likes it.

    I've had a number of people who did Capoeira in the past stop by the studio and watch for a bit. Some of them had done Capoeira for years and still looked pretty fit. But when I ask them if they still trained they typically shake their head and say, "No. After I had my first kid I couldn't devote the time it required..."

    Made me wonder if there was something about Capoeira that makes it more difficult to be more of a hobbyist? Where a couple times a week just doesn't cut it?
     
  19. dormindo

    dormindo Active Member Supporter


    If I may be bold enough to offer my two cents: capoeira is so often trained in class--with other people. Certainly, people are encouraged to train movements on their own, but the crux of it all is that you must play with another person for your movements to have any sort of relevance. This means attending class as often as possible. I've never trained any other art, so I don't know the reality of the training of various systems, but I've often thought that the solo training montages that one sees in various martial arts films would not work for capoeira. Further, there are no 'katas' for capoeira, and what sequencias there are are always done with another person. Capoeira is communal in that respect.

    Another thing are other elements such as the music. Some grupos don't take the music very seriously, but many do. Thus one is expected to be proficient on anywhere up to eight different instruments with differing roles in traditional capoeira music.

    Of course, the movements themselves can be demanding. Whether it is the aerial acrobatics typical of capoeira contemporanea, or the snakish, slippery movements of capoeira angola that appear to require a pipe cleaner for a spine, these movements require much time--in class and out--to develop. True, boxing's jab, a kick from karate or a bjj submission can take as long to 'perfect', but there are a number of movements in capoeira that require people to move in ways they had given up in their youth--or never tried at all. All of these things can contribute to what you witnessed.

    Just my two cents.

    paz,

    dormindo
     
  20. aaron_mag

    aaron_mag New Member Supporter

    Makes sense to me. Don't get me wrong...this is partially true in any martial art. Sometimes I wonder if my body can take the joint abuse of martial arts anymore myself!

    But I just had a couple people in a row who all did Capoeira in the past. Looked fit. And I'd just want to slap them and say, "You should still be doing it since you seem to still have a passion for it!" (they grew animated while discussing it)

    I understand the getting busy (have a toddler myself and a full-time day job and all that). It just seems, however, we should try to work in 'what we can' rather than giving things up all together.

    But I kept my mouth shut because I know nothing about Capoeira other than the demonstrations I've watched and enjoyed. Perhaps it is one of those things that doing once or twice a week would only get you injured.
     

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