capoiera, some help

Discussion in 'Other Styles' started by furinkazan, Apr 13, 2015.

  1. furinkazan

    furinkazan Valued Member

    I've been in physio for a while now. I have a trapped nerve in the top of my neck, which effects everything south of my first vertebrae, mostly on the left side: muscle tension, pins and needles in arms and legs, random jolts of pain and sciatica type symptoms.

    Ive managed to keep up with most of my training in other arts well. Karate gives me no hassle, shuai jiao only gives me very mild pain in my lower back and Im even fine weight lifting, running and swimming.

    What I have found odd is that ginga aggrivates my lower back a lot. I'm quite weak in my lower back due to excess tension. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how i could free that off?
     
  2. Ben Gash CLF

    Ben Gash CLF Valued Member

  3. Rand86

    Rand86 likes to butt heads

    Hard to say anything without seeing a picture, but at a guess I'd say your rear leg is too straight and you either end up leaning forward or tensing up to keep the torso upright. At least that's the issue I used to have. Drop them hips, basically. :D
     
  4. furinkazan

    furinkazan Valued Member

    That would be nice... if I had the hip flexibility to do that haha, lower back muscles Im having issue with are the ones round my pelvis
     
  5. dormindo

    dormindo Active Member Supporter

    Help, hmmm...Well, first it's spelled capoeira. ;)

    Just joshin' ya.

    On a more serious note, I'd have to see an image or video clip. You could be leaning too far forward. In terms of the bend in the back, does you ginga look more like this

    [​IMG]

    or this?

    [​IMG]
     
  6. furinkazan

    furinkazan Valued Member

    closer to the first, but thats how Ive been shown at the class and everyone else is doing in that way.
     
  7. dormindo

    dormindo Active Member Supporter

    Yeah, I'd suspected that it might be the way you're taught to ginga. A lot of the regional/contemporanea groups in my area do ginga that way, too. Mind you, I do angola and our ginga tends to look more like the second picture.

    So, ultimately, I think you need to tell your instructor and perhaps he/she will have some modifications to suggest to help you perform ginga without pain. I certainly wouldn't want someone trying to learn capoeira in pain.

    That said, I'll just go on a mini thing about ginga that you can feel free to ignore, but it seems that in the 'typical' angola ginga, the feet aren't as spread apart as the contemporanea ginga pictured above with the young ladies. Even when going low and bending a bit more from the waist, the legs (both of them) bend a bit more at the knee and stay fairly close together. See the images below.

    [​IMG]

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbL0r6l626s

    or the first two minutes of this clip...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igKInEbe4oA

    The feeling--to me--is that the hips/glutes help take some of the responsibility of counterbalancing the forward leaning torso. I don't feel that way when trying the extended contemporanea ginga above (however, as I've never trained contemporanea/regional I could be--and likely am--doing something wrong). So, long story short, perhaps you need to engage the bunda as a counterbalance?

    Again, though, talk to your instructor! :)
     
    Last edited: Apr 14, 2015

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