Yesterday we went to a capoeira meet at the Budokan at Sumiyoshi Taisha in Osaka. We were invited by Adam’s pal from Kumamoto, Luke. We were supposed to meet other friends there, but they ranked because they are weak/married, etc.
Luke is a fascinating man who was born in South Africa and has travelled around the world studying various forms of martial arts. He has the kind of posture, a way of movement, that says: Hardcore. Basically, he was more focused than most of the instructors that showed up for the meet, and that impressed the hell out of me.
This being my first exposure to capoeira (commonly defined as an Afro-Brazilian dance form that incorporates martial arts moves), I brought along my aging camera and did some damage. Check out the extended entry linked below for the rest of the photos.
Damn, that’s cool stuff. I don’t know about the effectiveness of it as a martial art, though. Sparring at the Muay THai gym a year or so ago, a Capoiera practitioner visited and agreed to spar with one of the more advanced MT students, who beat the shit out of the Cap guy.
But. In martial arts effectiveness of an art/fighter is subjective, so my opinion could easily be changed by seeing a good Cap fighter in action.
My opinion after seeing it in person is that the performance aspects of it make it a less effective fighting art. I would liken it to wushu in this respect. Very complex, beautiful and swirly movements which I credit for being awesome as hell visually but a lot less effective than a crushing elbow or knee. I love Muay Thai for its brutal efficiency.
Kyushu Danshi Reunion
I have been up for more than 24 hours now, and have good memories of meeting up with Luke, Mark, and Manami, who came up for capoeira and sightseeing respectively. The capoeira meet was crazy (Justin put up his pics…
Capoeira is not about brutal fighting efficiency, it’s about the music, the singing, the movements and especially keeping a flow and being in tune with your partner.
In this respect it is not comparible with more ‘martial’ arts.
capoeira is more than just a figth, is more thanjust kicking and punching, is complex, and it is very efective, however it it very difficult to find a good cap fighter, because most cap figthers dont grasp the true concept of the fighting system, a good capoeirista can punch , kick, grapple, as strong as any other martial artist, capoeira has to do with vision, speed and surprise, if you dont have this elements developed, it will not work as a fighting system, where i train theres mui thai jiu jitsu, boxing, and weapons, i ve tried and still practice some of them, theyre all goo, but from what ive personally experience capoeira differs in the vision, it gives you amazing vision, when you are in the roda playin capoeira you have an opponent who can be your frien or your enemy but its hard to know, whene ever i fight in other systems i feel confident, when i fight capoeira i feel nerveous because i dont know what to expect, if you look hard enought and find a cap who trains and takes the art with as much passion as bruce lee use to youll see what im talking about, last words: when you fight a capoeirista expect anything, you might have him in front of you, and in less of a second and with out seeing him, he is facing your back waiting for a knock out attack.
well,I train capoeira for about 9 months now.Don’t know to do flips and stuff(thats just for show off),but belive me when I say it’s efective.You try to take a hit……