Anyone into capoeira?
DJFerrari
2,411 Posts
I have a homie that's really trying to get me into this. I think it looks sweet and I heard it's a crazy workout. Could be a nice cardio complement to my yoga routine. Plus, I'd really love to get into the Brazilian historical aspect of it as I'm such a fan of the music. Who's got the skills? How hard and intense is it? Are newbies welcome?
Comments
Peace
Yeah, that's why I was down in Brazil this time... I was staying in Salvador for a few weeks with this dude.
We also stopped in Sao Paulo on the way up, where Moogman was kind enough to take me to some great stores... thanks again Eds*n!
my firend who has been doing it for awhile sayd it is very demanding (however the level of discipline varies by school) i had done taekwon do for 5 years and am looking for some of that sensei discipline motivation
go for it ferrari! you got to stay active and if your boss fucks with you you can whirl around and kick his ass
Haha... awesome. I'm signing up for that reason alone
I'm can be a fan of the brazilian music but not the fact that you really have to play the instruments and dress a certain way, etc. (not a fan) Sort of like the "8 elements of hip hop". It's cool to do the parts but to talk about it at the same time---is all too much for me. I respect the culture but I wouldn't do it all the way-way. I have a good friend that directs most of the capoeira practitioners in chicago and I have taken a few "free" classes (i'm a cheapoe!-oh). I'm pretty sure newbies are welcome and encouraged to build onto their circle. It is hard and intense but also a very good workout. Shares similarities to what the breakdancers are up do these days in the shytown. Very different from the bboys on the west and east coast.
enjoy the dance while you can
I practice two or three times a week, which is sort of the minimum for a beginner. Any less and you'll be suffering without getting better. There's a lot to work on.
Many of the moves cross over with breakdancing. There was a wave of Brazilians who moved to NYC in the early 70s to escape the military dictatorship. I haven't seen any real documentation, but supposedly they brought capoeira with them and it got integrated into hip-hop.
On the west coast that process is in reverse, as capoeiristas pick up freezes and power moves from the dancers.
My homie trains in Berkeley... I wonder if it's with this dude.
And no disrespect to JoeMojo or your master, but as a martial art, it's decidedly less martial than many, many others.
Probably! He's semi-retired now, but the school in Berkeley is still going strong. Capoeira Arts Cafe He was the first capoeira mestre to come to the west coast in the 1970s.
I'm not sure if there's another capoeira group in Berkeley... there are a couple others in the city and a good one in Oakland.
I was just down there last month for an event. Flickr photos
Yeah - to be honest I'm pretty happy about that perception.
I did karate and jiu-jitsu for a few years as a teenager. So many people that I met were either looking for a cure for insecurity or an outlet for aggression. It wasn't the majority, but it was enough to be annoying and sour the atmosphere.
Because capoeira isn't immediately about self-defense, it tends to get dismissed by those dudes (and they are always dudes). As a result the gender ratio is a lot more balanced and people are way more relaxed - which is fine by me.
That said, a lot of the Brazilians are serious scrappers. Games can get violent down there. I did okay but I saw a couple of knockouts on my last trip.
That's a huge understatement, my friend.
Tell me about it - we used to share a space with the local Brazilian jiu-jitsu group. Every one of those guys had a neck thicker than their head. Submission holds for days.
There was actually a fad in Brazil in the 1990s for capo-jitsu. Starts off as a capoeira game and goes into jiu-jitsu as soon as someone gets dropped.
It seems to have waned in popularity but I went to a couple of places where they trained both.