Capoiera club found!

Discussion in 'Other Styles' started by furinkazan, Sep 3, 2014.

  1. furinkazan

    furinkazan Valued Member

    I've wanted to check the style out since I first played tekken 3 when I was a wee anklenibbler. I've got some questions for folks though:

    1. My body strength and flexibility aren't great, how important is that to start with (since I assume the movements and techniques will build on that)

    2. I'm doing yoga and parkour for conditioning now, on top of other arts like Muay and Hung Ga, will the conditioning from this help me with things like my balance and coordination (since it looks to be pretty heavy on that)

    3. I've heard capoiera revolves mostly around kicks to the point of having almost no upper body based attacks, is this true?
     
  2. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    1. It's not. You'll develop it by doing the best martial art ever. ;)

    2. Yes. Absolutely. You might have quite an advantage over other beginners in terms of balance, agility, coordination.

    3. There are strikes. The hand strikes are usually big haymaker slaps. Also, you get to headbutt a lot. You use your head a for striking and knocking people off balance, barging into people as well as standing on. But I'd say kicks are more common or preferred.

    You can use your body for bumping and barging too. Capoeira doesn't use hand strikes the way most martial arts do though and they aren't focused on as much as the kicks are.

    Any chance of posting the link to the club? You're in the NW, right? Wonder if it's the same lot I'm with (in Finland). I think there's other MAPers who might train with them too.

    Do capoeira...It's the most fun you will ever have while doing martial arts.
     
    Last edited: Sep 3, 2014
  3. furinkazan

    furinkazan Valued Member

  4. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    I thought so. Yeah, our club and the UK club are all connected. I think there's groups in Sweden and Denmark too. The UK guys were over here a few weeks ago to do some classes / workshops.

    Give it a go and see what you think. If you like parkour, yoga and martial arts, capoeira will add nicely to the mix.
     
  5. dormindo

    dormindo Active Member Supporter

    It isn't really any more important than for any other MA: it's great if you have some strength and flexibility already, but even if you don't, you'll develop it through training.

    Supplemental training can help, sure, though some things will still be slightly different. The biggest thing off the top of my head is the handstand (bananeira in capoeira): in Yoga and gymnastics, it is done while looking at the floor. In capoeira, it is done with the head looking forward, or even laterally (the better to see if the other person is attacking you, etc.). This may not seem like such a big deal, but the inversion in capoeira inverts your inner ear as well and this can throw one's balance off (for some people) initially. I've seen many students that could hold the gymnastic version of a handstand better than I could, but would have trouble with the head position in bananeira. Thankfully, this is a habit that people can fairly quickly lose.

    Slap whoever told you this. Slap them twice, in fact: once for yourself and once for me.;)

    Capoeira has a number of kicks, but has a lot of other techniques and, depending on what style you do, will be focused on as much if not more than the kicks. There are a variety of strikes including slaps, elbows and open palm strikes (though these are not done very often in the roda). There are headbutts from a variety of positions and angles (and these are used A LOT in angola). There are also a fair number of sweeps (also used a lot--in fact, giving rasteiras [sweeps] is a bit of bragging point amongst many capoeiristas). So, kicks are important but will be far from the only thing you do (well, depending on the academy you attend, I guess).

    Okay, nitpicking, pet-peeve time: it's spelled capoeira--i after the e. :evil:

    Good luck and keep us updated with your thoughts, comparison to your other arts/physical practices, etc.
     

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