capoera schools in philly

[GreyFox81]

does anyone study capoera in philly p.a and if you do where
i was interested in adding that to my kungfu arsenal and plus i had just wanted to practice it before i got old and been like i wish i would of studied it you know

[fa_jing]

No, but I see you study Than Vo Dao so let's talk about that - what are the distinctive features of your style? How you finding the classes? I also wanted to study that when I was in Philly.
Do you guys spar, is the area big enough to practice in? Do you participate in tournaments?

[GreyFox81]

i find it challenging alot more than normal because we have benn working on basics a whole lot lately my legs are gonna die from horse stance and single leg stances a few of the students had participated in a tourney not to long ago in valley forge.

[fa_jing]

What's the emphasis in the style? Heavy on punching, hand shapes, or kicking? Throwing a big part of the system? Or one of those systems that specializes in everything?

[Lisa]

Is this your school?

http://www.sevenmountainskungfu.com/

[Je Lei Sifu]

There was a school located on Germantown ave & Haines Street, but they have since moved. One of my co-workers practice capoiera also. I'll find out what school he attends and post you later with the info.

Peace

Je Lei Sifu

[Je Lei Sifu]

There is a Capoiera school located at 22nd and Cecil B. Moore Ave at the Martin Luther King Center.

Peace

Je Lei Sifu

[GreyFox81]

we do a little of everything except throws hand and leg techniques are equal sidestepping we have alot of sweeps and
i wish i knew monkey form and yes lisa it is my school

[JusticeZero]

For future note, when asking about Capoeira schools, it's important to note whether that school teaches Angola, Classic Regional, or Senzala Regional.

For instance, I am an Angoleiro. We almost never leave the ground, we are loathe to commit ourselves to a powerful, ballistic acrobatic technique, and we do not typically kick above the chest.

This distinction is just as important as someone asking about Kung Fu schools, and you wanting to know if they are looking for a Taijiquan school, a Hung Gar school, or a Modern Wushu school. There are in fact more divisions than these, but those are the more common ones. A lot of schools are Contemporanea, which is usually Senzala, and are little more than cardio gymnastics classes. Be wary of schools which claim "We do both Angola and Regional", as this type of claim is generally made only by a regionalista. It's as if Chess were outlawed, then Checkers made a national sport, and then the law against Chess was repealed and suddenly all the Checkers organizations crawled out of the woodwork saying "It is important to play both games to understand the true nature of the game. *jump* *jump* *jump* Checkmate!"

Finally, Capoeira techniques do not typically carry over well to other arts. They are based tightly on the movement and momentum control which we are doing constantly. Techniques which are not telegraphic for us, when done from a stationary stance, suddenly become extremely telegraphic. In addition, our movement style is African, and the basic dynamics of our techniques are often at odds with the typical Asian way of moving. Our footwork likes to take over and become dominant, in part because we do so darned much of it. I presume this is similar to the idea that one can study a significant amount of bagua and not start to be inclined to walk around things all the time and drive teachers who demand you stay rooted and fight on a line absolutely bonkers. This could be good or bad, but our footwork is based around a structure which differs from typical asian stancework, being both leaned forward (spine not perpendicular to ground) and openly hostile to the idea of having the feet pointed in different directions such as an L.

Many of the ways of moving low and yielding and accomodating attacks can be valuable, however. How to connect it i'm uncertain.

>What's the emphasis in the style? Heavy on punching, hand shapes, or kicking? Throwing a big part of the system? Or one of those systems that specializes in everything?

Capoeira styles are typically a kicking styles, focusing on large circular kicks and powered by twisting in the pelvis and spine. It uses evasion and a great deal of techniques which change the level of the fighter, often ending up moving on all fours while still throwing kicks, sweeps, and takedowns, primarily of the lower body sort. It contains very little punching, but makes use of the elbows and head as striking tools. My school uses a good selection of throws/takedowns using the legs.

[Lisa]

JusticeZero:

I don't know anything about Capoeira, so it's very interesting to read a little about it. I've seen several video clips of it, but they were mostly just people doing back flips and really flashy kicks. I've never actually seen anyone fight with it. What is your training like, compared to in a kung fu school? How much contact sparring do you do?

Lisa

[JusticeZero]

I haven't trained in a typical "kung fu school", only basic taiji lessons. So I cannot compare.

We start by warming up,

then ginga while throwing combinations of techniques toward a wall following the teacher's lead,

then we line up and do variants of cartwheels across the room, mixing in kicks while upside down, different kinds of landing and movement of cartwheel, and sometimes turning them into paired drills that contain a paired takedown and escape or two, or maybe one of us has to deal with an attack by the other while upside down.

Then we work on whatever the teacher has been tinkering with lately, though this is often worked in with the other parts - we might drill the technique on a specific throw, practice accuracy with kicks, get a lecture on history, have to parry punches blindfolded with the basic ginga, have people come and sit on us while we're in an esquiva, or whatever sort of other oddity the teacher has in mind. Sometimes this consists of the teacher putting together a fairly elaborate two-person drill on the spot and making us flow through it a number of times. In my class, this defaults to paired drills where one person advances continuously throwing kicks while the other person escapes from the kicks and counters with kicks while on the floor in the escape.

Then if we have time we'll either have a roda - which is somewhat like, but not, sparring, done at, preferably, the speed that both players can move at without losing form, and containing kicks thrown at contact range, takedowns, elbows, knees, head butts. etc. Typically contact consists of just 'marking' kicks with touches, with takedowns and throws done to completion in a controlled fashion.

or, we practice music - singing songs in Portuguese while playing music on instruments
- if the class is big enough, we can do both, but it's harder for the teacher to work with the musicians without causing them to be interrupted.

Then we work on exercises for strength and such.

We don't typically train for high contact, which I will admit is probably a bit of a weakness, but I will note in our defense that our attacks are primarily spinning kicks which can carry quite a bit of energy, and we focus on getting people to walk face-first into them. It's very hard to think of a way to fire a live meia lua de compasso (hands on the floor spinning heel kick) into someone's face and not have them suffer injury. Ditto with any of our head butts into the face or jaw. We can't exactly train effectively in a redman suit.

[Lisa]

Sounds pretty cool... one of the many, many things I'd like to learn if I had the time :)