Parallels between capoeira and muay thai

[SevenStar]

A buddy of mine just started attending our muay thai class, and going to start having his capoeria classes there. I was watching them tonight - they do ALOT of sweeps. My friend is the maestre, and he loves stepping in and doing takedowns on students when they kick high. Alot of what people see during demos is distance fighting - like watching any other striking style - in kicking range, they kick. When the capoeristas get in close, they do takedowns, knees and elbows.

sukui nage, o soto gari, de ashi barai, o uchi gari and morote gari (double leg) are among the takedowns he did tonight in training. Afterwards, we all talked about the parallels between capoeira and muay thai - surprisingly, they have alot of similarities. They have the same 'crash' mentality that thai boxers have - their kicks don't snap, they penetrate. They thrust their hips forward in their knee strikes and also do front kicks in a similar manner.

We train and fight to traditional thai music, using the beat to pace the fight - they do the same thing. (during warm ups, we may listen to hip hop, techno, rock or alternative, but once we start sparring or pad drills, we put in the thai music.)

[Starchaser107]

Seven I don't know abt. the co-relation between that and m.t. , but as far as takedowns go...,
This is how that has been explained to me by the person I was studying angola style capoeira with.
originally there isn't any great deal of grappling in the art, alot of that has been incorporated because of integrating a bit of judo and bjj.
I'm only guessing that the similarites that you've come across may not be that widespread as far as teaching techs are concerned.From what I've seen anyway.
In all the capoiera that I've come across so far that has passed throgh here, alot of the emphasis in training is on the game itself played with light or no contact. While it does have its good points, it would be good if I could see self defense emphasis based on a more comprehensive approach, as opposed to training capoieristas to dance/fight against other copoieristas.

[SevenStar]

contact was light and when he threw them, he'd do it lightly, sometimes ctching them before they actually fell. He did mention though, that when they play against other schools, it's not that friendly.

[Meat Shake]

Capoeria teaches a good natural movement as well. The capoeista(sp?) that Ive played with move very well, although sometimes they seem a bit lost when you start hitting them.

[Starchaser107]

I've noticed that with the little capoeira training i've had, my evasion and recovery from sweeps throws &
takedowns has improved, also when I integrate the concepts of capoiera into my kung fu offensive I'm at times able to cath people off guard.

[SevenStar]

yeah, I can definitely see the element of surprise coming into play there.

[yenhoi]

wing chun forum has a thread about how MT is Flying Monkey is WCK.

:eek:

[red5angel]

kewl 7*. I have some freinds who have been studying capoeria now for a few years not too far from hear and they seem to enjoy it alot. They showed me some of the basic moves, I sometimes use them for warmups, and good core wokrout too!