paradigm change!

[red5angel]

So I finally settled on a martial arts and it came out of nowhere!

I just officially signed myself up for a capoeira class! :eek:

4 days ago I turned 31. I"m not feeling old, but I realise that within the next 10 years things will change for me. I'm still young enough to do some fairly demanding things and to abuse my body the way I see fit. I'm fit and capable and I need to challenge myself. The shaolin school was doing that until it closed, but even before that I was missing something.
I've hit a couple of schools since then, found some things I thought were interesting but couldn't get myself motivated to apply myself to any of them.

About 3 weeks ago I had a couple of fights with some guys from a capoeira school in the area, and they did really well against me and some others. Much better then I had ever thought they would. We talked after, they showed me some things and invited me to come check out their school. Never one to turn down an offer to check out a martial arts school I went last week, and took my wife and we both had a blast!

I was worn out by the end of class, but excited to come back, had class agian last night and it was awesome as well.

It's a lot different from anything else I've trained. Structured similar to some of the kali classes I've taken, but real loose. You take about 45 minutes of warming up and learning or going through drills, then they do the Roda (pronounced Hodah), where everyone gets into a circle, a few of the guys play a couple of native brazilian or african instruments (specific to capoeira) and you cycle around, with two people playing the game inside the circle. I'ts a hell of a lot of fun, like a low impact sparring for the most part.

Capoeira has a completely different mindset from the asian martial arts I have experience with. I wouldn't call it better, just different.

Is it practical? Probably not for me, although like any art, I suspect if you put enough time in and train hard, you can make it work. I wasn't looking for practical though, just challenging, and the fun sort of slipped in there.

The other bonus is my wife enojys the hell out of it as well so she signed up with me!

Anyway, some people asked me for updates over PM so thought I would post here. Any questions feel free to ask otherwise I'm sure I'll give updates as I go along.

[norther practitioner]

Good luck, you'll need it....:eek: :p :D

[old jong]

You know how to beat capoera without a sweat?...Just put on a polka record and it will ruin **** their rythme!...;)

[SevenStar]

I heard through the grapevine that you started training that and had been meaning to ask you about it.

there's a group at our club who is affiliated with nacao capoeira (http://www.ncapoeira.8m.com/) (not the NJ group, just nacao in general) - it's really good stuff. when I watch them, I see alot of takedowns and sweeps reminiscent of judo. the instructor dropped by our judo class one day and picked up on everything really well, likely because of the similar techniques he'd been doing in capoeira. Have fun.

[yenhoi]

Wow. Has another year passed already?

:confused:

[red5angel]

lol! yenhoi, yep. It's been a frustrating two years for me actually. I'm good with the capoeira go, it's challenging me in ways I think I needed to be. The school is stable too, been around for about 12 years. I'm still going to be taking kali classes, I think they may be slightly complimentary to each other.

OJ - If I had rhythm in the first place I'd worry about it ;)

7* - It's heavily based on kicking and being flashy. It's as much about having fun now a days as it is about fighting and certainly not practical from a self defence point of view.
I haven't seen many takedowns where the hands are used, a lot of tripping and sweeping for sure. The roda is as much about learning how to apply everything as it is about showing up your opponent.

Interestingly enough there is a strong underlying psychology to capoeira. what they call "Malicia" which is sort of a state of mind of being tricky or decietful as well as doing anything you have to do to win. You'll see this come out in the roda, there are a lot of feints and tricks. There are some traditional ways of approaching things, for instance when you enter the roda, you shake hands and basically cartwheel into it, or some other flashy flip/roll/kick, whatever. However you have to be careful that you don't get caught by someone who will go ahead and let you do your tricks, and take advantage of that.
One interesting event that may happen while your playing in the roda is called chamada. I've only seen it once but I've heard a lot about it. It's supposed to be like a break, to catch your wind. However, more often then not its setup like a trap. Someone calls a chamada by stepping back and say holding his arms out. The other player approaches slowly and cautiously and if everything goes ok then you start playing again. It's hard to describe but fun to watch.
Other then how to pull of the basic techniques you might see, there are no hard and fast rules on how things should be applied, no set orders and I have so far been encouraged to just throw things together and see what works for myself.

[omarthefish]

****ing awsome.

The value of enourmous fun is not to be over rated. I think the showboating aspect gives it a bad rap application-wise. The best Basketball players are showoffs. So are the best musicians. (my taste) I did a little Kali (about half a year) and it made a huge impression how much valuing fun and play in your practice can stimulate creativity and quick responses and reflexes, relaxation etc.

I'm jealous . . . almost.

Makes me SERIOUSLY miss sparring.

Tje kind of push hands I get to do on occasion comes close though.

Have fun.

[red5angel]

Thats basically why I have decided to take it up, the fun factor. I got burnt out on kungfu politics when I was in wingchun. Since I got out, nothing but the shaolin has really appealed to me, and the shaolin is no longer an option.
I have tried several arts over the last 2 years but nothing seemed to click in. My reasons for wanting to do them changed and so I had to adjust and I think I'm better for it. No more pressure really, just going to have fun and enjoy myself.

[red5angel]

http://www.capuraginga.com/interact/gallery.cfm?dir=Photo_Galleries/Minnesota_Batizado_III_04-2003/Gallery_Two


here are some pictures of some of the people I am training with. There are two schools that are affiliated here in minnesota, part of a larger organization that is slowly growing.

Here's some video as well -

http://www.capuraginga.com/interact/video_menu.cfm

I'll try to find some more if anyone's interested. Its pretty cool to watch.

[fa_jing]

What happened with the S.Mantis thing?

[yenhoi]

Mantis was only year 2 of the red5 saga.

Keep up!

:eek: