Capoeira questions

[Chazmek]

Wow! That was friggin awesome!

[Lucas]

ya, and that was so text book capoeria (if there is a textbook on capoeria). thats what makes it beautiful is thats actually pretty much capoeria basics. the guy never saw the second spin kick coming.

must have not ever seen capoeriasts (sp)

[Chazmek]

Yeah, it looks like a basic Mei Lua Compas, but he must have just been caught off-guard.

[Lucas]

that might be one of the only times ive ever seen two spinning kicks back to back in a MMA match with complete commitment to it.

you never see that.

[GeneChing]

Click link for Capoeira vid.

America's Next Top Model Cycle 12: Episode 10 Video Preview
Tuesday, April 21, 2009

This week, the girls are leaving the comfortable confines of the Top Model house and going abroad to beautiful Brazil.

While five of the girls are on cloud nine about arriving in Brazil, one girl is feeling seriously burnt out on the competition. Who do you think has lost the fire to be America's Next Top Model? My best guess is Natalie, who seems less passionate about the prize and the hoops she has to jump through to get it.

By the looks of the next video, the girls first photo shoot in Brazil is inspired by Capoeira. Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian art form and game that involves martial arts and dance moves. By the looks of it, awkward Allison is killing the Capoeira moves and poses, which is somewhat surprising. Unfortunately, all of Allison's praise is coming from Mister Jay, who has basically had opposite opinions on the girls performance than the actual judges the entire cycle. Mister Jay says it's fabulous and wonderful and you are doing perfect, and somehow at panel the judges have a mediocre photo that they hate. On that token, perhaps Fo, who seems to be struggling in the video, will end up with the strongest photo of the week. I know that would please the tremendous number of Fo fans out there.

Last (and definitely least) we have a video of this week's Tyra's "Guide to Inner Fierceness" piece. I, for one, can't believe there is a new one of these every week, what a waste of 45 seconds. I even preferred it when Tyra pretended to do a version of the same photo shoot the girls were doing week to week. I mean who could forget Tyra's version of last season's balloon photo shoot? While Tyra and Mister Jay wanted the girls literally to hang from a ladder draped off a hot air balloon, Tyra's photo had her holding a single kid sized balloon. Classic Tyra moment.

[Askari Hodari]

Do you think Capoeira can be taught, learned, and utilized as an effective martial art?

I know it is usually not practiced as a fully combative style.
I know it is more of a flower style than a truly practical style.
But, I have heard many claims that, if used properly, it can indeed stand toe to toe with the more pragmatic and combat-based styles.

Thoughts?

There are groups that train Capoeira as a combat art explicitly. The sport applications are merely one modality. There are others that are focused more around reality-based combat.

I have trained with some of these groups.

[mawali]

If one talked to capoeira practitioners or read the historical record, one would know that capoeira was banned various times in Brazil because the unarmed practitoners (though they did have blades of various kinds) easily beat the armed guards and military personnel. The reason: Capoeira was a threat to the 'unnatural social order'.

1. Slaves, indigenous people and mixed blood people could not arm themselves so they pursued capoeira as a self defense tool
2. Palamres was a struggle against that brutality.
3. The strategy of capoeira is that it appears useless, or like a drunk man unable to balance himself but when contact is made, the true man asserts himself.
4. The 'old way' capoeiristas say "never show your skill, hide it". Cunning, feigned ignorance, etc are all part of the capoeiristas arsenal.
5. Capoeiristas at the beginning of the century were often rounded up and put in jail for one reason only. They could fight back.

The sport capoeira movement did much to defang the old ways in order to present the art as physical and acribatic movement, a good thing.
It is not that "traditional" (angola!) capoeira has been lost but one just has to look harder to learn as in all martial endeavours.

Nelson Capoeira, a noted author has noted that some capoeira regional or contemporea players play their style as angola in that they leave out the fancy acrobatics and paly just to associate and relax in the game (jogo/juego)!