Capoeira

[Tvebak]

Capoeira may be considered a martial art, if practised for this, a dance, if practised for this or a ritual, show or a way to liberate yourself.
The best capoeira (i think) is a mixture of all these where people can find what suit them best, of course stille learning about all the aspects of the art is important.
I personally, have studied the art with a strong focus on the fight, yet i play the instruments, sing, dance and joke and take part in non-combative capoeira games...and enjoy it all.
Capoeira can be used for fighting and contains a lot of very effective strategies and techniques for thís, but if fighting is the only thing...then its not capoeira anymore.
I can defend myself using capoeira techniques, and i do so almost without thinking, but more important than this, capoeira has enriched my life in so many other ways.
I know i would not be where i am today if i had not done capoeira...i cant count the times where it helped me out.
Everyday i walk with the ginga in my steps.

[SevenStar]

Originally posted by tei chi anarchy
I have a friend who knows capoeira, and man does it look cool! But on the self defense side, i don't think u wanna be doin head spins on concrete... I think it would be great for fun, and flexibility, but if your looking for an effective self defense martial arts, i wouldn't do it... I enjoy watching it though! Hope it helped, peace

No offense, but if your friend couldn't fight with it, he wasn't trained properly.

[Boffo]

Originally posted by SevenStar
No offense, but if your friend couldn't fight with it, he wasn't trained properly.

I have to disagree here.

Some people will never be good fighters, no matter how hard they train or how pretty their moves. Fighting ability is a matter of temperament, strength, willpower, as well as martial arts training.

What martial arts does is give you useful skills to fight with, but if the knack isn't there, then you are just out of luck.

[SevenStar]

Note that I didn't say "if he's not a good fighter, he wasn't trained properly". Regardless of your caliber, if you have had proper training, you know how to use your art for more than just headspins. you know the applications and are capable of applying them to some extent. Notice that he was not talking about his friend's ability. He was talking about the style his friend trained in. I know for a fact that capoeira can be used for fighting. If his friend hasn't learned how to use it for fighting, then like I said, he wasn't trained properly.

[IronFist]

I heard this was Capoeira, but it looks similiar to a bunch of TKD kicking. There are some good head kick knockouts in there, tho.

And WTF at the guy doing the splits on the wall at 1:07.

edit - And notice how it's always the guy without the headgear who's getting kicked in the head?

[CaptinPickAxe]

I won't be the resident pessimist today...

the word is mum

[tug]

In my limited knowledge/opinion, it looks like a smattering of capoeira, TKD, JKD, Wushu, Parkour and breakdancing.

With all the connections shown, it certainly looks formidable.

Maybe gives a "hey now" to all the naysayers who don't believe kicks, or high kicks for that matter, can work in confrontation.

[neilhytholt]

Yeah, that's kindof an old vid. It seems to be effective for him, though, but it's not going to work against every fighter. Basically he's got the element of surprise here, right? They're not expecting those types of kicks.

[Ben Gash]

Hmm, 7 minutes of footage and only 15 seconds of Capoeira. With the exception of 2 clips towards the end, all of the fight stuff is straight ITF Tae Kwon Do (which he does appear to be quite good at).

[SanHeChuan]

It looks to me like he had enough athletic ability to watch some capeoria and mimic what he saw. I would be highly surprised if he was ever taught capeoria. He had a very limited number of capeoria techniques, mostly TKD type stuff.

[Pork Chop]

Anybody else bugged by how he's always going for the knockout in Continuous & Point Sparring events? If he could do the same thing in full contact (knockdown karate, kickboxing, san shou, muay thai, mma.... anything) then maybe i'd be impressed. That silva guy that does capoeira in the cage is way more impressive.

decent acrobatics tho.

[HearWa]

I'd kill to be as explosive as him, but really, it's a good thing no one in those competitions had any boxing skills. He wouldn't have gotten away with nearly as much as he did.

I usto use those lunging crosses all the time until I got smacked in the face almost every time I tried it.

[Judge Pen]

It reminds me of. . . . . Gymkata!

Seriously, the guy is a physically gifted as they come. I'm envious of the athleticism and explosiveness he has and I'm sure that he has worked hard to get that way, but I'd be more impressed if he was doing a bit more than point sparring.

[Ben Gash]

Now there's a film you don't hear of that often

[Judge Pen]

Now there's a film you don't hear of that often

And there's a good reason for that. I remember watching that film when I was like, 10 years old, I remember thinking to myself, "This is stupid."