Does anyone Practice Capoeira?
pronounced like this, cop ooo ed ah
And just to let some of y’all that are asking yourselves “what is Capoeira”. Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art that Involves music. It started from slaves in Brazil who weren’t allowed to practice martial arts, so they disguised it in dance and music.
So ya its a really cool.
It’s very cool but mostly inefficient as a martial art. There are a few nice highlight-reel capoeira finishes caught on tape, but at most you’re going to grab an element or two from it.
Practicing for fitness, skill, fun and flexibility, though… hard to imagine a better martial art than that!
Actually Capoeira has the strongest kicks because they start off in the lowest position.
cap is one of the most deadly forms of martial arts when combined with krav maga… which i have done but havent practiced in awhile… the cap movements are complex and make it very hard for someone to hit you if you do it right then you can pull of a krav maga disarmament.
Force is mass times acceleration. If you can accelerate for that whole distance, you’ve got a REALLY STRONG kick!!!
But note that I said “inefficient”. You have to expend a lot of energy to execute that kick, and the kick travels a long distance which makes it more telegraphed.
I’m a big believer in Bruce Lee’s approach to martial arts. 2 inch punch is just an example (not meant to be his main technique though he’s famous for it) of how if you accelerate explosively over a short distance you still have damaging power. Kicks are for below the belt and disabling or interfering with movement. Boxer stance… punches for the head and body for the most part. Of course, picking the right tool in a split second means you don’t HAVE to limit yourself to that, but it’s a good foundation.
Capoeira… not so much in alignment with what I consider to be one of the best approaches to the fighting arts.
What I DO see as a potentially effective part of it is the unpredictability. So while I’m contradicting myself a bit here (I said earlier that long kicks are telegraphed) the Capoiera practitioner can strike from unexpected angles and in broken (therefore effective) rhythms.
Ya thats a good way to describe Capoeira. But really I don’t mainly practice Capoeira as a form of defense, but really as a way to have fun and let go. In Capoeira we don’t just learn the movement, but also the music, history and how to speak Portuguese. Its really a good way to learn about another culture other than my own.
I did take notice you said “inefficient”. I personally have never been in a fight where I had to use Capoeira, But if their ever comes a time where I do have to I have confidence that I will be able to use Capoeira in my defense.
And really all martial arts have a lot of the same fundamentals, but just different ways of expressing them. A lot like languages. They’re all saying the same thing, just they sound differently… So its really not about the style, but the person using it.
Do you practice anything?
Ya I did a little history in Krav Maga, and thats pretty interesting cause it was invented by the Jews in Israel during WWII to protect themselves from the Nazis.
both were made for survival though krav maga shows how the jews feel about their enemies… a dead enemy is an enemy no more…
Now that sounds awesome. Sums up everything cool about what you’re doing. 
I’m fighting a losing battle with a cruddy back, so nothing at the moment. But most recently straight-up kickboxing (MMA style, not American sport) with a bit of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Spent a couple of years of my youth in Judo and a year of my young adult life doing Goju-Ryu karate, though I only advanced to orange.
I think the most continuous effort I ever put into the fighting arts was the 1.5 years I spent doing pure boxing in a small gym in Mexico (the kickboxing stint was longer, but I was less focused). It’s not quite as ‘movie-like’ as it sounds-- although small and coached by legit boxers, it was still in a relatively posh neighborhood and not many of the boxers were hungry up-and-comers fighting to survive. 
Just a bunch of people who enjoyed boxing as their main way to stay in shape.
Have to admit, I always wished (not too late, mind you) I had stuck to a particular thing for years of discipline instead of taking short bursts. I feel like I missed an opportunity or two. I probably would have done Goju-ryu for a long time if the instructor wasn’t military police and got posted elsewhere!
