Filed under: Blog
Greetings to all of you Facebookers out there. I’m sure some of you know this already, but some of you may not. The Capoeira Blog is now on Facebook!
I created a Facebook page that is basically just a place for fans of The Capoeira Blog to get together, meet each other, share thoughts on the wall, post pictures, and waste more time!
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See you on The Book!
Filed under: Videos
The title of this post (and video) is misleading. And that’s on purpose…
I think that people spend way too much time arguing about which martial art is better.
If you look through the comments on a capoeira video on YouTube you will see people who can do nothing but argue about how much capoeira sucks in a fight and how it’s worthless. Many times, people from other styles put down capoeiristas and ridicule us just because our style is different or because we “wouldn’t be able to win an MMA fight” (which isn’t true by the way, but I’ll save that for another post).
So it is very refreshing to come across a video like this:
This is a video from Russia (at least I think it’s Russia, the alphabet certainly looks Russian, though I don’t read or speak the language) where Kyokushin practitioners are getting a lesson from some capoeiristas.
Kyokushin kaikan is a style that combines traditional karate with elements from kickboxing and boxing, for full contact fighting (with no pads used).
The video demonstrates one of the most cliche sayings ever used, “why can’t we all just get along.” But even though the saying is corny, the meaning is important. And I think it’s great to see two styles coming together and learning from each other, instead of arguing about who is better.
Photo by Allison McCarthy (Flickr)
I’ve hardly ever worn shoes while playing capoeira (unless it’s on concrete).
I feel a lot more liberated and unrestricted when I play barefoot. This may be because I’ve never gone out and bought a pair of martial arts type shoes to play in; but playing in Adidas sneakers feels very clunky and awkward.
But there are some people who wear shoes all the time, whenever they play. Most of these shoes are lightweight, have thin soles, and don’t really seem to get in the way.
I’ve seen a few different places online where they sell “capoeira shoes” but I have no experience with any of them, and I don’t want to buy a pair and have them end up being crappy. I also know a few people who wear Puma or Adidas martial art shoes or just light sneakers.
I would love to write up a resource or review of capoeira shoes around the internet, but I really just don’t have the experience. So I’m going to put it out there to you, my faithful and knowledgeable readers.
What’s your take on playing capoeira with shoes on?
I guess this might just go for regionalistas, because (correct me if I’m wrong) it’s common for angolerios to play with shoes. Though, I’d love to hear from any angola players out there on what shoes they prefer. And if you’re a regional player I’d like to know if you play with or without shoes. If you do play with shoes, what kind do you find to be the best fit for capoeira?
Filed under: Questions
As soon as something starts to become “cool” and “trendy,” you know there are people out there who will try to make as much money off it as they can.
Capoeira is no exception.
If you do a search online you can find a bunch of different “Cardio Capoeira” type workout videos. They come in all shapes and sizes, and I’m not going to bother linking to any of them here (well, except for a couple of example videos), but you know they’re out there.
Some are good, and some are pretty dismal. Here’s an example of each.
Bad:
(I can’t link to the example video from the blog, but go to YouTube and search for “cardio capoeira DVD” and you’ll see what I’m talking about.)
I say this is bad because the capoeira in it is just awful. Granted, I haven’t seen the entire video, and I’ve never seen these two play in a roda or anything, but I mean come on; they’re not fooling experienced capoeiristas. You can’t claim to be an instructor of anything when you look like you’ve only been doing it a month yourself.
And I won’t get started on the wannabe quasi-techno capoeira music they have playing…
They are also targeting this “capoeira” workout at “all age levels”, i.e. claiming that adults can’t do any of the ground movements or acrobatics, so they just took that part out of their capoeira, but they’re still leaving the “spirit” of capoeira intact. Last I checked, those are two of the most important parts of the capoeira game. But what do I know?
Good:
(I can’t link to this video either, jeez, but go to YouTube and search for “capofit” and you will find it.)
I actually own this video (I was intrigued, it looked halfway decent, so I decided to order it) and it is pretty good. The instructor is actually good (Professor Fabiano, not sure what group he’s from) and so are his students. What’s amazing is that they’re actually doing capoeira. It’s not some watered-down “workout” version, which is OK with me.
The videos also include footage of rodas and demos (so you can see capoeira in action and you know why you’re doing these movements), and they use real capoeira music on the DVD.
If you’re just learning capoeira, or if you’ve had some instruction but can’t get to a class on a regular basis, I would actually recommend buying these videos so you can follow along and train on your own. This series (and I’m sure there are a few others out there) uses true capoeira as a workout, it doesn’t water-down capoeira and change it at all, which is why I’m OK with it.
So now, the question is, what do you think? As we’ve seen, there are good and bad examples of “cardio capoeira” out in the world. Do you think it’s good for the art? Do you think it’s exploitation of capoeira?
Please share your feelings in the comments!
Filed under: Blog
Don’t worry, I didn’t get rid of all the links on the sidebar. I just moved them to a page called Links. Clever, right? I know.
You’ll also probably notice that I moved a few things around on the sidebar. I’m just trying to make things more easy to access and see in one glance. Less cluttered is good in my opinion, so there you go.
Let me know if you have any thoughts on what I moved around.
Filed under: Tips & Guides
You may remember when I mentioned Bahia-Capoeira Blog’s Berimbau Arames for Dummies tutorials.
Well, now they have finished the series, and you should go check it out!
If you have any berimbau-construction related tips, please feel free to share them with us!
