goldwarrior
Yellow Belt
There's a place that teaches Capoeira very close to me. I was thinking of going to try it out. Has anyone tried Capoeira? What were you thoughts about it? Good or bad? Effective or not effective?
Anyone tried Capoeira?
- Thread starter goldwarrior
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ralphmcpherson
Senior Master
all I know is it won this kicking power contest
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goldwarrior
Yellow Belt
Cool video! That guy had been doing Capoeira for 25 years though. I think it would take awhile for anyone to be able to generate that amount of kicking power in Capoeira, let alone any Martial Art.
Cool! I'm surprised the karate guy chose to deliver a mae konate, though. Nowhere near as fast as a roundhouse, otoshi geri, or other side-delivered kicks, I would think. The nice thing about a front thrust kick like that is that it is hidden inside your silhouette, it does not impinge on your opponent's peripheral vision.
Bruno@MT
Senior Master
I've seen a demonstration last year. It looked very impressive. Like a koryu, capoeira is more than just about fighting. It is also about the cultural, historical and athletic aspect.
If I had any rhytmical feeling I'd add capoeira to my workout, just for the increased flexibility and body control
There's a nice apoeira knockout here:
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If I had any rhytmical feeling I'd add capoeira to my workout, just for the increased flexibility and body control
There's a nice apoeira knockout here:
[yt]l6oiADjOdFg[/yt]
Omar B
Senior Master
I'm with you man, a straight up back kick delivered with the heel would have won. The karateka's choice is suspect, or he has no real idea how much force he's delivering with each blow relative to the others.
I'm sorry but that was funny to watch... great moves.
I've played around sparring with a Capoeria fella, never did find out his rank/belt but basically I couldn't get in enough to even attempt to land a strike. So if you're springy enough (j/k) you could get into it.
But as it was said, there is a lot of cultural ties to it. It's not your average Martial Art that is for sure... but effectiveness? :idunno: like all arts, only as good as the student/practitioner.
bushidomartialarts
Senior Master
I studied capoeira for 2 years (oddly in japan) and attend seminars or workshops when I can.
It is crazy fun and an incredible workout. I wouldn't use it in a fight, although I've used it to score points in a couple of tournaments - strikes come from angles that surprise traditional fighters.....once.
If I get to vote, I vote you go do it. It is really, really, really fun.
Did I mention that it's fun?
It is crazy fun and an incredible workout. I wouldn't use it in a fight, although I've used it to score points in a couple of tournaments - strikes come from angles that surprise traditional fighters.....once.
If I get to vote, I vote you go do it. It is really, really, really fun.
Did I mention that it's fun?
goldwarrior
Yellow Belt
I've heard this from other people as well. Definitely seems like a grueling workout, which is why I think I'd like to go do it.
For Capoeira to be an effective self-defense method... you probably need to be really skilled at it. There's another place that does Tae-Kwon-Do around me, which I was considering. I feel like TKD would be a good workout and give me some better self-defense skills. It's hard because I really only have time to do study 1 Martial Art.
Supra Vijai
Black Belt
Keep in mind that if you train TKD, you need to be pretty skilled at it to effectively use it for SD as well. That applies across the board 
Not tryin to discourage you at all, do whichever suits you better and you think will give you more real world usable skills for now (you can always go back to the other one later when your schedules clear up!) but just keep in mind that MA and Self Defence are 2 different concepts so if you train a MA, you train the MA not SD. If you were more interested in SD, try an RBSD group rather than a TKD school (or Karate or Ninjutsu or...)
With regards to your original post though, I love the look of Capoeira but I am rythmically challenged not to mention massively uncoordinated so not ideal for me lol.
Not tryin to discourage you at all, do whichever suits you better and you think will give you more real world usable skills for now (you can always go back to the other one later when your schedules clear up!) but just keep in mind that MA and Self Defence are 2 different concepts so if you train a MA, you train the MA not SD. If you were more interested in SD, try an RBSD group rather than a TKD school (or Karate or Ninjutsu or...) With regards to your original post though, I love the look of Capoeira but I am rythmically challenged not to mention massively uncoordinated so not ideal for me lol.
ralphmcpherson
Senior Master
Quite true, but from what Ive seen you need to be pretty skilled in ANY martial art to effectively use it for self defence, not just tkd or capoeira. I work with a guy who has been doing muay thai for only a year (so I wouldnt regard him as 'pretty skilled' in his art). He had a bit of a muck around fight/spar with my apprentice (3rd dan tkd) and lets just say it wasnt a great outcome for the muay thai guy as he got completely owned in front of the whole building site. All arts are relatively ineffective until you really understand them and have a good deal of training in them in my opinion.Keep in mind that if you train TKD, you need to be pretty skilled at it to effectively use it for SD as well. That applies across the board
With regards to your original post though, I love the look of Capoeira but I am rythmically challenged not to mention massively uncoordinated so not ideal for me lol.
Supra Vijai
Black Belt
Hey Ralph, hence my caveat in my original post of "That applies across the board" Sorry if I was a bit unclear on what I meant by that
ralphmcpherson
Senior Master
Yeah, no worries. My last post was more to point out to the OP that they will hear alot of people say "yeah, it works but you have to be really skilled at it", I hear that in relation to tkd all the time also. Id hate him to pass on capoiera because of people saying that, as choosing an art that you really enjoy should always be proprity one and not necessarillay the old chestnut of "how well it works on the street".
Supra Vijai
Black Belt
Yeah that advice about needing to be skilled and to pick whichever he feels yields the most real world applications was purely based on that fact that the OP asks which if Capoeira is effective or not. I took the criteria of effective to be in the context of SD hence the rest of my little speel about how MA and SD are different and how he should go for whichever he wants now and possibly come back to the 2nd down the track etc
bushidomartialarts
Senior Master
If I had to choose between TKD and capoeira, I'd go with capoeira. Following reasons:
I'm certain you'll make the choice that's right for you.
- Capoeira is more fun
- Capoeira is harder to find - you might live somewhere without it and miss the opportunity
- Capoeira is a young man's game - you can do TKD when you're too old for Capoeira
- Capoeira will get you in much better condition - which is more important in SD than many other factors, especially for beginners
- The women in capoeira classes are unbelievably hot and delightfully bendy
I'm certain you'll make the choice that's right for you.
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ralphmcpherson
Senior Master
Have you seen the women in tkd classes?
, or maybe thats just here in australia.
Flying Crane
Sr. Grandmaster
Hi GW,
Could you tell me the name of the teacher and school you are looking at?
I trained in capoeira pretty seriously for about seven years. It was a lot of fun, tho I ultimately drifted away from it and haven't done it in a number of years now.
Capoeira has a rich curriculum of movement, as well as a rythmic, cultural, and physically expressive aspects. People who don't really understand it tend to fixate on the "dancelike" aspects of it, and honestly that makes me a little crazy. It is definitely a fighting art, and it is NOT a dance.
In my opinion, most people today who train capoeira train for the roda, meaning they train to play the game of capoeira. The roda can be anywhere from light and playful to harsh and scary, but it is still within a certain game-like context. This is different from training to fight, tho there is some overlap between the two.
If one wants to fight with capoeira, they need to train differently, and in my opinion most schools in the US probably do not make fighting a heavy priority, tho some schools do tend to play more roughly than others. I will say that I have met some capoeiristas who I would NEVER want to have a fight with. They are big and strong and fast and have good technique, and are more than just a little bit psychotic...
anyway, have fun with it, check it out and you might like it. It's like nothing else that I've seen.
Could you tell me the name of the teacher and school you are looking at?
I trained in capoeira pretty seriously for about seven years. It was a lot of fun, tho I ultimately drifted away from it and haven't done it in a number of years now.
Capoeira has a rich curriculum of movement, as well as a rythmic, cultural, and physically expressive aspects. People who don't really understand it tend to fixate on the "dancelike" aspects of it, and honestly that makes me a little crazy. It is definitely a fighting art, and it is NOT a dance.
In my opinion, most people today who train capoeira train for the roda, meaning they train to play the game of capoeira. The roda can be anywhere from light and playful to harsh and scary, but it is still within a certain game-like context. This is different from training to fight, tho there is some overlap between the two.
If one wants to fight with capoeira, they need to train differently, and in my opinion most schools in the US probably do not make fighting a heavy priority, tho some schools do tend to play more roughly than others. I will say that I have met some capoeiristas who I would NEVER want to have a fight with. They are big and strong and fast and have good technique, and are more than just a little bit psychotic...
anyway, have fun with it, check it out and you might like it. It's like nothing else that I've seen.
As much as I love TKD it would not be my first choice for a SD application. We do train a set of self defense moves, but it's defenitely martial art first, sport second, defense third.
All of that said if I was fighting that Capoiera guy in the vid I'd have no idea what in the hell he was doing.
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