Okay look. Alot of people on this thread ALREADY USE CAPOEIRA TECHS YOU JUST DON'T KNOW IT. Do you throw punches, kicks, knees, elbows? Do you grab people by their hair and sweep or slam them? Do you kick people in the nads as a viable self defense tech? Do you poke people in the eyes and smash throats, and/or consider that eye gouges and fish hooks are legit self defense techs?
http://youtu.be/so_HQRCFezU
Even people who--due to the rules and politics--have to use roda type capoeira to make contact are still doing exactly what many say can't be done and isn't done by capoeiristas: they attack with cartwheel kicks, they use takedowns and punches and leg kicks and body blows. Even though the rules require open hand palm strikes and slaps instead of bareknuckle punches...similar to how traditional bareknuckle karate bans punches to the face but nobody's stupid enough to presume that kyokushinkai fighters arent' hardcore fighters:
http://youtu.be/1-dUB-Y85eY
http://youtu.be/1-dUB-Y85eY
ANDERSON THE SPIDER SILVA CAPOEIRA
http://youtu.be/1-dUB-Y85eY
look how similar these moves are to Anderson's fights:
http://youtu.be/77eWTjQPt3I
http://youtu.be/vtaOxs-GyHo
http://youtu.be/5HDes1gkLZ0
Like I said, everyone on this site uses techs which are a part of capoeira. You may train them differently. You may not even know that you use them. But you do. Capoeira works and most of you onsite have spent a lifetime proving it by using techs which you share in common with capoeira. As for the ginga? YOU GUYS HAVE SEEN IT BEFORE...you just were so asleep at the wheel that you didn't realize the universality of its effectiveness and use in martial arts for millenia.
You never had any problem with dances before. You could separate the dance Ram Muay from the MARTIAL ART Muay Boran and its sportive grandson Muay Thai.
http://youtu.be/MH1kkYB8lT8
It's not accidental that these very movements are immortalized in medu neter near the 2nd cataract of the Nile in Africa centuries before Thailand existed. Think upon that. And I won't even bring the Nubians into the discussion...that's too much for yall right now. Lolol. And it would contribute to too much thread drift, which I don't want.
So stop hatin on the ginga and recognize the same respect that you give Muay Thai and other martial arts [ likely including the very martial art you study now] which has dance as an integral part is also the respect that is due to capoeira. Recognize that the ginga has an incredibly important rule visavis what Kenpoists call Position Recognition and visavis anybody with any sense at all understands about the supremacy of footwork...as long as you understand that the dance of the playful roda and celebrations are NOT the dance you're going to use when you fight and are NOT the way YOU TRAIN the dance FOR a fight. My Mestre Roque told me that HIS Mestre told him that Capoeira is: "...the Dance of Death..." and he is right.
I'm not saying that you should train in Capoeira if you don't want to. I am saying that you can fight with capoeira...you 100% for sure use techniques that are extant in capoeira and swear by their efficacy, whether those techs are high flying or low to the ground, flashy or street nasty, or anything in between. And I will show you more of the same in methods that you're not used to seeing if you come to this thread with an empty cup, an open sensible and critical mind...and a sense of respect and adventure.