Traditionally, Capoeira is thought to be a martial art, drawing on old African fighting styles, that was developed by Brazilian slaves and disguised as a folk dance to hide the knowledge from their masters. Others say it was a originally a folk dance that incorporated improvised striking methods. Either way it seems that the dance was brought to South America by African slaves sometime in the 16th century.
The matter is still up for quite a bit of debate and, frankly, I’m not sure which side I come down on. Wiki actually gives a fairly good overview of what’s known about Capoeira, including the controversies.
As far as it being a useful/legitimate fighting style…
I’m not aware of it being used consistently by any commonly accepted high level MMA competitor. (Not saying that there isn’t, I’m just personally not aware of anyone who does so.) It’s undeniably a very flashy style which seems to have a lot of wasteful movements, however… it does seem to promote a lot secondary characteristics that may be useful, specifically I’m thinking of things like balance, flexibility, and cardio. (Every serious Capoeira practitioner I’ve ever seen has been in phenomenal shape.) Also, Capoeira is essentially a strike based martial art and some of the kicks and strikes could probably be incorporated into a fighter’s repertoire. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of those circular kicks packed quite a punch, trading quickness for power.
It would have to be balanced with a grappling/wrestling discipline of course as I don’t think a pure Capoeira fighter would fare well once they’re taken off of their feet. In MMA the best fighters are those who can do both at a certain, minimal level.
Agreed, my ideal for myself is to combine Capoeira, Jujitsu and Qi Gong that way I have the good movement around my center and can improvise from any position my body may be in, that’s where Capoeira’s main strength lies IMO, and Jujitsu for its no-nonsense grappling improvisational style, and Qi Gong for meditation and core strengthening. Softening someone up with a powerful strike in order to grapple them can be useful.
Though, you might notice that a lot of the Capoeira MMA bouts you see on Youtube have the guys eventually grappling people. If you look at that video I posted about with the young Capoeiristas, you’ll notice that even very early those kids have some insane body control. That’s one thing about Capoeira, you can learn some things you never knew you could do very quickly. I am impressed by the guys when they swan dive on their forearms with their back bent touch their feet to the floor and then bring their feet back up in the air. That’s just some ridiculous control of one’s body.
To be honest, that actually in a way makes Capoeira one of the most powerful martial arts out there. My Jiu Jitsu instructor and every black belt in my class teaches that learning to roll is the most useful self-defense move you will learn as the most likely scenario of you hurting yourself is some kind of accidental impact, falling or being hit by a car or some other such thing, and being able to instinctively roll with the impact can save you a lot of trauma. In that Capoeira is probably superior to a lot of other martial arts. Sure you’re not going to win MMA bouts in the same way as BJJ and Muay Thai, the two styles that seem to dominate MMA, but you are going to survive a lot of things that will come at you in life. Never underestimate the power of being able to fall with your head down and your feet up and not be out of control.
I bet Capoeira and Parkour work magically together.
I had a friendly spar with a capoeirist (I do primarily kung fu). Starting off, he caught me with several kicks and punches that I didn’t come close to defending. However, that was totally due to the “what the hell?” surprise factor since I had never sparred against that style and was expecting more traditional angles and strikes. Normal people don’t bend that way
In our 2nd and 3rd rounds, with the surprise factor gone, I had a better feel for the range and distance and was able to pretty much (staying within my style’s technique) neutralize/avoid anything he was sending at me.
It was similar to when I first sparred with a BJJ guy. He was able to surprise me with a shoot to the legs once, but after that it became less about particular style and more about individual skill and strength.
There have been a few guys who have made Capoeira work for them in an MMA setting. It wouldn’t be my first choice, but it can work. This first video is Marcus “Lelo” Aurelio of AXE Capoeira Vancouver knocking out Keegan “The Marshall” Marshall last April:
That’s not Capoeira and the Wrestler is significantly larger than the striker. That looks a lot more like Tae Kwan Do than Capoeira to me. They called the name of it and it didn’t sound like Capoeira. He wasn’t doing Jenga at all and his movements were very stilted.
Haven’t seen the videos, just curious as if anybody actually trains capoeira with an instrutor/contramestre/mestre from any one of the recognized capoeira groups (Abadá, Maculele, Raca, Cordao de ouro being the ones I know, but not the only ones).
Because I do. I suck mightily, but I do.
That’s a trap! A freaking trap! Sure, there are some moves I can do really fast, but many of them look easier than what in fact they are.
FWIW, I don’t do it for the martial arts angle… If I wanted self defense, I’d taken up something else. But I do like the choreography/dance angle, and I do like the music and I’m trying to learn how to play the instruments.
Sorry but a “martial” art that is so flashy and wasteful is never going to compete with something meant for actual combat, which always involves the opposite: conservation of movement and simplicity.
It’s a time game. I’m not surprised that Capoeira practitioners can do some amazing things, but in the same time that they’ve learned to master a couple of moves and learned to jump around like acrobats, someone studying a more useful art has mastered a much broader set movements, building the required muscle memory to deploy them as second nature.
No one can truly master more than a few set of moves, there is a limited amount of time to do so. If you focus entirely on useful and simple techniques you’re in a whole lot better place.
All you have to do is go back historically: not when people did this as a hobby, or as sport, but when they were using martial arts to routinely to kill one another. The middle ages and the renaissance, in Asia and Europe.
It’s funny, but flips and wasteful movements don’t enter the lexicon of any martial art until humans no longer are routinely using it as their ancestors have, and it switches from a necessity of the warrior classes to a sport.
Capoeira isn’t wasteful. That shows a distinct lack of understanding of the style.
Kinthalis You really haven’t studied Capoeira at all have you?
It’s a very motion economic art. It’s just that you follow the fluid flow of your movements. Capoeira is one of the simplest martial arts that I’ve studied at all. It all flows from a few basic movements.
I mean really. Capoeira was developed as a sport? Umm…no, it was developed by the slave classes in Brazil as a dance so that they could hide their martial arts training from their slave masters by making them think it was merely a dance.
Capoeira’s main weakness which you didn’t even touch on is it’s weakness vs grapplers, but that’s true of any striking style. If a Grappler gets you on the ground and you aren’t a trained grappler, you’re screwed. Which is why the better Capoeiristas in MMA can and do go to the mats. I think they probably throw some BJJ in there with that.
Karl Grenze Well what I am saying with the basics being easy is that you can throw yourself over your center of gravity pretty early on in the lessons. Obviously like anything else there are levels of mastery that are not simple and easy.
