"Conscious physical training is using the visible to mold the invisible."
-Dan Millman

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

My Capoeira Adventure




Anyone who knows me knows that I am always on the look out for something new and exciting.  Whether it is a new physical activity, a new idea, new people, or new situations, I am always trying to push the envelop on my life and experiences.  My root guru Robert Anton Wilson divided human kind into two broad, loose groups: homo neophilus and homo neophobus.  Homo neophilus seeks out new experiences and new ideas.  Homo neophobus likes to stick with the traditioanl, the "tried and true" and the safe.  I definitely hope to continue to push forward as a homo neophilus!

It is in the spirit of seeking out the new and exciting that my wife Samaria and I attended a capoeira demonstration and Brazilian dance party at the new studios of Capoeira Evolucao here in Austin Texas about 2 weeks ago.  I have practiced various martial arts in my life but I had never seen or experienced anything quite like capoeira.  I had watched a few youtube videos of capoeira but those videos did not give a bit of justice to watching capoeira in person.


Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian martial art that was developed and used by African slaves in Brazil to fight and defend themselves.  Many runaway slaves established strong holds against slave owners and the state and were able to defend their hard won freedom, and liberate other slaves through the use of capoeira.  Because capoeira was developed by slaves, they had to hide what they were doing since a slave owner would obviously not want his slaves to be practicing martial arts!  To hide what they were doing, capoeiristas (a capoeira  practitioner) combined their martial art with dance and music.  The history of capoeira is rich with legends and origin stories and I have only provided a rough outline here.  The interested reader can discover more detailed history on-line or through books.

I was blown away during the capoeira demonstration I watched.  The capoeirista were incredibly agile and fluid.  There moves displayed an incredible amount of gymnastic skill and a masters level of body weight control.  They would begin slow and then accelerate kicks and legs sweeps so fast that the opponent would have to duck and dodge with lightening speed.  It was incredible.



My wife has practiced capoeira in the past and was eager to take the offer of a free week of training that Capoeira Evolucao provides to interested people.  She came home from her first class bursting with excitement and physical exhaustion.  She quickly convinced me to come try a class and I am so happy that I did.

My first capoeira class took me outside of my comfort zone in multiple ways.  To begin with, the "warm up" consisted of about 30 minutes of pretty tough calisthenics and heavy duty stretching.  The calisthenics had me standing in a puddle of my own sweat and the stretching would have been challenging for a yoga student.  The actual capoeira training was about 45 minutes.  The techniques are complicated and extremely technical but the instructors broke them down into somewhat more easily worked sections.  I thought I had balance, coordination, accuracy, and flexibility but I almost immediately found the end limit of all of those things when trying to perform the capoeira training.  Another aspect of the training is rhythm, and all of the moves are set to music.  Some of the music was recorded but there were also musicians playing traditional drum and a stringed instrument called a berimbau.  I was surprised to find that I liked this part of the training.  I am not the most confident of dancers but I was able to lose some of that inhibition while doing capoeira.



When capoeiristas practice capoeira or spar, they call it "playing" capoeira.  I enjoyed this very much.  We were doing something highly technical and martial but the spirit was of play, fun, community, and friendship.  This was a great environment to train in.

Half way through that first capoeira class I had decided that like my wife, I too wanted to sign up for regular classes.  I am going to my third class tonight.  My body is sore, my mind is swimming with all the new techniques, and I can't wait to go do it again!

If you are looking for a new way to have fun with that fit body that you are developing through work in the CrossFit gym or Odyssey Outdoor Training groups then I could not give a stronger recommendation for capoeira and the folks at Capoeira Evolucao.  Find new ways to challenge yourself.  Take your fitness and the adventure of life outside of your normal, comfortable, routine and try something new and daring.  Go out and explore the world...and have fun doing it!


                                           http://www.capoeiraevolucao.com/

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