Has anyone done Capoiera

[Ravencroft]

i would love to learn some capoeira but there arent any schools in my area. there isnt much of anything im into in my area but in any case capoeira i believe can be used efficiently in combat if u train in it that way. it seems like it would be pretty hard to counter with all of the fast kicks and twists, this is not to say that i would rely on it and it alone but it has many things that other arts to do not which i believe to be a great benefit. and snipes studied it? i mean i know he holds a 5th dan in karate but i didnt know he studied capoeira.

[SevenStar]

rich is completely and totally wrong... true capoeira has plenty of sweeps and takedowns - many are similar to judo. in addition, they also use knees and commonly seen kicks, like the front kick and roundhouse. I see it all the time, as our club is shared by a capoeria instructor.

[SevenStar]

thai boxers train to music also. the pacing of the fight goes along with the rhythm of the pii and other percussion instruments.

[Zorba]

the reason it looks like a dance is because the slaves that developed it werent allowed to do martial arts. im pretty sure if any of the kicks they do landed, you would be in big trouble.

[Sunrunner]

BlobOn is right...the martial aspect of Capoeira was hidden in the dance to keep slavemasters from suspecting that their slaves knew how to defend themselves. Apparently it was so well disguised that there were some instances of slave owners who pitted their slaves against those of another plantation in "dance" contests, basically saying "my slaves can dance better than your slaves", never suspecting that those slaves were practicing a martial art and their own religion at the same time. Kinda funny if you think about it. Considering its origins, I'm certain that Capoeira can be applied to self-defense situations.