How badass can Capoeira really be

Capoeira is one of the martial arts that are severely underestimated. At least in comparison to other martial arts, people treat it like a joke.

In reality, it can do something like this:

edited 29th Dec '11 5:08:20 AM by dRoy

I know a guy who briefly practiced it after seeing Only The Strong. Every day, the students came home with bloody knuckles and he learned that it's one of the most difficult martial arts to master.

edited 29th Dec '11 1:25:34 AM by Buscemi

Capoeira gets some incredible torque into its kicks and high level practitioners get practically superhuman agility, but you can mark me down as one of those who feel that it has a lot of needless movement, wide openings, and is more visually impressive than effective.

Nonetheless, that was an awesome KO. I shudder to think of how much potential damage that guy might have sustained, especially with the possibility for a concussion, missing teeth, broken jaw, whiplash, etc.

the thing about capoiera, and other "flashier" types of martial arts like northern-style kung fu, is that the big huge movements give you momentum. it generally lacks a lot of the quick jabs like in kickboxing but depends on lots of whole-body movement to really get a lot of weight into a single hit. like that KO in the video- yes, big wide kick that's easy to see coming, but the follow-up probably held a lot more power than he was expecting because the capoiera guy didn't slow down at all.

And people keep telling me the downside of such styles is that too often they end up telegraphing their moves. Though you have to be a great fighter yourself to be able to take advantage of that. And regardless, you need to pack an equally strong hit or nothing will work. I mean, even if you DO block such a kick it will still do a whole lot of damage to you.

With a kick of that calibre, defense is practically useless. It should be only responded with either dodging or force redirection.

That's what I was talking about. You need to either dodge, redirect force or somehow pack an even stronger kick... defense is useless indeed.

I know, I just simplified it.

So Caporeia isn't as Awesome, yet Impractical as some treat it as.

It just has its own strengths and flaws same as any martial art.

That dude kind of proved it.

Thing about martial arts is that some of the flasher movements were chosen and developed into a less combat oriented but more aesthetics and fitness oriented sports.

This is mentioned before, but flashier movements have merits too, as in they usually carry much more momentum and can be distracting. When the cards are played well, they can make a devastating attack.

Blade is a Capoeira practitioner. That alone proves how awesome it is.

Apparently The Bourne Series had Bourn using some moves from Capoeira, according to this deleted bit from the page:

Did anyone spot it in the movies, because I haven't.

A very neat Capoeira demonstration:

To be honest, I liked Caopeira better when I thought it a martial-art-inspired dance.

Effectiveness for hurting people is not something that impresses me favorably — self-defense may sadly be a necessity in certain circumstances, but that's not something that deserves celebration...

-shrugs- I like capoeira because it can be both visually impressive AND extremely devastating at the same time. There aren't that many martial arts that can do both, ya know.

Very awesome capoeira dance.

I love Capoeira. I should start practicing again.

I don't know why I'm so suddenly obsessed with this nowadays. :/

edited 3rd Jan '12 5:29:51 PM by dRoy

Because it looks awesome?

Ah, of course, that was an obvious question.

Because it's pretty much the coolest martial art?

"Impractical flashy moves" are mostly for show or situational. A lot take it on as a means of entertaining others but capoeira is about hitting people first, everything else second. People see this need to bash styles predominately used by performers or in competitions but almost all styles have origins in self defense.

Finally, a fight where capoeira is portrayed competently!

He still loses, though.

I think I said this before, but it's sad how almost no layman takes this martial art seriously.

First, what movie is that from. Is that Tony 'Flaming Tiger Knee' Jaa?

Also, I think that the best way to describe Capoeria would be Substance hidden behind style.

The Protector, aka one of the most batshit insane martial art movies EVER.

That sounds about right.