Hi everybody,
One of my favorite Capoeira songs is called “Vamos a Vadiar Angola”, sung here by Mestre Ferradura, the guy in the ponytail.
And check out his amazing game… Lyrics are under the video.
Vamos vadiar Angola
Vamos vadiar Angola
Let’s play around Angola
Angola Vamos vadiar
Angola let’s play around
Pra lá
Over there
Vamos vadiar Angola
Let’s play around Angola
Todos Vamos vadiar
We are all going to play around
Daqui pra li, de cá pra lá
From here to there, here to there
De cá pra lá vamos vadiar
From there to here let’s play
Vamos vadiar angola
Let’s play around Angola
Angola Vamos vadiar
Angola let’s play around
Pra lá
Over there
So, I bet you’re wondering why I mentioned this?
In the martial arts, one of our main goals is to be able to apply our skills to a resisting opponent, and one good way to develop that skill is by SPARRING.
Sparring is a form of training common to many martial arts, and combat sports. Although the form varies between different styles, it is basically ‘free-form’ fighting (relatively), with enough rules, customs, or agreements to minimize injuries.
However, in Capoeira Angola, we don’t really spar, we PLAY.
As you can see in the above video, Although we do exchange blows, it’s done in a very lighthearted, joking manner.
In fact, other names for Capoeira were jogo de crianca (children’s game) brincadeira (joking around), or vadiacao (loitering, hanging out)
You know, it took me a long time to write this post, a couple of months in fact. The main reason is I couldn’t articulate the benefits of PLAYING, as opposed to SPARRING, as a more useful way for a capoeirista, or any other martial artist, to develop their skills.
But then, about a week ago, I came across this amazing video made by Jesse Enkamp. Now in case you don’t know, Jesse Enkamp a.k.a The Karate Nerd™ has a super cool YouTube channel, THE KARATE NERD.
You can watch it here⇩ / karatebyjesse
Anyway, here is the video below. I also posted some links for the video description on YouTube below the video, that backs up what was said in this video, for you “researchers” out there.
Research & Sources: Finite and Infinite Games by J. Carse – https://www.amazon.com/Finite-Infinit…
Dopamine, learning and motivation – https://www.nature.com/articles/nrn1406
Dopamine Plays Double Duty in Learning and Motivation – https://neurosciencenews.com/dopamine…
Why Your Brain on Stress Fails to Learn Properly – https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/bl…
‘Boxing is a mess’: the darkness and damage of brain trauma in the ring – https://www.theguardian.com/sport/202…
Using Play to Rewire & Improve Your Brain ｜ Huberman Lab Podcast 58 – • Using Play to Rewire & Improve Your B…
The Advice GSP Gives to Young Fighters: Joe Rogan’s MMA Show 107 w/Georges St-Pierre – https://open.spotify.com/episode/6dND…
Radio Rahim: Sparring, Not Fighting, Destroy Fighters – Joe Rogan’s MMA Show 107 – • Radio Rahim: Sparring, Not Fighting, …
The Yerkes-Dodson Law: • PSYCH: THE YERKES-DODSON LAW
Max Holloway: The BRUTAL Hand of God ｜ UFC Fighter Documentary – • Max Holloway: The BRUTAL Hand of God …
Mike Tyson: My belts are garbage – • Mike Tyson: My belts are garbage
MMA Athletes & Coaches on Light Sparring vs Hard Sparring: • MMA Athletes & Coaches on Light Sparr…
Max Halloway on His Performance Against Calvin Kattar: JRE MMA Show 103 with Max Holloway – https://open.spotify.com/episode/6nzG…
Joe Rogan – Hard VS Light Sparring With Max Holloway and Leon Edwards – • Joe Rogan – Hard VS Light Sparring Wi…
Gym Wars | Professional MMA Sparring | Part II by Jeff Sainlar Visuals – • Gym Wars | Professional MMA Sparring …
Fighters discuss the fine line between sparring hard and getting hurt by MMA Junkie – • Fighters discuss the fine line betwee…
Once again, please watch the KARATE NERD’S channel, / karatebyjesse You’ll find a lot of gems of knowledge here, even if you have no interest in Karate.
The video and the links above put up a very srong argument for the concept of play as a effective way to develop fighting skills, without hard sparring.
However, there is another area that the concept of play in capoeira can help it’s practitioners. And that is helping to heal from trauma.
On the KNOWLEDGE IS EMPOWERMENT, and the CAPOEIRA WAS NOT CREATED IN A VACUUM page, I typed that Capoeira was in part, developed as a response to the trauma that black people suffered during the slavery era.
Now I’m not going to go into too much detail about this subject in this post. If you want to now more, you can go to the 2 pages I mentioned above.
But I did post this video below you, which I also posted on one of the aforementioned pages. It\s frpm THE CAPOEIRA LIFE SHOW, and it explais a bit of what I’m talking about in a 2 minute video.
Well, That’s it for this post. I want yo leave you with this little tidbit:
Jogo Corpo Fechado 