Capoeira Training Diary

Not really active: Notes, diagrams of sequências and things I find pertinent to improving my capoeira. I am a student of Grupo Cultural de Araiye Capoeira, in Japan, Saitama branch.

[phaaelbarba]

Crown on thorns

[phaaelbarba]

Here we see a pair of common white morphs of dieseltruckus-longbedinus japonicus. The diminutive male of the species has been successful in his courtship rituals and has lured a strong female to his nest with low rumbles and a distinct acrid, burnt diesel-like scent emitted from his specially developed exhaust pipes. After their courtship, the pair will separate back to their own places of parking and may never meet again.

[hydro-homies]

Nestless

[optipess]

#WorldMentalHealthDay

[pascalcampion]

NOW. Relevant right now.

#pascalcampion

[phaaelbarba]

Sometimes, outside is necessary.

[olivertheuniverse]

The Job Economy

Ever notice how the most $ to be made is in exploiting people & resources: 💼Big Business ⛽️Oil 💰Finance 📈Investment 💵Banking 📱Advertising 🏢Real Estate

While the least $ to be made is in supporting people & resources: 👩‍🏫Teachers 👩‍⚕️Nurses 🤱Caregivers 👷‍♀️Construction 👩‍🍳Cooks 👩‍🌾Agriculture

The most lucrative positions are: 💼CEOs 👔Leadership

The least lucrative positions are: 🛎Service 📎Administration

The structure of the job economy reflects the underlying priorities driving our system & culture.

In this structure, people are reduced to commodities whose primary function is to generate profit within a static system of competitive markets rather than revered as priceless investments in the progression of an ever-evolving system oriented around regenerative cohabitation.

This dis-orientation is the root cause of the climate crisis

It reflects the length of the dissonance between our current culture & the reality of nature.

A fundamental law of nature is change.

To resist change is to deny an undeniable element of our own nature.

This dissonance is reflected in the modern relationship to nature itself: Our entire system is centered around land *ownership* (mine!) instead of land *stewardship* (ours!).

Land cannot be owned by- It can only be cared for and shared with-

Through land ownership, power becomes a commodity to be conquered. The world’s fortunes are built around this self-serving ideology - it produced slavery which American capitalism built its own fortune with. The ownership ideology believes that power is a finite resource, that it’s either given or taken and that it’s survival-of-the-fittest. Its nature divides & separates.

Through land stewardship, power is understood to be inherent in all things and shared freely. This ideology acknowledges that everyone & everything is rich & powerful by the very nature of its existence. The stewardship ideology understands that an openness to giving & receiving creates abundance for both the giver & receiver. Its nature multiplies & integrates.

We can no longer have a system & culture that relates to the world through: 🚫Ownership 🚫Control 🚫Possession 🚫Greed 🚫Codependency

We require a shift in the way we orient our entire system & culture to enable: ✅Stewardship ✅Mutuality ✅Co-creation ✅Adaptation ✅Harmony ✅Interdependence

This is a glimpse at the magnitude of the transformation required to address climate change and restore a harmonious relationship with nature.

It’s a complete transformation in ideology from being *separate from* nature to being *an element of* nature.

This ideological shift will reflect itself in our job economy because it will naturally transform our entire system & culture.

This shift in perception is the call that beckons us home. Within it lies the redemption of our species.

[catandcatcomics]

Vacationing

Instagram

[thewriterkb]

The War on Waste

Via Nat Geo

[phaaelbarba]

Diary entry 3/12/2016

Toshio, Rato, Camelo, eu, Arroz, Camelinha

🧲Using Benção as part of a controlling movement: partner is in diagonal or entre (parallel). Your Benção should aim to where their face is (not off to the side) then become meia-lua to make them move across to the other side (into escíva, esciva basica...)

⚱️maculelê rhythm.

🛠Uma sequência

[phaaelbarba]

Diary entry 10/9/2016

Toshio, Rato, Bruce, eu, Arroz, Camelinha, Leão, Ticum.

🐈 It doesn’t matter age nor belt level, every single one of us can learn something from every other one of us.

🐉Uma sequência

[phaaelbarba]

Diary entry 1/9/2016

Toshio, Queimado, eu, Gafanhoto

2 Fixes today:

🦀Entre/Lateral: Keep shoulders horizontal to the floor. I was always dropping my back shoulder and raising the front.

🐀Cadeira/Balança: Pull chest up so you can easily see in front. This helps your bum to go down into a better “sitting on a chair” position. I was trying to do this move with my back horizontal like entre, but that makes it difficult or even painful to look forward. Although we might move through the lowered position during balança, that should not be the base.

🐉 Uma sequencia

Can you follow this description? The arrows generally indicate the direction and flow of the movement.

[phaaelbarba]

Diary entry 20/3/2016

“VEM PRA RODA”——> com Dendê Maruo, Tokyo.

Rato, Queimado, eu, Arroz, Rainha, Ticum, Leão, berimbaus 1-2-3

🐞A small group of us went to participate in Dendê Maruo’s open roda, lead by Professor Neguinho.

🐢I played my first ever Angola game. Think I was actually just doing Benguela... I tried to stay low, but in hindsight it’s ok to stand tall in angola, but need to be super-loose and free in movement. Drunken-fist FTW!

I was one of the 2nd pair to open the Roda. That was pretty scary, so I tried to allow/reveal no hesitation or reluctance, and of course I enjoyed the Jogo. But my mouth went super-dry, and it became difficult to keep going.. I didn’t go in again after that. Almost, several times. But no.

🦄There were a lot of songs I’ve never heard.

Some I could pick up the basic lyrics.

Some that didn’t sound good and I don’t care to remember them.

And a few that spoke to me. Unfortunately the only one I do remember is, “Vem pra roda pro jogar”

~~~> This one was aimed directly at my (🐓) heart, as well as the many capoeiristas who came just to watch.

🐺While singing, Neguinho often said, “cadeira (galera?).” At first I thought he was talking to the players in the middle that were standing too tall for Angola... But now I think he was trying to get the people around the Roda - who were sitting on chairs at that time - to sing in the chorus.

However he was still sometimes saying it later when everyone was no longer using chairs. Hmm.

[phaaelbarba]

Diary entry 17/3/2016

Queimado, Olívia, Coco, eu, Vagalume

🍩Rolê is a good connecting/changing position move, but many people make these 2 mistakes.

At completion of rolê rise straight up. This is likely to lead to being kicked in the head. Instead stay low in balança until you can see it is safe.

Go straight from rolê to ginga. What a waste of a good floor movement! Connect some more moves, eg. entrei, negativa, deslocar, esciva-básica...

🍬Ginga is good for creating/enforcing your own rhythm, but too much ginga is because you don’t know what to do with your partner and your movement-vocabulary is too small. Avoid doing more than two gingas together. There are so many interesting and less readable things you can do.

[phaaelbarba]

Diary entry 18/2/2016

Toshio, Melancia, eu, Pavão

Uma sequência para dois:

A. B.

Meã lua de frente ➡️ Esqiva na cadeira

⬇️

Compasso uma poi

↙️ ⬇️

Esciva na cadeira ➡️ Queixada

↙️

Esciva de frente

⬇️

Martelo❗️ ➡️ Esciva de frente!

(Or die)

🔨 Martelo: When rising from esciva to do a martelo, the first step forward determines the range of your kick. Therefore when in close(ish), don’t take a big first step. Instead place your foot so it’s right under your body. Also, while setting up the kick bring your knee to the right place so that you don’t kick just in the air. 🐥No chicken wing!!!

[phaaelbarba]

Diary entry 11/2/2016

Toshio, Queimado, Olívia, eu, Rainha

Further advancing last week’s brief entry about “letting go”.

🌝Smile while playing. It may disarm or really disturb your opponent. But it also helps to remove the tension in your body. This is a good thing, because holding your body rigid requires a lot of energy, and will quickly exhaust you. A smile also looks a lot better than a huff-n-puff face..

Become the (non-drunk) 🍶drunken-master.

🐒 Macaco tips:

Don’t jump from your feet, but rather lead with your belly-button. Imagine it pulling the rest of your body and legs through the arc. This will help your body to open up and stretch out.

Leading with the knees or feet makes the macaco very small and closed. Actually there are times for that but in general big and open movements look better.

🍪I had an idea during warmup. While stretching or jogging we can move other body parts. Particularly small flection-relaxation movements. For example, while stretching arms across the chest/shoulder, I squeeze-relax my fingers, or flex-extend my wrists.

In my theory this does various things.

It incorporates extra muscles in the stretch.

So it also (slightly) increases calorie usage.

It might make a passive stretch more active by moving while stretching.

By changing the position it brings more parts of each muscle into the stretch.

Is this all bullshit? I don’t know at the moment..

[phaaelbarba]

Diary entry 7/2/2016

Rato, Queimado, eu, Rainha, Arroz, Pavão

💥 Let goooooo

Relax and flow with your partner’s movements. It will look and feel so much smoother.

I wonder if I can bring this into all my capoeira.....