This material is part of a series dedicated to the unique Brazilian martial art:
- Resistance of the "Palm State" against Portuguese colonists, the history of Capoeira's emergence in the 17th century
- Bananeira and other peculiarities of Capoeira techniques
- Opening of the first Capoeira schools in Brazil
- Popularization of Capoeira
- Capoeira Martial Arts Section
Popular for several decades, the Brazilian school-clan «Gracie», which has «dynastic» roots, cultivates high-level martial masters. It holds significant authority in international «no rules» fights. It should be noted that the «Gracie» school highly appreciates the potential of authentic «street» capoeira. Its adepts even actively use elements of capoeira to initiate combat. It should be noted that in this case, the techniques of «leg» tactics become much more effective than karate techniques. However, the main tasks for «Gracie» champions are solved in close combat, and therefore capoeira is not as relevant here. At the most crucial stage, «Gracie» fighters resort to traditional Japanese techniques, which are based on pain-inducing holds. Importantly, no capoeiristas have been able to stand up to the adepts of the «Gracie» school, although both schools deeply respect each other.
It is becoming clear that the Brazilian school of capoeira, although strong in some aspects, still lacks something. One cannot talk about supreme perfection, where complete admiration for the technique is present, where a fighter could easily defeat an enemy who masters any other technique.
Considering all the above, capoeira masters can be praised for calmly acknowledging that their technique is not perfect and, in recent decades, have been adopting elements of Eastern martial arts. First and foremost, capoeiristas have taken a liking to karate for its precision and effectiveness. In Brazil, there is an entire network of karate schools, and their masters are happy to share their experience with capoeira masters. It is important to note that guardians of the original capoeira style perfectly understand that they possess a unique historical combat technique and have no intention of forgetting the «pure style». After all, each martial art is unique in its own way and can take pride in its effectiveness in different situations, more so than others.
Capoeira can also take pride in the fact that its school initially achieved everything on its own, without outside help. At the same time, its level, as we can see, is so high that it is known worldwide. All Eastern martial arts have, throughout their history, gone through many stages of exchange with other schools. Capoeira, on the contrary, has developed in the harshest isolation, and the shadow of collaboration with other schools began to emerge only in the last two decades. This is understandable since a subjugated person could not share anything with others and struggled to let go of their mistrust, even after becoming free.
From history. Capoeiristas were quite reluctant to interact with the indigenous people, treating them with caution. Although there were powerful martial systems in South and Central America at that time, such as "panmo", known even in Brazil, they did not reach the "fazendas" society, where capoeira was developing. That is why this "leg technique" is so different even from martial arts closest to it in terms of territorial characteristics.
As we already know, capoeira has African roots, and it is interesting to ask about the history of the style, as the forefathers of capoeira have not been found in Africa to this day!
The fact is that almost all slaves arrived in Brazil from Portuguese colonies: Angola, Mozambique, Guinea. The dark-skinned slaves did not really call their homeland as such, because it was not a single country at that time. Although one of the varieties of capoeira was called "Angolan", no prototype of the style was found in Angola, unlike in Mozambique. Here lives a tribe called Shangaan, which practices a martial dance called giyia, very similar to capoeira. Over time, it was discovered that the closest technique of martial dances was held by the inhabitants of Senegal, although slaves were never exported from there to Brazil...
Capoeira has followed a lonely path from the very beginning but has achieved only slightly lesser heights than Eastern martial arts, which it can be proud of. Great heights still await it in the future.
