Tag Archives: Growing

Skills, Dawg

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A group of students sit in a circle, listening the wisdom of a capoeira master.

Rutgers Capoeira students listen to Mestre Quebrinha during a workshop.

Skills are frequently are lumped together.

It’s like…you have them or you don’t, as if they are a large singular entity that leads to success or failure. You have them, you succeed you don’t have them, you fail. All or nothing.

They aren’t broken up by the skill you do have, and the ones you don’t.

The simplicity of that mindset is easier to describe, but real success comes from the compilation of many different skills. I realized this running the business of my classes. Its eye opening when I started, coming to terms with the skills that I didn’t have. So many things need to get done, and I realize I don’t have the skills to complete them.

So I started working on them.

Best example is managing the social media and website of my classes. The first thing I noticed is the lack of pictures. I needed a camera, and I needed to learn how to take pictures. Two negative points on the health of my online presence, so I made the decision to get started, and the biggest way to get better at taking pictures, is to take pictures.

So take pictures I shall.

Film It

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A photographer including himself in a group shot, using a mirror.

Rutgers capoeira ending a workshop with a group shot.

It’s weird filming yourself.

It’s not natural, purposely documenting all of your flaws for yourself and possibly the droves of people on the internet. It’s a scary thing to face, and besides, what will people say? The comments alone are enough to prevent that thought from developing, let alone becoming a possibility.

But is that doubt worth it?

The amount of information you get from a video clip is limitless. You can figure out about so much that you’re doing wrong, not to mention the motivation you’ll get from wanting to do better. All this is about progress. If you document it, you can actually see it.

Have you seen yourself get better?

It’s marvelous, not to mention watching yourself go from awkward to smooth, watching you go from heavy set to light on your feet, watching yourself execute moves you didn’t think you can ever learn. I didn’t get to see much of that myself. I was always too nervous to even try something like this.

I’m not scared now.

Share It

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A ground of students casually stretching.

Rutgers Capoeira stretching

Capoeira has a funny way of connecting people.

I learned with lawyers, doctors, hip hop artists, engineers, scientists, and a blast with the all. It collects a random pool of people together and gives them kinship. It gives them a common goal, which is make the person next to the them better.

I want to give this to the world.

Rest is Okay

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Man watches two others work a modified couch position necessary in capoeira.

Graduado Pintado covering over a sequence

Off days are a reality of any practice.

Sometimes it’s necessary to walk away for a day. Rest up. Give the practice a soft reset to realign focus, figuring how to start up again. It could prevent taking a longer breaks that aren’t planned, or at least give something else a bit of attention.

I feel guilty about not training.

But it’s okay, because I’m still working on some aspect of my capoeira. It’s an aspect of my practice I didn’t realized need so much work, but applying attention to the business is the only way to draw more students to my classes. Empty class speaks to my business, and having no students doesn’t let me work on my teaching.

This is something I never considered coming up in capoeira.

Learning how to run a business is not the same as training, working on music, working on physique, and keeping a game strong. It’s different set of skills that if not being practiced, aren’t growing. I learned this only recently in the two years I’ve been an instructor. Mind you, this is only one part of being an instructor.

Capoeira force­s balance there is always something to work on.