Tag Archives: Learning

Practice It

Posted on by
Woman dances, spinning on one foot as she holds a spear and shield with vigor.

Instructora Gatinha leading the Danca Gueirreira rehearsal.

Form doesn’t seem that important as you work on it.

You don’t notice until you already have it. It takes a split second where you notice something very, very small an opportunity with a small gap of time; a transition that wasn’t possible before; a potential injury that was avoided just in the nick of time.

This is its purpose.

All movements, arts, crafts start with a foundation that launches those future participants.  It’s how all of these things get better. Things are perfected, then improved. The improvement requires endless repetition.  After that, comes the innovations.

This is the concept of knowing the rules before you break them.

Art grows faster when it has structure. How rigid the structure varies, but if the artform can’t stand on its own, people cannot lean on it. People must build upon it. That’s why the foundation is so important.

Just keep in mind that practice builds that foundation.

 

Skills, Dawg

Posted on by
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

Posted on by
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.

Rest is Okay

Posted on by
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.

 

Classes and Learning

Posted on by

Tough movements look impossible.

That’s probably the hardest thing to convey about capoeira nobody starts doing all the cool stuff right away. I imagine the beginnings watching the advance instructors, professors, and mestres spin on their hands, arms, and heads, wondering why mystics they invoked to let them accomplish such a feat. It’s truly amazing watching skills like that shine.

I’m sure the performers appreciate you missing out on the years of the struggle on working all of those moments.

I realize that now as I’ve taken several of the breaks on my training, especially when I moved away from my four days a week classes with my mestre, that the classes themselves can be a hinderance. It doesn’t limit what your learn or exposure to, but it can be reliance. I felt it myself, wishing that I had some class to go to, even that I can only really learn and develop moves with a teacher and about 10 other people working on it with me. That stopped me from moving to that empty room, working on those movements myself.

Obviously, the preceding helps a lot.

The classroom is only a part of the development. The part that shows you’re the tools, giving you slight instruction on its execution. They can watch you do or attempt the movements a few times, but their job ends when you leave the room, going home for the night. Unfortunately, the time away from the mestre  the majority of when your learning and development happens. Playing those games without the instructor’s guidance, taking the time to kick over a chair several times, or just waking up and doing queda de rins push-ups is when the skills grow.

Don’t let your classes hinder your development (and appreciate that you have them.)

Classes, Styling, Teachers, Students, Learning