I have actually gotten over this by now. Although I have to admit that it’s not so much because I believe wholeheartedly in the idea of “the challenge”, but because I’ve realized (and have been helped to realize) that while this year wasn’t too hot in terms of physical improvement, thanks to the very same group it was invaluable in terms of mental/philosophical growth in capoeira…and a lot of that was ALSO thanks to all of you guys, with this blog. Another thing that helped was the idea that maybe even not being able to do so many floreios will have me hone a better game in terms of pure dialogue, especially since that is my favourite part of capoeira. Thank you again, to all of you, for writing and caring!

Well then, I only hope that I don’t ultimately become one of those females fueling your passion for this topic! Though I can totally relate…everyone knows it and everyone says it…but then again, they’re also the ones who can talk, seeing as they can do it all. XD Isn’t it typical? No one ever practices “game” or malicia on the gymnastics mat after class…even if the class itself *did* have a special focus on dialogue and conversation!

Hahaha, your floreio suggestions made me laugh. For some reason, I can only picture an angoleiro/a in my head doing that! Probably because I see angoleiro/as as the more “playful/tricksy” ones.

Good point about the mestres ^^”

Omg (the story) LOVE IT!! I would’ve been doubled over on the ground if I’d been there to see it in person, I think! But that poor student…XD

p.s. You should!

Thank you, for your thoughts, and for trying so hard to have me see!

I’m a little hesitant to say this because I don’t want to get into a habit of, as Akira warned me, negative reinforcement, but…well, I definitely understand how boring (and probably seemingly and terrifyingly pointless) life would be if there were never any challenge. My only problem is that I’m not applying this to all of life, but just to my capoeira one! (Although, now I’m wondering if my objections to all this just points to some inherent laziness in me…? =S)

But all of your points still stand anyway, and so combined with Balanca’s, I am starting to see a little more value in “the challenge”/”the process”.

Thank you; your comment DID help to further illuminate this perspective for me! How I understand it now after reading what you wrote, is that because there’s no challenge (and/or thus heightened feelings of achievement), they’re not as interested and so they have no (or less) passion for capoeira, and it means less to them. And once I grasped it in those terms, it all clicked. Having no passion for something (for anything, now that we’re on the topic) is a terrible thing, and would definitely be a loss. So I suppose if achieving macaco after 1000 tries instead of after 1 try is the price of the passion I have for capoeira (which has given me everything from friends to amazing travel experiences to this blog), then it is definitely worth it!

I’ve definitely been “raised” to value floreios, so it would just be nice to rasteira that triple-twist backflip, then quickly top it off with something of my own while they’re still down. XD

Two thoughts – actually, three:

– Remember that floreios doesn’t equal flips. You can still “top it off” with one of your own movements, but it can be something simple – maybe a wiiide open au that highlights the fact that they are temporarily incapacitated and would never be able to cabecada you. Maybe a nice headstand that you just hold for however long it takes them to get up :p. Maybe you simply turn to the bateria or the “audience” and bow with a flourish! (but always keep one eye on them – nothing worse than trying to be a mandingueira and having it backfire b/c you weren’t prepared! )

– How many mestres – or people over 40 – do you see doing aerial floreios? Very, very few. Is it because their bodies no longer allow them to? Or because they’ve evolved their game to a point of maturity where they realize the good capoeira isn’t in the flashy stuff, but rather in the mandinga…

– And on that same note, another story (I should write a book…):

My mestre went to play w/someone relatively new to angola. This person thought that in capoeira angola it was “required” to start your game with a queda de rins at the pe do berimbau, so as soon as he got down there, he immediately did a queda de rins, before even shaking the mestre’s hand. Mestre smirked and then did a flamboyant imitation of what the student had just done – carefully sweeping off the space where he was going to do the queda de rins, calling everyone’s attention to SHOW that he was about to do a queda de rins, doing the most deliberate and intentional queda de rins possible as though it were his solemn duty, and then springing back up with an “okay! Now I’m ready to play!” look on his face. The student later told me that he was so rattled by that blatant mockery within the first 30 seconds, that he was “off” during the whole rest of the game – and was kicked, tripped, and taken down that much more easily.

Maybe I’ve shared this one before, but man it was CLASSIC!

Thank you; that’s a great story, and I suppose I should’ve figured!

Thanks for your comment! You made a lot of really good points, about the mountain, and the journey…I don’t know about the filming though because our teacher did that in class once and watching myself could’ve counted as cruel and unusual punishment under Canadian Law… XD Although you are right about it being good for if I want to see hard evidence of improvement.

What you said about capoeira being a lifelong journey is true…that part about the blink of an eye was exactly what my friend said as well, and he’s been doing capoeira for about 8 years I think.

Also, along the lines of what I told Shayna, I am definitely going to try working on dialogue and game conversation more, because that’s what I love and am amazed by most about capoeira. Thank you for reinforcing my motivation to do so!
I’m doing great, and you? Wow, so do you have a lot of students then, if you’re the only school there?

Thanks again for what you wrote!

I’m not trying to imply that people who can do something instinctively value what they can do less, because that’d depend heavily on that person’s personality. And at the same time, you’re definitely right about there being value in being able to do something as opposed to just looking forward to one day being able to do it. There has to come a point when a struggle to gain a skill loses it’s fun and becomes frustrating. I just like to point out that there’s -also- a lot to be said for that skill-gaining process. I know I couldn’t live without it.

Took me so long to answer this because it set off a torrent of side thoughts that I’m still trying to distill… but I think this captures mostly what I meant.

BUT neither of them train consistently or work hard in class. Maybe they show up for rodas, but never to train . . . or they just drop out of sight for long periods of time.

There may be other complicating factors in their lives keeping them from capoeira, but to me, it looks like they don’t have the drive to train because it’s given them very little results.

And I’ve seen other students catch up with them, because they aren’t improving.

So i would say that it’s not necessarily their enjoyment of capoeira that’s lessened, but perhaps their sense of accomplishment . . . but also certainly their sense that they earned their achievement, and thereby the drive to keep improving.