Capoeira breakdown
I’ve been adding lots of new things to the Mão no Chão website — with a perticular emphasis on things which have seemed important to my understanding of capoeira or that have seemed related. Talking about capoeira through other means seems so much easier than talking about capoeira in a straightforward way. (This, I think, is a very capoeira way of approaching the problem.)
One thing which I haven’t seen anywhere but that I’d like to see is a game breakdown. All the big sporting events get expert commentary but capoeira misses out on this — there is some academic work into the history and cultural ramifications of the art but very little covering particular instances.
Contrast with an article like Lyoto Machida’s Mind Control which provides a detailed analysis of the tactics that one fighter is using to control his opponent. That is some very fine and detailed analysis and I’ve not seen anything close when it comes to capoeira.
I suppose the only answer is to do it. Stop moping about and sit down with a video of a game, watch it, watch it again, think about it, watch it in slow motion, watch it backwards — whatever it takes to make sense of everything that’s happening.