I’ve heard and read about capoeira before but this is my first time to see it for real. It was a bit underwhelming since most of the performers were apparently new students and the instructors were also playing it lightly. Of course, they could just be trying to fool me. If so, they succeeded.

I watched as the practitioners go around throwing kicks high and low. There’s also the occasional hand strikes. The instructors also employ sweeps and other take-downs. Definitely it is graceful. But overall, it just seemed too flashy and looks ineffective. But that’s just me. Of course the the music and dance aspect add quite a bit to the fun factor.

But martial is the operative word here. I have decided that a good martial art must be easy to learn and proven to be effective. Easy to learn because you don’t want to spend a lifetime to be able to defend yourself. And proven effective because you don’t want to learn that your martial art is far from it while you are facing a drug-crazed maniac in some dark alley.

I think that the closest it gets to this simple ideal is a grappling art like jiu-jitsu complemented with some kickboxing (which originated from muay thai, karate, and boxing but is now essentially a distinct art). This mix is the usual combination that has been proven time and time again in the UFC which is about as real as it can get.

In the UFC, you don’t see flashy martial arts like Wushu, Tae-kwon Do, Aikido, etc. Maybe, these are effective once you master those but apparently the fighters representing these arts in the UFC needed to study a bit more. There goes easy to learn.