Training versus Instruction versus Play: What it takes to become awesome at capoeira

I've shared this theory of mine with a few people in the past, but after hearing Instrutor Mico briefly mention the difference between training and teaching, I decided to post the idea. This concept drives my decisions about how to structure classes in Decatur.

What we casually refer to as "class" can really be thought of as being a complex of four different components:

• Warm-up
• Instruction
• Training
• Play

The only necessary component is the warm-up portion, which everyone should do anyways. Instruction means learning the names of movements, the best way to do the movements, conditions in which you my apply the movements, weaknesses of the movements to keep in mind, etc. During instruction, you usually watch, but a student will do the movement a few times to get the hang of it. Instruction generally requires having someone—an instructor—available, although two people thinking creatively can develop together.

Training is what really separates the people who flourish and develop quickly from those who develop at a moderate pace.  Training can include perfectly movements or sequences, strength training, flexibility training, practicing music, and so on. Training can happen in class, but it can also happen solo. Because of this, I tend to avoid training elements in my classes. A class that is training heavy is usually pretty boring because it involves everyone doing what one person dictates repeatedly. Some students need this, while others loathe it.

Play happens almost always in the roda. The idea of play is to let students improvise. Here, the sequences that you trained are almost never perfectly implemented. Instead, the idea is to learn how to actively listen to your partner, then respond appropriately. Since here you have a clash of two personalities, things almost never go as planned. Play is where we practice call-and-response, strategic aspects of capoeira, and self-expression.

People who happily label themselves as capoeiristas, typically focus on making their game good, so the tendency is to focus on playing more, playing more, playing more. You'll get students like this in class who greet you by saying, "Let's go!"

In my opinion, while the end goal is a good game of capoeira suggesting that we focus on play, the training aspect of class is most lacking. Think about it. Which capoeiristas do you look up to? If their games are dynamic, energetic, and contemporary, chances are they trained at least as much as they take or teach class. I can think of three right now :)

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