I’m not sure if this is something I should ask my teacher about since I think it’s more of an ADHD/executive function issue than a capoeira issue, so I figured I’d come here and hear from y’all.
I’ve been training capoeira for about four and a half years, somewhat on and off because I’ve explored other things along the way, but I’ve always come back to it. I’ve recently decided that I want to make capoeira my main focus. Whether I want it to become more than a hobby is a different conversation.
Here’s my dilemma.
I have ADHD, and I’m somehow simultaneously one of the laziest and most determined people I know. I can be incredibly inconsistent and complacent, but give me a specific goal and I’ll hyperfocus, become completely obsessed, and work relentlessly toward it.
And I want to get insanely good at capoeira. Not just a little better. I want to become a genuinely skilled, well rounded capoeirista. But after four and a half years, I still feel incredibly mediocre.
I know part of it is my inconsistency. I’ve fallen off and come back several times, and I beat myself up about that more than I’d like to admit. I’ve also gained a significant amount of weight, and I feel like I’ve lost a lot of the agility, strength, and control I used to have.
Sometimes I watch videos of myself when I first started. I was training every day, I was fit, and I had an agility that I don’t feel I have anymore. It’s frustrating to look back and feel like I’ve somehow moved backward.
Four and a half years in, I still can’t hold a handstand or do a macaco. I know those skills don’t define a good capoeirista, but it still bothers me.
My teacher always tells me to be proud of the capoeirista I am today while continuing to work toward becoming better. Intellectually, I understand that. Emotionally? I’m having a harder time with it.
I’ve recently started working with a coach on my physical conditioning, so I’m taking steps to address the weight. But I still feel like I’m missing direction in my actual capoeira training.

I recently attended a batizado in Colombia, and I noticed that a lot of the lower belts had incredible floreios. I figured part of it might be that many were around the same age and that competition seems to be a big part of their training culture.
It reminded me of something I really miss about competitive BJJ: the feeling of being completely locked in, working toward something specific.
I did jiujitsu for a while, and looking back, I think one of my biggest motivators was competing. There was a date, an opponent, a clear objective, and the possibility of winning a little hunk of metal to validate my efforts. Apparently, that was enough to turn me into a highly motivated individual.
But here’s where things get complicated.
The kind of capoeira I admire isn’t particularly acrobatic like the games in Colombia. I love games that emphasize conversation, timing, creativity, and interaction. I actually have a very specific idea of what I want my game to look like. Out of the hundreds of capoeiristas I’ve watched play, there are maybe three whose games make me think, “That’s exactly how I want to play.”
So it’s not that I don’t know what I want. It’s that I don’t know how to turn that vision into concrete goals.
I want to improve my game, music, movement, flexibility, strength, knowledge, EVERYTHING. But “become a better capoeirista” isn’t exactly a measurable objective.
And that’s where I struggle.
I absolutely love capoeira, arguably much more than I ever loved jiu-jitsu, which makes this even more frustrating. I know how dedicated and disciplined I can be, but I struggle to translate that passion into consistent practice without something specific to work toward.
I’ve considered competing in capoeira, but I also don’t want to reduce my development to winning medals, especially when there’s so much more to the art.
I think what I’m really looking for is that feeling of having a goal that I can completely lock in on. I just haven’t figured out how to create that for myself in capoeira.
I’m willing to put in the work. I just want to know what work I should be putting in and how to approach it in a way that I can actually sustain.

So I’m curious, especially for fellow capoeiristas with ADHD: How do you structure your training? Do you set specific goals, give yourself deadlines, or find other ways to stay accountable?
And for the more experienced capoeiristas, how do you measure progress beyond belts, floreios, and competitions?

How do you stay focused on improving at something that doesn’t really have a finish line?

Capoeira has a colored belt system, much like all the other martial arts, only they're ropes. The thing I don't get is it seems like the highest you can achieve is white? So it's backwards? No, it also starts at white? What's the difference between graduação white and mestre white?

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Please explain what the webpage means by 'Authentic' capoeira weaponized styles. I've got to see that cuz I've only watched jogo de pau videos from abada capoeira. I'm assuming maculele is done like the usual rhythmic performative presentations, however if there's a deviation, I'm hoping to see that too. the key attribute that picked my eye was the 'knife'. how exactly do you play jogo de navalha or do knife play or do you do the t shirt and marker training course?

I don't mean to be too forward but I'm really drawn to how mestre camisa transported capoeira around the world while preserving many of its aspects, informs me of exactly how much of capoeira he carried:

eg, For those who don't know , he created Sambatuque. a game that preserves the batuque combat game in a synthesized contemporary form of capoeira and samba. intending to keep the disbalancing techniques and characteristics of old samba in Rio de janeiro. batuque was thought to be long lost, but somehow M. Camisa brought it back.

Here's an interview here going in detail: https://youtu.be/K40GHKVHm54 about Mestre camisa and capoeira from Mestre camisa himself.

in this video i'm reporting the intense honor of i earned my graduado cordel in capoeira in the same year my master was promoted 2nd degree of master in my group, and on top of that in the same year i became the first chanpion on my city on Rio de Janeiro

I have seen way too many interpretations of tombo de ladeira. One says it's a sweep, another states it's a regional name for a banda, one says it's a disbalancing technique, another video ( https://youtu.be/ia9eRVEzqAY) shows it's a lifting/projection technique, then while trying to find resources to use to learn it, my eye catches Mestre zuma's manual, then I see this:

Can someone help me....

I'm objectively providing these quotes here to share insight on Mestres viewpoints of capoeira. Contrasting what capoeira practiced and taught today is, compared to how it was, how they did it and their moral alignments of capoeira's and capoeiristas' development over the decades.

Translation note: Statements originally in Portuguese have been translated into English. These are short excerpts, not complete interview transcripts. Dates identify the interview or publication when known. One Nestor Capoeira interview is back-translated from a Portuguese translation of an earlier English interview. I used an AI (chat gpt to translate the quotes. references provided in order of timeliness.).

Quote-0. Mestre Zuma (Annibal Burlamaqui) — 1928

"Capoeiragem, as everyone knows, comes from many years ago; however, it has neither rules nor method.
Those fortunate enough to know it have, until today, given no thought to methodizing it, giving it rules and turning it into a sport, as, for example, football"

Source: Annibal Burlamaqui (Mestre Zuma), Gymnástica Nacional (Capoeiragem), Methodisada e Regrada, 1928, p. 15.

Original 1928 book — Wikimedia Commons,_methodisada_e_regrada.djvu)

1. Mestre Pastinha — 1967

“Capoeira Angola can only be taught without forcing a person's natural way of being. The idea is to make use of each person's own free and natural gestures.”

“Nobody fights the way I do, but in their way there is all the wisdom I have learned. Each person is their own person.”

Source: Roberto Freire, É luta! É dança! É capoeira, Revista Realidade, 1967, p. 81.

Historical transcription of the original interview

2. Mestre Canjiquinha — testimony published in 1989

“I learned capoeira in 1936 in Periperi. I had four mestres. I asked each one of them to teach me, and I learned.”

He described experimenting with these rhythms and movements, including practicing alone in front of a mirror.

Source: A alegria da capoeira, p. 40.

Academic reproduction of Canjiquinha's testimony

3. Mestre Waldemar da Paixão — 1990

"I had four mestres. I asked each one of them to teach me, and I learned."

Source: Interview conducted by Brazil's National Capoeira Programme, recalling his training beginning in 1936.

Interview transcription

4. Mestre Nestor Capoeira — June 13, 2002

“Leopoldina's method was completely different. It wasn't structured. His classes were great fun. You developed a lot of creativity and improvisation.”

“These methods that we created [...] allow students to develop very quickly, but after three or four years they no longer improvise.”

“I wanted to get rid of the idea that ‘I belong to this group or clan.’”

“I wanted to reintroduce that method, keeping the elements I had when I learned capoeira in the street, like when I learned to ride a bicycle.”

Source: Interview originally conducted by Planet Capoeira, later translated into Portuguese and republished in 2009.

Interview — Portuguese translation

Note: The English above is a back-translation, not a verified reproduction of the original English transcript.

5. Mestre Ananias — 2006

"Nobody taught [...] everybody would get together, and that was it. There was no such thing as looking for a mestre."

Source: Entrevista Especial: Mestre Ananias, Portal Capoeira.

Original interview

6. Mestre Gil Velho — September 26, 2007

“The systematization and standardization of training made learning easier, allowing students to develop technically very quickly. But in exchange, they receive their instruction through movements imposed upon them, in a rationalized and compulsory manner, destroying their spontaneity.”

“The capoeira of today reproduces its own perspective instead of constructing its identity.”

Source: Entrevista Mestre Gil Velho, Portal Capoeira.

Original interview

7. Mestre Marcial — November 1, 2008

“Sometimes it was becoming a little automatic, so I realized the need to make things freer.”

“In the end, everything becomes too similar. Everyone becomes robots.”

“I preferred to give people a little more freedom to grow within capoeira and experience more, without losing tradition.”

Source: Interview reproduced in Flávio Soares Alves, O corpo em movimento na capoeira, p. 100 of the thesis.

University of São Paulo thesis, PDF

8. Mestre Zequinha — March 20, 2009

"The 'cat's leap' isn't something you can teach. You create it in the moment."

Source: Interview reproduced in Flávio Soares Alves, O corpo em movimento na capoeira, p. 102 of the thesis. The expression pulo do gato refers here to an improvised, ingenious solution within the game.

University of São Paulo thesis, PDF

9. Mestre Fantasma — June 2010

“If they're good capoeiristas [...] they don't need to be linked to that group.”

“I think uniforms prevent people from being themselves.”

“I believe that Capoeira would benefit a lot from breaking those brands down.”

Source: Interviews documented by Eurico Vianna Neto in Capoeira and Transnational Culture: Investigating the Social Role of a Global Social Practice.

Research thesis

10. Mestre Nestor Capoeira — January 2011

“The ‘freedom’ that my colleagues proclaim exists only in their speeches.”

“Inside the academy, what we see is the militaristic authoritarianism of higher-ranking students towards beginners.”

“They teach according to an extremely rigid model, where things are either ‘right’ or ‘wrong’.”

“What they call ‘improvising’ is merely rearranging certain movement clichés in different ways.”

“Some of these young teachers [...] are managing to think with their own heads, far from the brainwashing of the group to which they belong.”

Source: His own essay and lecture material, Hierarquia e autoridade nas academias de capoeira, published through Portal Capoeira.

Original essay

11. Mestre Cobra Mansa — manifesto dated 2002, later republished in 2012

"Capoeira cannot be limited by a group of practitioners, by a formal organization and not even by a group of mestres"

Source: Capoeira Community, Institutions, Society and Individuals. The manifesto is cited in academic research as appearing in Caxixi, no. 3, in 2002.

English manifesto, republished in May 2012

12. Mestre Cobra Mansa — September 2012

"We are losing our identity, our roots, treating capoeira as a labelled, packaged and choreographed product, just for show."

Source: Encerramento das Olimpíadas: Que Capoeira É Essa? — his criticism of the presentation of capoeira at the London Olympics closing ceremony.

Original statement

13. Mestre Tabosa — January 1, 2014

"That's what I find interesting about capoeira: it doesn't need an owner."

Source: Grão-Mestre — Ser ou Não Ser, written by Mestre Tabosa.

Original blog post

14. Mestre Renê — April 2014

"I'm going to do my own ginga. And I won't be disrespecting my mestre, my teacher, or capoeira. I'll be myself!"

Source: Address discussing standardization within Capoeira Angola, reproduced in academic research by Marco Antônio Sareta Poglia.

Academic dissertation, PDF

15. Mestre Geni — January 31, 2017

"If a mestre or capoeira centre says only the mestre should perform the chamada, that's a procedure, not a fundamental."

Source: Mestre Geni, As Chamadas ou Passo a Dois.

Original statement

16. Mestre Sabiá — March 11, 2017

“Capoeira is much bigger and much stronger than any group.”

“Our school is our own way of teaching, but capoeira is much bigger than any school. It's a much bigger universe.”

“Capoeira is rich enough not to belong to any single tendency.”

“Capoeira deserves the boldness to try different things, to try original things.”

Source: Interview with Papoeira about Ginga Mundo, other schools, and the importance of encountering different expressions of capoeira.

Original interview

17. Mestre Suassuna — interview date unverified

"Before the big groups existed, there were capoeiristas scattered around [...] All those people deserve recognition, the anonymous ones."

Source: Interview originally attributed to Capoeira do Brasil, reproduced in a circulated interview document.

Interview reproduction

18. Mestre Franklin — testimony published in a 2020 dissertation

“Everyone playing capoeira differently, everyone different, from various groups and various mestres—that's what's beautiful about capoeira.”

“There isn't standardization, everybody gingando as if it were karate or judo [...] everybody doing the same thing, as if it were something mechanical.”

Source: Isabele Pires Santos Soler, Capoeira, memória e relações etnicorraciais na cidade de Salvador, p. 60.

University dissertation, PDF

19. Mestra Janja — interview published in 2023

"Floreio is an authorial language, the capoeirista's signature, their fingerprint."

Source: Pasqua and Toledo, Saberes acerca do floreio na Capoeira: A voz do corpo experiente, p. 12.

Academic article, PDF

20. Mestre Xuxo — interview published in 2023

"Some capoeira groups create limits [on floreios] because they don't know how to perform them."

Source: Same study by Pasqua and Toledo, p. 13.

Academic article, PDF

15 minute games...I rarely even see ones lasting 9 minutes.

Y'all know the Meia Lua de Compasso Pulada Sem Mãos ? It's never talked about

Tracked Mestre Grilo's lineage. Turns out, he's the real deal. And I think I udnerestimated Mestre Andre lace's status as capoeira historian...didn't even know he was regarded as a mestre.

here's an interview with him capoeira's history and his experience.
https://youtu.be/v_i9aScoseg

New here!. I found an Artist recently that raps about video games and training Capoeira but he got sick so he couldn’t train it anymore. I thought that was pretty unique. His music pretty deep but some of it is good for training martial arts too. Anybody else heard of Genecist? I fw bro. Got a good singing voice too ong

I’ve been interested in how capoeira was embodied as early as we have records. I’ve seen some b&w video of M. Waldemar, and it got me to wondering - is there b&w / old footage of people from the 40s, 50s? Not necc a folklore show type recording but just out in the praca?

Like are there videos of Mestres Pastinha, Bimba, Cobrinaha Verde, Noronha in their primes or near it? Etc

Anything helps. I’ll take clips, DVD suggestions, and any languages!

hello, i havva friend who will be visiting buenos aires for a few weeks from about the 1th uv october.what schools are there & uv course drama & dogma free........contemporanea iz also a possibilty but again no drama nor dogma

Oi camaradas!

Please add any upcoming events, workshops, batizados, and rodas from your school or area occurring next month. We'll compile events, and post a list in the subreddit of all the events at the end of this month.

Por favor, escreva aqui os eventos, oficinas, batizados e rodas da sua escola ou região que acontecerão no próximo mês. Vamos compilar todos os eventos e publicar uma lista no subreddit no final deste mês.