The Roda
Last night, beginning my third week in Capoeira, I went into the Roda for the first time. Having hurt my shoulder/arm a little last Friday, I was rested and ready to get in there. I like the idea that Capoeira practice is where you learn new moves and techniques but the Roda is where the real learning happens. Where you apply everything you’ve been taught in a fun but realistic way. Challenging you to explore the moves and dance with your partner. I’m looking forward to… getting more comfortable with the moves. Being able to concentrate on my sparing partner as opposed to what I’m doing. Building my muscle memory so that everything I do flows with reason and purpose rather than clumsily throwing a kick or dodging a bit too late.
I plan to begin practicing… moves in a series on my own time. Probably in sets of twenty or so. I figure repetition is how you get good at something. I currently favor my right side and have a lot of difficulty… with my left. I wish to be equally strong on both sides. This will take a lot of work. I had issues with this as a skateboarder when I’d want to switch stance. I could never really get used to it. I eventually learned how to ride and ollie in switch, but could never get beyond that. Aside from being relatively inflexible in general, allowing myself to loosen up to do left sided kicks or figure out a move on the left side is a challenge I need to push myself to overcome. This is how I’m beginning to view life in general though, a series of challenges one has to overcome. Overcoming ones self might possibly be one of the most challenging things however. Luckily I’m getting used to pain again. That will come in handy down the road when I actually get struck in the Roda.
I am starting to loosen up all over after only a couple weeks. My body has a tendency to seize up when I’m inactive. Especially since I do a lot of computer related stuff. Hunching over the computer causes my back to hurt as well as a build up of acids in my chest area. When I’m regularly active the acids seem to break down making me feel a lot looser. I’ve been considering going to Rolphing sessions. Unfortunately, to my understanding, the treatments go over the course of ten sessions costing around $100 a session. So, it’s not very cheap. The possible benefits are that I could gain a large amount of flexibility all over my body and have my alignment straightened, which might give me a little extra height. I believe these… treatments also help to purge the body of toxins buried in deep muscle tissue. All of these things sound good to me. Before I can go forward with this however, I need to get some bills paid down and probably get my dentist procedures out of the way. I’m looking at around $3000 – $4000 before I can even consider starting Rolphing sessions. So, until then, I work Whiffies and as many video jobs as I can get. If I’m lucky, come the beginning of next year I can get in for sessions and be closer to my goal of being down to one major bill to pay per month.
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