Thursday, January 12, 2012

How to Compare Boxing With Capoeira?


Capoeira and boxing are both martial arts, but the similarities stop at that point. One is a "fighting dance" from Brazil, while boxing as practiced today evolved from boxing traditions in Europe and the British isles. One is relegated to the position of a folk art, while the other is a multibillion-dollar spectator sport. Both are vigorous workouts, and both have advantages and disadvantages when it comes to using them in a self-defense situation.

BOXING BASICS
Boxing as practiced today is a competition between two fighters in a ring. The fighters wear gloves and sometimes helmets for protection and score points based on hitting target areas on their opponents. Hands are the only permitted weapons, and only punches to the face, sides of the head and body, except the spine, are allowed. Training for boxing includes skills development, cardiovascular training, resistance training and sparring.
CAPOEIRA BASICS
Capoeira is practiced in a ring of spectators called a roda, and accompanied by percussion music. Play consists of two participants dancing around one another with a combination of gymnastics movements, simple steps and martial arts attacks using the feet, hands and head. Score is informal, and touching an opponent is considered less of a coup than forcing him to fall down on his own. Training for capoeira includes skills training, resistance training, gymnastics practice, stretching and live practice in the roda. Many capoeira programs also include music and history.
CARDIOVASCULAR FITNESS
The simplest method for rating the cardiovascular burn of an exercise is to look up how many calories it burns in an hour. HealthStatus provides calorie burns for a variety of activities and says a 160-pound boxer would burn about 650 calories in an hour of boxing practice. HealthStatus does not provide information about capoeira, but totaling the listed burn for 60 minutes of activities that make up a typical practice session adds up to about 400 calories per hour.
RESISTANCE TRAINING
Both boxing and capoeira training include resistance workouts. Boxing uses calisthenics and free weights, while capoeira uses gymnastics moves as a body-weight exercise. A typical boxing workout only focuses on resistance training for a portion of the session. By contrast, nearly all parts of a capoeira training session are putting one or another body part through a vigorous resistance workout.
DEVELOPING COORDINATION
Boxing develops specific coordination skills including footwork, rhythm, timing and muscle memory for combinations of rapid punches. Capoeira focuses more on gross-motor coordination, the skill required to perform gymnastics and track the movement of all four limbs on an opponent. Both styles develop coordination, but very different kinds.
COMBAT APPLICATION
Boxing focuses on punching an opponent early and often, while capoeira training is as much about artistic expression as combat ability. Because of this, boxing is a more effective form of martial arts training for self-defense. But boxing also has limitations in a "street fight" owing to the reflexes a fighter develops while training for a sport with restrictive rules.

 
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