How to Structure Training at Home

One of the most frequent questions I get from new students is how they should practice at home. If we look at a typical Capoeira class schedule, most people are able to train between 1 and 3 times per week in a n actual class. In general, if you are able to come more times per week (providing your body can recover), you will make faster progress, however if you *only* train during class, you are doping yourself a disservice.

Many people have talked about Mastery in personal development books over the past couple decades, but they all spiral around a similar conclusion. In order to really master something, you need a whole lot of high-quality repetitions. While some of that will happen in classes, more of what is done in class is "training" where you are learning how to do something and your repetitions are not perfect. The key next step is to bring that home for "practice" where you can get that high quality repetition work done.

In addition, there are many movements in Capoeira that require a high level of very specific strength and mobility (Handstand, bridge, etc). That strength and mobility takes time to build since we are actually talking about changes to tissues, and benefits from a relatively high frequency of work.

So how would I recommend you practice? Well, that becomes a somewhat individual question depending on your level and personal strengths and weaknesses, but in general, I would structure it as follows:

1. General Warmup

2. Timed Ginga Practice

3. Balance Practice

4. Basics Drilling

5. Dynamic Strength/Mobility

6. Floreio/Sequence

To start, I'd recommend planning this to last 30min to make it easier to fit into your regular schedule, but you can go for more or les time depending on your available time and recovery ability.

Your warmup should consist of general joint mobilization and basic movements to prepare your body for training. Just copying what you do in class is a totally fine choice here!

For Ginga practice, I like to set a timer for 3-6min, put on some music, and just explore your Ginga. Watch some clips of people you like beforehand and just copy elements that you like from them. This is a great way to both develop your personal ginga style and to improve your game-specific stamina.

For Balance Practice, take some time to work on either your Handstand, Headstand, or Queda de Rins holds. There are many ways to work on these, and I will write more about them in the future, but even just setting some consistent time to practice these will help a lot in long-term progress.

For Basics Drilling, I have found good results with pairing an escape and a kick to make this drilling more efficient and variable. For example, If I pair Esquiva Lateral and Armada, I could do the Esquiva first, then the Armada in the opposite direction. Try choosing three combinations of an escape and a kick, and performing 10 repetitions of each. Every session, you can choose different combinations!

Dynamic Strength and Mobility refers to more specific Capoeira related strength and mobility work, primarily Bridge and Queda de Rins. Again, I will be writing more about these in the future, but to get some ideas on what to work for this section, you can search for QDR Pushups and Bridge Rotations.

Finally, I think it's important to save some time for fun movements and sequences. Record either a movement or a sequence from Social Media that really inspires you, and use this part of your training to work on it! Keep the topic of progressions in mind, set a timer, and just work at it and enjoy. This is a great way to keep yourself inspired and refocus your work at what you are actually trying to accomplish, getting better at Capoeira!

Note that this is just a framework and will require work and thought on your part to make this real, but I think giving a framework helps you take ownership and gain autonomy in your own training. That to me is what helps you stay in the art for a very long time.

Feel free to send any specific questions about the details here!

-Instructor Mike