Capoeira is a Brazilian art, but the origins and the exact meaning of the word are shrouded in mystery. Capoeira is a lot of things, including a martial arts form and therefore practitioners refer to themselves as players, rather than fighters. "Capoeira is a game, not a fight", they say.

It was forbidden in Brazil from 1810, with music not being introduced until the 1830s, either by longshoremen and sailors to make their game more fun or by other players to be able to disguise their martial art as a dance. Whichever of the two reasons it was, it added a new element to the art: rhythm and this became increasingly important as time passed on....

New Sparring Gear Reviews;

New Articles:
Sambo, The Unique And Effective Russian Fighting Art,

History Of The Samurai And Bodyguard Training That Became Jujutsu;

New indexes have been added to the Articles section, by topic, by author and alphabetically;

All Arts on the Japanese Page have been updated;

There is a new Shuri-Ryu Karate Page;

Several updates to the Western Arts Page;

A brand new MMA Terminology Page; and

New Karate Basics Videos.

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New videos by Tashi Price & Kyoshi Dometrich;

Look for lots of updates to the Shuri-Ryu Page including flash cards for specific topics;

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