As some of you have already known, I do part-time work at a pub at Boat Quay called The Penny Black. I have been a floor staff there for one and a half years already. And I realized that learning Capoeira has helped me get out of some tricky situations at work.
Being a floor staff at The Penny Black calls for bringing a big tray of drinks from the bar indoors to our outside area which is about 50m away. This 50m is an arduous and treacherous path. It is lined dangers at every step.
Picture this. You are holding a whole tray of drinks (about $100 worth of drinks in total). You think you have a clear path from the bar to the outside. You whistle along the way out, admiring the pretty flowers along the path. Suddenly, a big bad monster suddenly sticks his hand out, maybe to wave at his friend, or to lift his hand up to scratch his head. His hand causes the untrained staff to panic and drop the whole tray of drinks.
Now picture me, a capoeirista. When the monster sticks his hand out, I do not panic. My training taught me not shy away from the attack. Instead, my brain makes a million calculations, honed by capoeira training and I gently esquiva away from the attack, my tray of drinks still intact. By esquiva I do not mean negativa. Sometimes, I literally bend backwards so that the hand just misses my face by a few centimetres, or I just do some fancy footwork that allows me to escape the attack. And trust me when I say that this did not just happen once, but umpteen times in my stint at The Penny Black.
There you go. Another instance when Capoeira is used in daily life.
Your Lovely,
Costeleta
Freedom to Express, Freedom to Move, Freedom to be Ourselves. Axé Capoeira
1 comment:
Hey Josh, I can't say much about dodging errant carousers, but whenever I'm trying to impress a girl (which is often) in a group situation with other guys (less often), I've discovered these tactics:
1) If you respect the guy, smile and nod cooly once in a while.
2) If you don't respect the guy, and you know he's making empty boasts, challenge him.
3) If you don't respect the guy, but you know he's better than you, make a mocking remark about your own lack of ability in that skill.
In the roda, when the guy does an impressive floreio that I have no way of matching, I do a mock floreio--same thing, but badly, and then I pump my fists in celebration (It's not so hard!). You steal his thunder by cheapening his accomplishment. And you score points with bonitas as a not-too-serious kinda guy. ;)
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