You Can Do It

Back in January I returned to Capoeira after many years off. Looking back,  I wasn’t in great shape at the time. I think my metabolism is finally starting to slow down and I had not been exercising much. I wasn’t completely out of shape, but it was enough to make Capoeira difficult. When trying to practice different moves, I was constantly feeling like I didn’t have enough stamina, I wasn’t strong enough, or I wasn’t flexible enough.

Now, almost 1 year later, I’m seeing a drastic difference. There is still much I need to do to increase my stamina, strength and flexibility, but they are vastly improved from January and I am regularly growing in all those areas. Since January I’ve been going to classes at least three times a week and pushing myself when I am there. I am proud of the progress I’ve made so far, but I haven’t done anything extraordinary. The cliche remains true – practice makes perfect.

But, if it’s a cliche, why do so many people seem not to know it? I’ve lost count of the amount of people who have said things like “I’d love to do Capoeira, but I could never move the way you do.” I guess I could take that as a compliment – people assume that I’m somehow so good that I woke up one day knowing the amount of Capoeira I do – but I find it frustrating.

There is so much a person can achieve with time, motivation, focus, and the right teacher. It is silly to look at someone’s achievements and assume they came without at least some of these things. While your mother’s assurance that “you can do anything you set your mind to” is not 100% true, it does still hold some weight. There is a countless number of things you can become good at if you put in the work. It is one thing to decide you can’t do some of these things because you can’t or won’t make the time to learn, but if you decide that they are simply impossible for you, you are selling yourself short.

One of the guys in my class is better than all the rest of us at the acrobatic moves that require strength and flexibility. Some of the things he can do are truly amazing to watch. The other day, he told me that when he started, he couldn’t even do a carttwheel – one of the most basic movements of Capoeira. When he found out that our Mestre was going to be visiting his class, he spent hours a day practicing cartwheels, and learned to do them just in time to not embarress himself in front of our Mestre.