I logged in just to post this. Try Capoeira. It's not as well known as many other martial arts, but it's a lot of fun. It's a Brazilian martial art which origi

I logged in just to post this. Try Capoeira. It's not as well known as many other martial arts, but it's a lot of fun. It's a Brazilian martial art which originated with the black slaves transported from Africa. In the 1800's, around 1880 or so, slavery was abolished, and due to massive former slave unemployment and gang activity, capoeira grew steadily more violent. It was soon outlawed, and any found practicing it were jailed. However, around 1930, a movement grew to found capoeira as a "modern" martial art, with a formalized training and graduation system, as opposed to a very advanced form of street fighting. Since then, it's been getting less violent and more popular throughout the world. It's very different from the other martial arts. The closest Asian martial art would be Wushu; capoeira is equally "showy" at times, utilizing flips, jump kicks, and so on and so forth. A lot of the movements you see in breakdancing actually originated in capoeira. Headspins, 1990's, butterfly kicks, backflips, the "baby freeze" are all movements in breakdancing, but also find their place in capoeira. Capoeira is played to music and singing on the traditional instruments. A berimbau, drums, and a pandeiro (tambourine). The speed of the game (the fight) is set by the music. Finally, capoeira is a game of strategy: it requires quick thinking, because every movement by your opponent can be countered and used to gain the advantage. At higher levels, the fight becomes a mental one - you must anticipate what your opponent will do before he does it, and, at higher levels still, you can lead your opponent to do what you want him to do, so that you know in advance what will happen. It's a very dynamic martial art. It's beautiful and incredibly fun, as well as incredibly tiring. It really does a wonderful job of combining "martial" aspects with "art" aspects: some styles of play emphasize fighting and defense, while some emphasize beauty. Some do both. Here are some links to videos of capoeira games: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8xxgFpK-NM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8xxgFpK-NM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51q1VB_dDik http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51q1VB_dDik http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQl3iInVd0Y http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQl3iInVd0Y Feel free to email me for questions. My username at gmail. There are multiple groups; I would suggest joining Abadá capoeira if you have them near you, as that is the largest and most organized group, from what I've heard.