Batizado in Shiga
Today was a new experience for me - I went to another group's batizado. I've been playing capoeira for about six years now, and I've had 5 batizados. Besides those, I've been to two others, but they were still Capoeira Brasil. So today was the first time I saw a batizado that I wasn't directly involved with. How was it? Not very good.
That's not to say it was bad, though. Instrutor Kenji is awesome, he's got an amazing game and treats everyone with the utmost respect. The guests were also great; they were pretty much the same the people that came to our batizado last month. And I did find it interesting to see how they give out new cords, grade students, and generally run things.
What got me was the timing of it all. I'm used to a little more game time from the participants; they just blew through all the gradings, one game per student. The whole batizado was over in like an hour. It just felt really rushed.
After the batizado came the real killer - a workshop. Our group always holds workshops and lectures the week before the batizado, and the day of is left to focus on the event. An extra class just didn't sit with me, especially since I was already exhausted and had just come to watch and maybe play a game or two. I ended up wasting 1000 yen to sit through most of a lecture I didn't understand and walk out to join a free angola roda.
My instructor was ready to go as soon as the batizado was over - I should have listened to him. We ended up leaving a little early, but he was right about getting home as soon as possible. I seem to forget that he's been to a lot of these things, and knows a hell of a lot more about how to handle them.
In all, it was an enlightening experience and I certainly appreciate our group's batizados more now. It also got me thinking more about going home in May to see my old school's batizado and trying to bring some of the people here with me. I'm already getting psyched about it.
Today was a new experience for me - I went to another group's batizado. I've been playing capoeira for about six years now, and I've had 5 batizados. Besides those, I've been to two others, but they were still Capoeira Brasil. So today was the first time I saw a batizado that I wasn't directly involved with. How was it? Not very good.
That's not to say it was bad, though. Instrutor Kenji is awesome, he's got an amazing game and treats everyone with the utmost respect. The guests were also great; they were pretty much the same the people that came to our batizado last month. And I did find it interesting to see how they give out new cords, grade students, and generally run things.What got me was the timing of it all. I'm used to a little more game time from the participants; they just blew through all the gradings, one game per student. The whole batizado was over in like an hour. It just felt really rushed.
After the batizado came the real killer - a workshop. Our group always holds workshops and lectures the week before the batizado, and the day of is left to focus on the event. An extra class just didn't sit with me, especially since I was already exhausted and had just come to watch and maybe play a game or two. I ended up wasting 1000 yen to sit through most of a lecture I didn't understand and walk out to join a free angola roda.
My instructor was ready to go as soon as the batizado was over - I should have listened to him. We ended up leaving a little early, but he was right about getting home as soon as possible. I seem to forget that he's been to a lot of these things, and knows a hell of a lot more about how to handle them.
In all, it was an enlightening experience and I certainly appreciate our group's batizados more now. It also got me thinking more about going home in May to see my old school's batizado and trying to bring some of the people here with me. I'm already getting psyched about it.
posted by Nick at 6:39 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home