As promised, here's my report of my capoeira experience.
It's hard. There's a reason why MMA fighters like Connor McGregorand others crosstrain in capoeira. It combines kicks, dynamic movement and acrobatics, all to the beat of the bateria playing music while everyone sings along. For the beginner class I took, there was a lot of time spent training the basic movements and practicing to improve technique.
I liked it, even though my muscles are very sore now. I'm not very acrobatic, but I can do a cartwheel (called an aú), and I kicked pretty well. Other aspects were tricky. At one point, I was trying to do a rasteira (a type of sweep) to catch the instructor's leg as directed. I struggled. "Don't kick out like it's soccer," he suggested. "Try to control the move."
Now that Landon Donovan is retired, it won't be easy for him to stay in shape. There's no more constant running like in practice and for matches. Most soccer players do have an offseason workout set up, though. That helps them as they ease into retirement, to do whatever they usually did in the offseason when they didn't practice and play regularly.
For some retired players, staying fit means to do freely what they liked anyway. In Frankie Hejduk's case, that was surfing.
Keeping fit is important for everyone, though, not just former athletes. I'm going to give different fitness programs a try and report here which I personally find most effective and would recommend, not just for soccer players, but anybody.
One of the capoeiristas featured in the video here is giving a free class in Glendale at Jewel City Yoga tomorrow at noon, so I'm going to check that out.
