The evil proverbial plateau

[VAGEM]

I know we've all heard of it, we all fear it, and some of us have overcome it...yes, i'm talking about the proverbial capoeira plateau; that point where you feel that you've reached the height of your ability yet still know that some how and some way you can end it and continue your ascent in your knowledge and ability in conversational capoeira...


my question is from your experiences (assuming you've reached this point in your capoeira carreer) how have you overcome this obstacle?

[Chris Santiago]

Man I know exactly what your talking about... I hit one like 6 months ago and finnally overcame it. The only way I can think to do it is the way I did it. Regardless of how hard or scary a move is you gotta be fearless and jump right in it like you already know how to do it. Look up videos online and pick stuff out that people do and just try it. Always search for new and chalenging things to try. I did that and one day I just exploded and was able to do a bunch of things I couldnt before. So look up new stuff and always push yourself and be fearless.

[Relampago]

well when you say "reached the height in your ability", what aspect of capoeira are you talking about?

[Faisca]

Or maybe, you shouldn't go to Costa Rica and quit training for half a year. Just a thought =P JK JK

[janaina]

Hi everyone.....
I'm still pretty new to capoeira....7 months....just a bubba!.....so I haven't really hit one of these stages so far.....
However.....my second love is Salsa and it's happening there all the time!!!!
One little suggestion......branch out! - go to new places.....look up other branches of your group.....travel to see them!!!.....look into the history.....try to see it with fresh eyes in a different way again. Like when you start and it's all new and exciting and unknown!
There is so much to Capoeira as we all know! SO many aspects.....maybe if you look into them you can bring it into your play, so yes you're doing all the same moves....you're bouncing all over the room and off the ceiling......look at how you feel the moves.....what they mean.....how you come across to the person you encounter in the roda.....
I think I sound patronising but it's not intentional.....just what I found helped me in Salsa and my short capoeira career.....!!

Hey you can always come and visit me and my group!! Bath's pretty gorgeous in itself!! ;o)

Good luck......I'll come crying to you when it's my turn to hit the plateau and you can all say I told you so!!!!!! (But maybe you'll be experts of getting out of it by then!!! fingers crossed!!)

Axe!!!!
Ja'

[Mike Saudino]

My Capoeira seems to improve every day. However, when I was training in Jujitsu me and the plateau became well accquainted.

My advice is to keep training. If you have the time, train by yourself. If you don't want to train techniques unsupervised then calisthenic excercises can be done for conditioning purposes. The point is, train more. When the plateau has you as frustrated as you can stand, take a day off. Not just from Capoeira, but from life on the whole. Take a walk, cook a meal from scratch, sleep late, you know. Relax.

I find that if I can get a good rest, I train more effectively for the next few days or weeks. However, if that doesn't sound good to you, maybe you want to try out what Santiago, Maritaca and Janaina said.

Sorry about the know-it-allitude in this reply despite my lack of roda experience. It's much easier to take a black belt off of yourself rather than out of yourself.

[Pixador]

There is no plateau. The game is too complicated, there are too many angles. If you've peaked on your acrobatics, go back to basics. Get everything perfect and locked on a split seconds notice, develop power and authority in your strikes if you haven't already, work on minimizing telegraphing etc. For real, capoeira is just deep and complex to "plateau". As with most things, if you think you can't improve anymore you're missing part of the big picture. Good luck with the training, FECHA e AXE!

[Lagartixa]

Wow - Pixador what a great way of looking at it. This is one of the best things about capoeira - how it can take just one little piece of advice - and your entire worldview is changed... the one before the above piece to me was, last monday: 'Just tilt your hips' - whoa man.

Before seeing this post I was going to say I've felt the plateau for a while before and I know ALOT of it had to do with fear (as Chris Santiago put it). After a long long recovery from an injury (a whole 'notha story), all of a sudden, I felt the most incredible liberation from the 'plateau': to echo Chris, I just started trying stuff. So my main advice would be to just try. And ask as many people as possible, because everyone has different ways and tricks and tips to give, one of them will resonate with you and you'll come right.

Another way to 'overcome' it, and i think this relates to what Pixador was saying, is to play with different people (if you're always training with the same guys) - go on and find them you know they're there - you can't help challenging yourself playing with someone new and wow! - you're pushed to be new too. Come to think of it, even when i was injured i'd still go to training and play instruments (more levels) - so yah - thanks for opening up this brain wave - embrace the neverending diversity and complexity that is capoeira and say 'bye 'bye to the plateau!

Woohoooo!

[Bruno]

I think the "plateaus" are actually great opportunities. What is a plateau? It means all the moves you're capable of, you know really well and are comfortable enough with them to use in the roda without thinking too much about the moves themselves. This is great! Now you can concentrate on improving your interactions in the roda. Now that your body has some "muscle memory" of the moves, it's time to improve your mind. If you're always trying to add new moves, you're always going to be focused on trying to get that move right and force it into your game. So your strategy will stagnate while you're focused on getting a chance to fit in your shiny new floreio. I try to stick to basics as long as I can until I no longer feel I'm being creative - then start adding new moves to my game.

[Faisca]

I disagree with Pixador about the idea that there is no "plateau." I see where you are coming from, but that's pretty much just what I mean (and others probably) when they talk about plateaus. I think it's just a matter of how to put it into words.

The plateau is just a way of saying "man, I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere" whether it be with your basics, your floreio, your music, or whatever. I wouldn't really call it a feeling that you've reached your peak, or height of your ability, because we all know there is always room for improvement. This is a common experience among capoeiristas and all atheletes. Like Bruno said, plateaus are great opportunities, and Pixador sees this as well.

There are many things you can do to get out of your "funk" and to start improving, but you have to hit the "plateau" or "funk" first. That is where the great opportunity comes in. Like Pixador said, capoeira is huge! There is so much room for improvement in all different angles, it's hard to "totally plateau." But if you feel stuck in a certain area, move to another area, or go back to the basics, and you will definitely see your game improve.

All you need to do is broaden your horizons. If you can't seem to get that backflip, go back to practicing the basics. If you can't get a certain berimbau rhythm, go practice your mortal.

The capoeira journey is never-ending and it's a cycle that is always flowing. Sometimes it flows in directions that you might not want it to, but you need to learn how to move wherever it takes you.

[Leopardo]

What most of refer to as a plateau is, in my opinion, just your body digesting information.
Many people first discover an apparent slowdown in their growth after about a year or so of capoeira- the reason for this is that when we first start our training, EVERYTHING is new so of course we learn quickly, because we have EVERYTHING to learn. After about a year or so our body begins to learn more subtle things and our growth becomes more subtle...so that first "slowdown" isn't what I would call a true plateau as much as it is that the growth becomes harder to see in the day to day...
Later plateau's for me often come when I've been training a lot- I'll have 3 months of what I feel is explosive growth- then it seems to stop. My theory is that the brain become saturated with info and it takes a while for your body to apply it all. It's for this reason that sometimes, when you train hard for a few months and take a week off- you can return to capoeira and your game has accelerated...that week off allowed some of that info to "digest".
Just my opinion and I'm coming off a plateau right now- 5 years into training- so it never stops :)
Growth doesn't happen in straight lines!