Training as a deaf martial artist is not easy when it comes to a beautiful martial art like capoeira that depends heavily on music.
It’s not only the music I’m challenged with. It’s understanding and learning from mestres, professors, and leading instructors.
During workshops, events, or classes when the instructors or mestres teach a new movement or sequence, they would speak about what they want to see us do when we perform the movement or sequence. I usually just stand there, left out until they demonstrate what they are teaching us. This helps a lot and they usually show it twice, maybe thrice. Once in a while they would do it just once and I have a hard time memorizing how it’s done when they just do it once.
Another thing that frustrates the hell out of me is when they give awesome lectures on their backgrounds, their experiences, and the history or philosophy of capoeira and I’m completely left out bc I have no idea what they’re saying. Lipreading is just too difficult for me because; 1- I will have to stare at their mouth the entire duration. 2- They sometimes look around at the students and when their heads move, it’s hard to read lips from the side. 3- It’s really hard to lipread people and understand them perfectly. I usually understand around 30-40%, the capoeiristas having a Brazilian accent does NOT help. 🙂
But what DOES help me is when…
1. Mestres or the leading instructors use VISUAL cues and gestures/motions the teaching cues (techniques, parts of executing the movement) as they explain or teach the movement. It helps me understand what they want me to emphasize and I can focus on that, helping me learn the movement better. Some teachers already do this because they don’t speak English, and I love them because we share the same language barrier. We have to gesture and read gestures to be understood!
2. I talk with the mestre or teacher before the class or the workshop, this helps us understand each other’s needs and how to work with each other. I usually explain them about number one (using visual cues), and ask them how they usually run their classes. By having a basic understanding of how they teach and what they plan to teach, will help me participate in the class or workshop without feeling left out.
3. When they know sign language! 😀 Knowing ASL (American Sign Language) helps me TREMENDOUSLY! Here is why, when you are not able to communicate with them directly (without lipreading, without paper and pen(cil), or without an interpreter), you have a huge language barrier that feels like the Great Wall of China. If you teach them a little sign language, it can go a LONG WAY. It’s like making a hole in the Great Wall of China with a gigantic cannonball. You still have the wall, but you can get your messages through little by little. I usually teach them basic capoeira signs and “training, yes, no, hard, easy, fast, slow, control, balance”, stuff like that. So the teachers are able to communicate with me and I will be able to stay on the same page.
4. By being exposed to a various of movements (ranging from strictly Regional to improvisational Angola), you allow yourself a wide range of familiar movements that you can quickly pick up from a quick glance of it. In my first few years of capoeira, I wanted to know EVERY capoeira movement that was out there (to this day I’m STILL learning more and more!), and I don’t know the names of them all, but I am able to identify them and differentiate between them. So when I participate in classes and the teacher isn’t clear or whatever, I can look at what they show and figure out the teaching cues on my own. (It’s HARD bc sometimes I just have NO idea what the cues are and do the movements poorly)
5. Sometimes being in the front row, as deaf people usually are, isn’t a good idea. It’s better to be in the second row behind the high cords or if you’re a high cord, next to another one. When you do this, it allows you to follow the others without standing out or not “synchronized” with them. It helps you to track your progress and stay on the same page with the rest of the class.
6. Where there is a chalkboard or a whiteboard they can write on. I use this when I teach my classes. It helps A LOT. I write down the names of the capoeira movements and translate them into English and leave them up there for my students to memorize the names and the spelling. I even draw diagrams of directions, planes the kicks go into (high, medium, low, straight, circular, etc), and I write down the teaching cues. Maybe I’ll post pics of several examples.
So, training as a deaf capoeirista has its perks and kinks. If you ever encounter a deaf capoeirista, say Hi and ask if you can help them. They WILL be grateful. 🙂 Thank you.
JJ/Deaf Capoeira's Blog 