Hard-hitting redneck that I am, I confess that I’ve always felt the presence of a certain cultural abyss separating me from capoeira. But the prejudices we have are usually demolished in the most unlikely places. So it was that, in the heart of Águas de Lindoia (SP), a peaceful town that usually hosts scientific conferences every year, I discovered that the abyss might have been just in my head, after all.
It was the first capoeira roda that I watched up close, in the interval between one of the congress sessions. It was led by an old acquaintance, the neuroscientist Sidarta Ribeiro, from UFRN (Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte), and what left me with my jaw dropped was the ability that this combination of movements, music and poetry has to transport the subject to another world suddenly. A spiritual experience, in short. But who said spiritual experience doesn’t match science? A study signed by Ribeiro and other researchers has just carried out one of the first rigorously quantitative analyzes of the effect of capoeira practice on children’s development.
The name that heads the list of authors of the research is Valter Fernandes, although capoeiristas know him as Mestre Curumim. Fernandes, who for decades has been teaching capoeira classes to children in Cidade de Deus, Rio, completed his master’s degree at the UFRJ Exercise Neuroscience Laboratory, stimulated in part by his contact with Ribeiro. “I was bitten by the mosquito of science, let’s say, because of the desire to research and investigate”, he says. “I saw in the research a way to better understand the effects of capoeira, to value this art and seek answers.”
The questions that the capoeirista-researcher and his colleagues are trying to begin to answer are broader than the dance/martial art of African origin. It turns out that, although there is evidence that the practice of physical activities has a positive impact on cognitive aspects, including children’s school performance, specific interventions made for this purpose do not always show clear results.
This paradox may indicate that not all forms of physical activity have the same impact. Perhaps other variables, such as the complexity of movements, creativity, and the social aspects of athletic practice, are necessary for the effects on the brain and behavior to manifest.
If this is the case, capoeira seems to be an excellent instrument, precisely because it mixes several of these elements into a harmonious whole. To test this, the researchers conducted the first randomized, controlled study of the effects of practice.
That is, it was a test in which the participants — 67 children, aged between 8 and 13 years — were randomly assigned to two groups. One of them took capoeira classes for four months, while the other stayed as a waiting group (later, after the end of the study, they also had access to classes).
The results are in an article in the specialized journal Mental Health and Physical Activity. Comparing the groups revealed not only an improvement in motor coordination among the children who participated in capoeira classes, but also a positive effect on so-called executive functions — things like memory, self-control and attention.
The effects are modest, but indicate that the potential for further studies on the topic should not be overlooked. “When we talk to older mestres, the idea that children get smarter doing capoeira is a sure thing. But it is an important way of translating what we see in our practical experience”, says Fernandes.
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