Picture taken on the first gathering for the practices of Jogo do Pau de Cepaes, October 23rd in Gothenburg.
Among us where representatives from several fighting arts and schools and it was the first among many coming gatherings to keep one of the few existing european martial arts traditions alive.
“…But lets work from the thesis that Mestre Avelino said that night on the parkinglot, or maybe how I understood him when I was drunk as fuckshit:
`The duell only happens when the group has failed its main job, namely to work as a group.`
From this we can read that the true martiality in JdP is that every single Jugador knows how to work in a group FIRST and that the duell, the Contra-jogo, is a last resort.
We can also read from this that every Jugador knows how to handle and recognize impossible odds, and the mercilessness in being completely left alone in the role as Batedor. Because the Picadores will not challenge you one by one and risk themselves, they will stress you as group and force you to move so that you get tired and must give up.
And from that we learn that no man will risk his own life if it is possible to drain his enemy of stamina and then capture or kill him with less effort.
It is a lesson that needs to be learned, that you are doomed without your group.
Therefore this is true when we train:
We are friends. But we are not friends.”
-Jogo do Pau de Cepaes, Nicolas Gallardo
Göteborgs Frifäktargille
Halmstad HFS
Malmö HFS