Martial Arts were always conflicting for me: Some stuff on TV looked really great and I had really loved to do things like Jackie Chan, but in the end I knew it would come down to breaking somebody's nose with a straight punch. When I started studying at the University of Economics in Vienna last year, I found a broad range of sporting facilities only for students, an offer that included many Martial Arts. After attending one lesson at TaeKwonDo and JuiJitsu, I was almost fed up with the idea of fighting in a playful and graceful way - in fact, that was until I came across Capoeira, the smallest and most modest offer there was. What I found was ideally suited to me: tons of weird movements such as twisted cartwheels, slanting backflips and handstands, one hand spins of overstretched bodies and much more. To put it short, I was heavily impressed by the cool movements those people pulled off. Between the stunts common fighting moves were thrown in, performed at an incredible pace. Although Brazilians regard Capoeira as a game rather than as a fighting form, I would definitely not recommend seriously challenging a Capoeirista; kicks are often executed from a spinning movement and gain so much swing that a hit can pull you off your feet (thankfully it rarely comes that far).