Just a few things to pay attention to in the first combination:

1. When I am swinging the left leg around I make sure I rotate it all the way until my bum is facing the partner. (this enables me to not end up facing a different direction).

“bum facing partner”

2. When I go into the queda de rins position, my body and my legs are in an L-shape, this enables me to sweep the legs over a longer range of motion. Otherwise, if I was to begin with my body and my legs straight, All the rotation would have to come from spinning on the palm (which is a lot harder and a different movement).

“L-shape”

3. When my legs are straight with my body, I bend the left leg in and push up off of the left hand. The closer that left foot lands near my hand the easier it is to push out. If I try to rotate my legs past the straight body/leg position, and curve my legs around, I will probably hyperflex my wrist which will be bad and hurt my wrist a lot.
Splitting the legs in the air adds to the illusion and the effect of the movement, the more I can split and have straight legs the better it looks.

“push out position”

4. I do not actually rotate the wrist until I have landed my feet. When I push up and out of the position I rotate my wrist to help take pressure off of it, but whilst in the movement it is not really necessary.

“hand close to knee, wrist rotated”

THE SECOND COMBINATION- Observations:

1. Once I have completed the first queda de rins I push off my right hand and bring it in towards my body. This helps me to roll onto the other side (my right queda).

“Push off the right hand position”

“right hand landed in the right position”

2. Once I am in the right queda position I pay special attention to my right leg. I make sure that it reaches in front of me and around as much as possible. This is really important, and the key for me to be able to push up into my ponte (backbend) whilst still being able to watch and face my partner.

“look how far around I have put my right leg…”

3. Once I am in the ponte, I bring that left hand in towards my body (repositioning the hand) and lower myself onto that queda. From their I can do 2 things. I can choose to lift the left leg and push and jump around with the right, or I can push around off of both legs at the same time. Either way I need to bring that left leg into a crouching position, and land that left foot near my left hand.

If anyone has any questions/queries and or comments please don’t hesitate to ask!

Chan.

Stumble It!

Capoeira Acrobatics is spontaneous, agile and sometimes mysterious, I remember watching countless amounts of videos, searching the world for new tricks, different movements. The more I have experimented and tried different movements the more I have come to realise three things:

1. It is always better to have an instructor who understands the movement to go through it with you.
2. You should always try and build up the necessary areas of the body that are needed for that type of movement BEFORE you attempt to do it.
3. The movement should be broken down into certain steps, and it is these steps that should be practiced seperately before putting it together.

Remember, this movement is only from what I have experienced and learnt through my journey of capoeira, you should always listen to your instructor first and follow their instruction. Many styles have many in-depth reasons for doing things a particular way, so it is always my recommendation with everything you do, to follow your instructor.

I have written down a few notes on the observations that I have found over the years of practicing them.

1. Observe how far I throw my arms back and also the amount I bend in the knees. The knees do not need to bend that much at the start of the jump, as I want to pop it up instead of push it up. The arms go back far to help build the momentum as I swing them hard and up.

6. Backsaults are scary, and dangerous without the proper training and teacher. So pick both wisely before thinking about attempting one.

Stumble It!