Hand and Arm Strikes
Jogo de Braços or "the game of the arm and hand". Traditionally, hand strikes were rarely used in capoeira, the mythological reasoning behind this being that the shackles and chains of the slaves prevented this. Even if this is so, punches, elbows, and slaps have always existed in street rodas all around Brazil. Today, this game of the arm and hand is seen more in the Capoeira Angola rodas. Some players attempt to distract or fascinate their opponent by waving their arms and hands in a spellcasting like way. This jogo or game represents a swinging and waving of hands to diminish any perception of an attack and lower the other player's guard.
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Famous quotes containing the words hand and, hand, arm and/or strikes:
“The hand and foot that stir not, they shall find
Sooner than all the rightful place to go;”
—Jones Very (1831–1880)
“He yaf me al the bridel in myn hand,
To han the governance of hous and land,
And of his tonge and his hand also;”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“It all ended with the circuslike whump of a monstrous box on the ear with which I knocked down the traitress who rolled up in a ball where she had collapsed, her eyes glistening at me through her spread fingers—all in all quite flattered, I think. Automatically, I searched for something to throw at her, saw the china sugar bowl I had given her for Easter, took the thing under my arm and went out, slamming the door.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“Then shall thy meteor glances glow,
And cowering foes shall shrink beneath
Each gallant arm that strikes below
That lovely messenger of death.”
—Joseph Rodman Drake (1795–1820)