I am not some fan of Paul Vunak; in fact, I have not seen much from him in my life. (Just enough to know he is not a bad guy, but he is 'crazy', and not in a good way).
Still, recently, youtube showed me some of his videos; and some of the stuff he demonstrates might help my readers appreciate/grok Carioca more.
https://youtu.be/BwPiu92YdJA?t=57
Notice how he tells the guys to move around; and the way he moves around them is almost Peneiracao (he uses LightLegs to move btw; but he is clearly unable to teach it to the two burly guys, who still keep plodding). He keeps the distance and even uses hand jabs similar way Carioca does.
Vunak's way of moving and fighting is clearly the product of his experience with mass street fights. He moves around a lot because he always expects more than one opponent; and keeps looking around. (Note how he repeats 'the opponent in front of me is nothing'.) Static guard is a luxury you can afford if you only fight one opponent. (Or if you have some trick up your sleeve; I add for completeness sake).
https://youtu.be/ULa_I0xIX_0?t=27
So watch Vunak move to get an instinctive look at what I am trying to teach about Carioca; from another viewpoint.
Try to connect it in your head:
1)One-on-one - that is ginga; that is boxing guard. That is duelling; that is sport.
2)Street mass battle(including flying bottles) - that is moving around, that is Peneiracao; that is battlefield; that is Carioca.
Once you mentally connect the environment Carioca was developed in with the art itself, you will have much easier time understanding why Carioca looks the way it does (and why it does not look some other way).
But that is still only the base on the art; there is more that makes Carioca different, but that would require other videos ;-)
Oh, and do not bite off people's faces. It is evil.
PS: If you are like me, you are probably wondering if we should not have something like Wing chun 'hand trapping' in Carioca. In fact, we have something better; but it is one of the higher-level teachings.
Bonus: Ixprimenti!
Try this experiment:
Do ginga, and try to look around yourself (like Paul Vunak demonstrates). Then try to look around yourself from a boxing on-guard stance. Finally, try to look around yourself from Peneiracao.
You should find out that the only guard that allows you to turn your head comfortably and keep awareness of your surrounding(without breaking the guard) is Peneiracao. From ginga or boxing guard, you can turn your head maximally about 30-45 degrees (then you break the guard).
This is a simple fact of body mechanics that no amount of lip-flapping can change.
And it is also no accident - normal guards are made for duelling/sports; while Peneiracao is made for (and in) mass street battles; and includes the fact it gives you great vision of the whole battlefield.
However, you will never notice this principle if you only ever think about fighting one opponent.
Excursus:
When reading some of the comments under the Vunak videos, I realized that I have - unknowingly - massacred another sacred cow of modern martial arts by these articles:
Namely, that there is no difference between sports/duelling and a battlefield art; that it is all 'just fighting' (meaning, of the kind people do in the ring).
But as you see from Carioca, there is a significant difference; the different environment the art was created in resulted in difference in guard, tactics and even techniques.
To be frank, battlefield combat systems are on an entirely different level from the normal duelling, (one-on-one) self-defence or sports systems.
Normally, this should be nothing controversial - people should welcome the possibility, as it means there is a lot more to learn about martial arts (beyond the ring-fighting).
Unfortunatelly, there seems to be a group of people who have set out to "understand everything" about martial arts. But they are not doing it by learning everything they can about martial arts(otherwise, they would quickly find out that to "understand everything" is an impossible goal); they do it by learning what is fashionable, and then claiming it is "everything".
So these people learn boxing, wrestling and Brazilian jujutsu (because they are fashionable now); and then claim that this is all there is to martial arts. "It's all boxing and wrestling, man! You know, old kungfu - just boxing and wrestling, nothing more!" And thus, whoever claims there is something else to martial arts is a fraud or a liar.
Debating these people is a waste of time; because they already "understand everything" about martial arts, so you by definition cannot tell them anything they do not know; ie they are unteachable.
So I just have a bit of advice to my readers: Do not fall into this wicked game. In my experience, there is a lot more to martial arts than what the people who "understand everything" claim. There is a lot more than boxing, wrestling or Brazilian jujutsu to martial arts.
Normally, I have no stake in that game - let people train and believe what they like. But I found out if I want people to understand Carioca, I have to first make them understand the distinction between battlefield and duelling combat system.
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