My reader Thomas sent me an interesting video of an African martial game Wasan Kwanbe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgtARfBUHQk
Here are some points to note:
1)
You can see many LightLegs kicks used 'for real' (I mean, used by somebody else than us ;-): LightLegs Armadas, Mldcs and even 41s.
The same LightLegs kicks modern capoeirista cannot throw, because he cripples his own legs with modern ginga (metaphorically speaking).
The same LightLegs kicks old capoeiragem used (well, almost; it used RubberLegs kicks, but you get the idea).
Thomas wrote that that video made him understand the "Mldc used as a throw like I say in my videos/texts".
So perhaps it will help more people reconsider LightLegs kicks.
2)
Some people will probably start with the usual "That's African capoeira!"
It must be firmly stated that no, this is not capoeira.
True capoeira is not just throwing your legs in the air wildly. I know modern capoeira often degenerates to just that, but historically, capoeira was much more.
As I wrote, proto-capoeira, the ancestor of capoeira, did not have kicks at all.
But even when capoeira got its kicks, they were a part of a sophisticated wrestling system.
You evaded kicks, swept and evaded these sweeps - and that was just the beginning; in the golden age of Bahian capoeira, this primary scheme blossomed into many complicated challenges.
The practice shown in the video is very primitive in comparison - you just swing your legs in the air and try not to get hit by them.
Accidentally, modern capoeira is primitive in the same way - you swing your legs in the air and try not to get hit (in the better case; in worse case, you stand so far from the other player you do not even have to try to not get hit).
But proper capoeira had sophisticated tactical scheme(Carioca), high-level entries, complicated challenges(Bahiana) - you can see nothing of this in the video.
So if anything, the video shows that there is no capoeira in Africa - at most perhaps modern capoeira, which is no capoeira at all.
3)
But in fact, the practice in the video very much resembles Zebra wrestling in its general scheme:
Note the hopping footwork(LightLegs); and throwing power kicks in the general direction of the opponent, without any entry.
Just substitute Pantanas and hopping guard(RubberLegs) for what they use; and you can imagine what Zebra wrestling looked like.
I have small doubt that Zebra wrestling was an African practice. It just was not capoeira, like Wasan Kwanbe is not capoeira.
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