The Little Capoeira Book

by Nestor Capoeira, Alex Ladd (Translator)

The book starts off by giving an in-depth history of the Brazilian art of Capoeira. The last half of the book deals with the movements and techniques of Capoeira, including: offensive and defensive movements, basic kicks, takedowns, advanced kicks and movements, head butts, hand strikes, and knee and elbow strikes. Each of the techniques and maneuvers are vividly depicted by drawings that are very easy to understand and learn from. There is also an explanation of both Angolan and Regional versions of most of the techniques. This book gives a very good description of the history, game, and philosophy of Capoeira. The book contains diagrams showing various positions and movements and discusses attacking and defending strategies and the critical aspects of feinting. Over 100 photographs and illustrations are included.

Genres: Martial Arts, Nonfiction, Cultural, History, Theory, Music

240 pages, Paperback

First published April 4, 1995

Reviews

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

After training for years, I finally got around to reading the Little Capoeira book, having read Accordeon's book and Ring of Liberation several years ago. The introductory section, presesnting several ideas of how the game developed, and the final section, discussing the changes in the capoeira world until 2002, were interesting. The central part, detailing various capoeira moves and trainings, is extremely valuable, although more as a supplementary training manual than for reading.

[Engin · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is an great book to learn the fundamentals of capoeira. If you are familiar with the capoeira culture, I think you already know this information, but it is a great to find it here as a written resource.

[Glenn Paskiewicz · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good book about the origin of Capoeira. has the foundational movements and sequences to build a good practice.

[Calliope BasBleu · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is good. It goes into the history, culture, music and ideology of Capoeira. It gives one the basic with pretty decent descriptions of how to complete the movements followed by a number of the more advanced movemments (takedowns, for instance).

[Leandro Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This books gives idea for people what capoeira really are. As a capoeirista I still find many useful information from this book that I have never knew before.
The book can be read by capoeirista and by public who doesn't know capoeira.

[Keane Ingram · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introduction to capoeira. I've been learning capoeira for eleven months and reading this has really helped me understand the reasons for learning various sequences and moves. I'm sure I'll be referring back to this many times in the future.

[Haru · Rating 4 out of 5]

i read this one when i first started playing Capoeira. pretty good introductory book to the wonderful world of Capoeira.

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being new to capoeira, I found this to be an interesting introduction to the history and practice of capoeira. Since I live in Montana, finding anything "live" is a challenge!

[Lior Enbar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book.

[nona · Rating 4 out of 5]

For everyone who wants to know about capoeira history and basic moves.

[Larissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Written by one of the grandfather of Capoeira. I used to practice Capeoiera in college, this gives a historical timeline.

[Jacqueline · Rating 5 out of 5]

good read! highly recommended