Thanks for the extra information, that does make more sense that those “pranks” are in response to actual tactical vulnerabilities the person is exposing in themselves while they play.

Hey Angoleiro,

Oh, what I imagined *was* pulling down the pants with both hands, the banda way didn’t even occur to me! Although I have to say that one seems more legitimate/acceptable to me than the hands one, since it’s an actual move and you could say it’s the capoeirista’s fault for wearing too-long or too-low pants.

And sorry, I should clarify my question! I wasn’t asking about between sneaky and mischievous, they were one thing. I was asking about the line between sneaky/mischievous and a cheap shot/doing something not belonging in the game.

Ouch…to be honest though, after hearing all these horror stories, I kind of empathize with the guy who gave you the martelo! Which move did you do to him?

a) This intentional stepping on the foot is meant to be me having shoes on and stepping on the feet of the other one who has not. Yeeeees, I know it is not nice. But there are steps and there are STEPS. You got to see the difference. First of all, I have soft shoes, if I’d have street shoes AND if I’d go in with my whole weight, yes, that would be just plain painful (actually it is still a legitimate movement, you just have to tackle the response which won’t be very nice…). So usually, if I step on somebodys foot, I “mark” it with a small “touché”. More is not needed for the purposes of the play. it is teasing, it makes people in the roda laugh and scares your partner/opponent off or does provoke him to go into a more rough game (if you like one!). This stepping on the foot is not meant to hurt somebody or to stop his game and has to be controlled, not just “stumbled”.
b) tying the ties together after having untied them… well, it is already difficult enough to catch a small tie with your finger while the other one is moving and of course you are quite “open” when you try to untie the shoes. And you are fully responsible for any kick you get while trying to be funny (this goes for every small fun in the game, if you make a joke and get caught doing it, everybody will laugh about YOU…)
c) about the pants thingy… I didnt mean giving somebody a banda/vingativa by taking the ends of the pants. I know that one, though I never use it. I mean pulling down the pants. As far as I got it they would only do that for guys. I have never seen it and do know that the person whose pants are all down would hate me for the rest of his/her life. If you have good reasons for it, you dont want to break certain boundaries…
d) about your line between sneaky and mischievous, joaninha, I have to say, there is no line. All sneakish acts have a little bit of mischieve in it and most mischievous movements are somehow sneaky (in the roda). This is the same as in the topic about how a mestre should be to his students. there is no general rule for it. Most of the mean things I learned were either stories “what happened once in a roda” or were only applied to me or other advanced students of the grupo were my trainer was quite sure about the responses.
I’d say just do not try some of these things with people you don’t know. I did that once and…well…the martelo he gave me later made me have pain in my stomach for 2 weeks.

Actually, the more I think about it this brings up another question for me…in capoeira, is there a line between being sneaky or mischievous, and just plain taking a cheap shot or doing something that doesn’t belong in the game? Or does nothing “not belong” in the game?

For the party hat thing, that’s interesting because I’d have seen it not so much as a party hat but as maybe a cross necklace or headscarf…i.e. it means nothing to you, but a lot to the other person, so out of respect, for me that would make it off-limits, not the opposite, whether it was a home game or not! Unless, like Cenoura said, they were being obnoxious about it.

But yeah, I did know at least enough about angola to also be pained for the guy while watching that video XD

Speaking of deer in the headlights and chamadas, check out how M. Curió totally humiliates this guy. Mestre Cobrinha eventually takes him out of his misery. If I recall correctly, at the end of the previous video, the guy had cut into a game between M. Curió and another mestre.