Arrastão
Arrastão
Literally: dragging
A capoeira grip takedown in which the attacker grasps the opponent by both knees and, pressing a shoulder against his chest, pulls him down to the ground.
Quick Facts
⚠️ Common Mistakes
Sweeping the opponent's legs so that they land between the practitioner's legs instead of in front of them, which exposes the practitioner to a defensive risk.
About
Arrastão is a grip takedown in capoeira used against a standing opponent. The word means dragging or hauling in Portuguese and also a fishing net's sweep; in Brazilian slang it also denotes a mass street robbery, and per the source capoeira took the takedown's name from there. The attacker approaches, presses a shoulder to the opponent's chest, grasps both knees or thighs, and pulls and lifts while pressing the shoulder back to bring him down. It often starts as a two-leg takedown that in many situations turns into a one-leg takedown. In another version, the attacker pushes the opponent's hips sideways with his head, shifting the weight onto one leg, then sweeps it. The English Wikipedia groups arrastão with capoeira's sweeps and takedowns, alongside rasteira, tesoura, boca de calça, and vingativa. Unlike rasteira, which trips a leg with a low circular foot motion and no grip, here the attacker physically holds the opponent's legs. Unlike tesoura, which brings the opponent down with a scissor leg clamp, arrastão uses the arms and shoulder, not the attacker's legs. The opponent's legs should land in front of the practitioner's legs, not between them, or the practitioner risks injury. We have not been able to document who introduced the technique into capoeira.