Chapa de Costas
Chapa de costas is a backward pushing kick of capoeira, typical of Angola; the attacker looks as if backing away while preparing it.
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Chapa de costas is a backward pushing kick of capoeira and a typical kick of capoeira Angola, usually aimed at the opponent's face or groin. Mestre Pastinha (1988) called it a treacherous strike, effective mainly against an opponent unfamiliar with capoeira, since the attacker looks as if backing away while preparing it; as a defense he recommended dropping quickly to the ground and executing a rasteira sweep. The low variant, called in English the mule kick, rests on three points on the ground, both hands and one leg, while the other leg shoots backward. In the double variant coice duplo the capoeirista turns their back to the opponent, braces both hands on the ground, and with a sharp bend and lift of the legs launches both legs at the target at once (Da Costa, 1961). The kick comes from the Angolan engolo, a forerunner of capoeira, in which backward pushing kicks are common. They appear in drawings by the painter Neves e Sousa from the nineteen-fifties from the province of Cunene. According to historian Desch-Obi, the basic technique of engolo imitates the fighting of zebras, the so-called zebra kick with the palms braced on the ground.