Sit down with your entire soles touching the ground. Put your right hand on the ground behind you. Now stretch out your left hand in front of you; focus it throughout the whole sequence. Say "one!" - wave your left hand over your head, follow it with your eyes, stretch out your knees, then go back into inital position. Say "two!" - repeat step one but do it with more power; stretch into bridge position as in scribble no.2; don't jump off yet. When you say "three!" you have to explode: pull your left hand fiercly over your head, throw you head back and jump off with both legs. If everything goes straight you will land in a handstand, which leaves you open to 1000 possible movements described above; but at first you should simply step down. For this exercise you need the stretching of your shoulders and your spine. In practice you can be supported by two people who grab you under your thighs and at your back; they should be able to lift you gently over without any danger to your body. (this is off a webpage)
oi, shadow_fox, dont learn capoeira off a web page. look for a mestre, or a bunch of guys who train near you, and join up. They'll explain the purpose of a macaco...
Macacos can be used in a variety of ways...they can be used to enter the Roda; they can be used as a purely "decorative" (thats not the right word but i can think of the right word right now) movement ie when you are playing in the Roda and do the macaco purely for show not to escape any kick and they can also be used to escape kicks eg an armada. Hope that helps, bust i must stress that it isnt wise to practice capoeira without a teacher, not only for safety reasons, but also because there are so many things that a Mestre can teach you through his experience that you couldnt learn out a book or off a website. Axe, Boneca
