Black Combat Arts Institute.
HISTORY · METHOD
The Ring Drawn with a Compass and a Stopwatch
6 MIN READ
Burlamaqui's 1928 manual specifies a circular ground marked with a letter Z, exact measurements, three-minute rounds and two-minute rests — the game quadrillated by compass and stopwatch.
WHY THIS ARTICLE
Capoeira's sportification is known abstractly. The mémoire reads its founding geometry: a 1928 fighting-ground drawn to the centimetre, in explicit rupture with the 'wandering' of the past.
A ground drawn to the centimetre
Burlamaqui's 1928 method specifies the fighting-ground precisely: a circumference within which is traced the letter Z, made of lines and points; the segments measure two metres each, four metres minimum; the large circumference four metres, the small one fifty centimetres. The bout lasts three minutes, followed by a two-minute rest; the total may not exceed one hour, and in case of a draw the following bout is extended by half an hour.
A rupture with the past
This configuration by compass and stopwatch means to break with the errancy of the past — the vagabonds and their razor-edged spontaneity. The redressed, instrumentalised body of the elite replaces the wandering one; space and time are quadrillated to the centimetre and the second. An impartial referee ensures not tricks but the rational use of a measured space and time.
Why it matters
The making of a sport begins with a drawing: a lettered ground, exact metres, timed rounds. Burlamaqui's geometry is the visible form of a will to master a game once defined by its refusal of measure.
SOURCES
La technique corporelle au service de l’identité nationale : les élites et la capoeira du Brésil, de 1928 à nos jours, mémoire de maîtrise STAPS, Université des Antilles et de la Guyane, 2008 (analysis of Burlamaqui, Ginástica Nacional (capoeiragem): Metodizada e Regrada, 1928 — the 'Zuma method' ground)
IN THE CORPUS
→ The 1928 Manual That Only Knew How to Attack
→ Capoeira Scored Like Savate, One Announced Touch at a Time
HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE
MALO, Olivier. The Ring Drawn with a Compass and a Stopwatch. In: Black Combat Arts Institute — Articles [online]. No. 124. 2026 [accessed date]. Available from: https://www.blackcombatarts.com/articles/the-ring-drawn-with-a-compass-and-a-stopwatch. Adapted from the author's doctoral thesis, Université des Antilles, 2020.