The sole major addition to capoeira, aside its engolo kicking core, was headbutting, a common African practice in the Americas, known as jogo de cabeçadas.

[5] Between 1822 and 1824, the German painter Johann Moritz Rugendas described capoeira as a headbutting game: Two contestants face each other, each trying to butt his adversary in the chest with his head and knock the opponent down.

I saw a field officer who had been murdered in this manner and thrown over the wall into his garden, where his family found him in the morning: the upper part of the body had been flattened as if the implement of death had been a mallet.

[5]Lethal headbutt techniques were used in the 19th century Bahia also: On the night of February 22, 1883, the soldier José Raimundo de Souza, standing patrol in the Baixa dos Sapateiros, went to arrest the stevedore Celestino, author of a major conflict on that street, from whom he received a ‘cabeçada’ that caused him almost instant death.

In this technique, the attacker rapidly approaches, gliding their head along the opponent's chest, usually targeting the chin, nose, or forehead upon contact.

"[9] According to mestre Pastinha, cabeçada is a malicious blow that can be applied to the chest or face, with a quick turn of the body when the opponent believes the attacker is withdrawing.

[10] This move is similar to the rabo de arraia in its consequences, as it can be very disorienting and even terrifying for the recipient when executed correctly.

[10] Arpão de cabeça (head harpoon) is a violent headbutt, where the attacker uses the entire weight of his body.