Gracie Jiu Jitsu

November 14th 1914 Japanese Jiu-Jitsu Mitsuyo Maeda leaves Japan to establish a foothold in Brazil. With the help of his business partner Gastão Gracie, he builds contacts in Rio de Janeiro. As thanks Maeda offers to teach Gastão’s eldest son Carlos the art of Japanese Jiu-Jitsu. 4 years later he becomes an instructor and starts teaching students and his brothers. All his brothers except one, Helio the youngest was a small frail man who was prone to illness. As Carlos taught his class Helio would sit and watched as he demonstrated the techniques. Studying the techniques and experimenting with more leverage based moves instead of strength based. One day a student shows up and Carlos is late. Helio approaches the student and offers to teach him, Carlos comes back and the student requests Helio as a teacher. Due to his frail body and small statue, Helio couldn’t execute the strength based moves of Japanese Jiu-Jitsu. He experimented with techniques that used more leverage based techniques natural movements. Helio posted the “Gracie Challenge” to all fighters of Brazil. A one-on-one no holds barred fight and the victor receives a 10,000 dollar prize. Nobody managed to beat Helio. This was the first televised event in which practitioners of different styles would compete. The event took place in a controlled setting on pay-per-view television. Which would finally determine which styles of fighting were effective self-defence. The Gracie Family had to pick their representative. Many wanted Rickson to fight. Rickson was the family champion. His tremendous strength and years of experience made him a formidable fighter. But Rorion wanted to showcase the styles effectiveness. So instead he seen his youngest brother Royce to the match. Royce was 5’10 and 178 pounds and had never even entered a tournament before, he was by far the smallest and lightest contender. He was seen as the underdog of the event. Rorion sons, Renner and Ryron Gracie, established of the Official Jiu-Jitsu Academy in Torrance, California. The US army contacted the Gracie family asking for a hand-to-had system that their soldiers could use after just one week’s training. The Gracie family went through the 600+ techniques and limited to the: most useful, simplest, most common and moves that relied on natural body movements that required no athletic ability. This grave birth to the Gracie Combatives, the 36 essential life saving techniques for surviving a street fight, Renner and Ryron also established Gracie University, the first ever online martial arts course. To this day the Gracie academy has over 19000 students from 196 countries studying the art. What makes Gracie Jiu-Jitsu such a great art are its core tenants of Efficiency, not relying on flashy movements. Controlling the opponent first before submission and athletic ability being non-essential in the learning process meaning that ANYONE could learn these techniques. I believe that this whole style can be summed up in one sentence. From its inception allowing a frail man to defeat giants, its idea of efficiency stability and control, practicing these techniques until they become instinct. Philosophy, practice and effectiveness as a self-defence system as well as a global sport. Once you prepare for the worst case scenario. There are no worst case scenarios.