By Damian Ross and William Pehush of The Self Defense Company

Over a half a century ago Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) came into being. It appeared on the grand stage in the early 1990’s hen the Gracie family introduced it to the world. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu changed the face of martial arts forever, and brought the idea of mixed martial arts (MMA) to the mainstream. It is a sport of brutal grappling and ground fighting that is even used today by the United States Army for combat conditioning.

In 1917, Carlos and Hélio Gracie watched a series Vale Tudo matches that pitted wrestlers, boxers, and other martial artists compete against each other. Early mixed martial arts competitions were common in Brazil and there were no holds barred. The boys were always excited to see the local fighters. One day, the boys saw a visiting martial artist from Japan, Judo Master Mitsuyo Maeda defeat opponent after opponent in the ring. They were in awe, even though the local competition was tough, it wasn’t any match for the Japanese man who was using the relatively new martial art known as Judo or Kano Jiu-Jitsu. Repeatedly fighters were taken to the ground hard and submitted or simply knocked out cold. One fighter even pulled a weapon on Maeda. Without skipping a beat, took him on and didn’t even break a sweat. After seeing this demonstration the boys had to learn this new style, so their father made the arrangements and the birth of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu began

Mitsuyo Maeda was trained by Judo’s founder Kano Jigoro himself. Maeda had been sent aboard to promote Japanese culture and martial arts. Kano hoped through training in Judo a student would become a better person. Kano felt that the more people knew Judo, the better place the world would be. Maeda was a skilled instructor, but he only had so much time to teach the Gracie boys so he emphasized ground fighting in his lessons which was easier and faster to learn than the standing aspect of Judo. He also taught them how to strike which was part of Jujutsu and pre world war II Judo. The boys would combine what they new with local wrestling and gradually Brazilian Jiu Jitsu began to take shape.

If you’re to understand Brazilian Jiu Jitsu you must first understand where it came from. Japanese Jujutsu was originally develop by the samurai and traditionally included weapons training along with strikes, throws, joint locks, choking, and other submission moves. Unlike Jujutsu which is a hard style that let’s you achieve victory by beating down your opponent with brute force Judo is a soft style which has you use your attacker’s energy against them. Judo, which was created in Japan in 1892, is a form of Japanese wrestling that is similar to other styles of wrestling, but you wear a gi similar to a karate uniform and it includes many of the submissions, strangles and armlocks you see today.

In time Hélio began teaching his many brothers and friends what he had learned about martial arts. His teacher Maeda told him that a fighter should go with their strength whether it is striking, grappling, or standing, so naturally Gracies gravitated toward ground fighting because that is what he and his brothers new best. The Gracies may have intended for their new martial art to be for self defense, but over time it has developed into an incredible combat sport.

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