Birth of The Gentle Art — A Brief History of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Birth of The Gentle Art
Martial arts have always been steeped in mystery. Secret techniques and strategies taught by seemingly superhuman masters.
As a whole, the martial arts have deep roots, dating back to ancient India and Greece — and likely far further. From the chaotic early days of humanity, fighting and defending oneself — both individually and as a tribe, village or nation — have been necessary lifeskills in potentially violent times. Best-practices were discovered and passed down through generations, however informally.
As militaries and police forces emerged, so too did the need to train masses of recruits in physical combat — and thus too, the need for an organized set of knowledge. In the late 1800’s, the Japanese police force were trying to determine which art they should adopt as their primary unarmed training method. The two leading arts of the time were Ju-Jitsu and Judo. Both had similar techniques, but very different training methods. Both include throws, joint locks and defences against strikes (with Ju-Jitsu itself incorporating some striking). The key difference was how they trained. Ju-Jitsu practiced a wide variety of situations — someone attacking us in a certain way — which was met with a precise and devastating, if sometimes elaborate, response. The attacker, however, would only present a preset choreography of attacks, rather than the animated, dynamic, responsive resistance. They would not react to the Ju-Jitsu practitioner’s technique while it was being applied.
By contrast, while Judo, known mostly today for its stand-up throws, in many schools focuses as much on ground-fighting. While it does include much practice in which the training partner presents preset situations and responses, it also incorporates what turns out to be the key to developing effective, applicable skill in combat: training against a resisting opponent — an opponent who is actively trying to defeat you.
When the two styles met, it was completely one-sided. Judo had demonstrated itself as the superior art and around 1886 became the official art of the Japanese police force.
Fast forward to the first quarter of the 20th century. Judo master and famed prize fighter, Mitsuyo Maeda brought the art to Brazil which housed a large number Japanese colonies. As a favour to Gastao Gracie, a Brazilian politician of Scottish descent, Maeda taught Gracie’s sons Carlos and Helio his art. Legend has it that Helio, frail and sick was unable to perform many of the techniques and, together with his brother Carlos, refined, developed and evolved the art into Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, the first iteration of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, an art designed to empower the smaller, weaker person to overcome the bigger, stronger person.
From the early 1920’s on, the Gracie brothers, confident in their new fighting system put out an open challenge to fight anyone of any size, any style at any time. From 1926–1992, the Gracies and their students tested and refined the art in hundreds of fights — in the ring, on the street and in the dojo or academy — against larger opponents, remaining practically undefeated.
In the early 1990’s seeking to bring this revolutionary martial art to a wider audience, Helio’s son Rorion launched The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) — an open fighting sport where for the first time outside of Brazil, martial artists of all styles had the opportunity to test the effectiveness of their art in a real fight. Every art had sound arguments for why it was the most dominant, but no arena in which to test them. The results (to those who knew the power of BJJ) was predictable.
While the greatest of the new generation of Gracie brothers, Rickson Gracie, was head and shoulders above all the others — many have likened him to the Michael Jordan or Wayne Gretzky of BJJ — Rorion chose to have his younger brother Royce, a relatively thin and not outwardly impressive figure represent the art. Rickson was clearly an elite athlete and Rorion did not want the North American audiences thinking that his athleticism was why he won. Royce went on to defeat three men in one night while barely throwing a punch and a new era was born. To North American audiences groomed on Bruce Lee movies and the idea that martial arts was only about kicking and punching, this was a revelation. Royce continued to win multiple times in the subsequent UFCs.
At the same time, their cousin Renzo Gracie and his brothers Ralph and Ryan fought with more aggressive styles in smaller events, further demonstrating the effectiveness and completeness of the art while reinforcing the greatness of the Gracie name.
Over the next twenty years, martial artists and fighters slowly woke up to the effectiveness of BJJ and began incorporating it into their training. Today, no Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter can contend without it.
If you would like to learn and really understand Jiu-Jitsu, I have created two video courses — the Beginner’s Guide to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and The BJJ Blue Belt Curriculum. You can pick them both up at BJJ101.tv.
