The Rise and Evolution of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Book review on the history of Jiu-Jitsu (1930’s-present)
The rise and evolution of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: from vale-tudo to Carlson Gracie to its democratization. Written by Robert Drysdale BJJ black belt, ADCC/IBJJF world champion.
This was an interesting read for anyone who’s into in the history of BJJ, mostly focusing on the years 1940-1993 and Carlson Gracie.
Terminology
Vale-Tudo: No holds barred fighting. Basically MMA before rules, rounds, or gloves.
Democratization: The action of making something accessible for everyone.
Gracie family: First family that learned and taught Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. Originally known as jujitsu now known as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Carlos Gracie: Known as the godfather of BJJ.
Carlson Gracie: Oldest son of Carlos Gracie. Led second wave.
Helio Gracie: Godfather of BJJ. He’s probably the picture on the wall in most gyms. Leader of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. Very strict about rulesets he would fight under.
Rorion Gracie: First Gracie in the United States in the late 1970’s. Created the UFC. Son of Helio Gracie.
Carlos Gracie Jr: Created the largest BJJ organization in the world, the IBJJF. Son of Carlos Gracie.
IBJJF: International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation. Largest governing body in BJJ, puts on hundreds of tournaments a year around the world.
Taparia: Translates to “slap fest”. An old way of training where practitioners slapped each other in the in the head and body to remind each other to keep their jiu-jitsu as real as possible.
Book Review
This book is an extensive history on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Starting from 1930, it divides the time periods up into four different eras.
The first era is the first wave of jiu-jitsu practitioners and the vale-tudo era. 1930’s to 1967.
This story is about the Gracie brothers splitting away from judo and creating their own martial art - Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. Vale-tudo played a big part in shaping how jiu-jitsu looks as everyone wanted to know “what works in a real fight?” This created a basis for Gracie self defence jiu-jitsu.
The Gracie brothers George, Gastao, Oswaldo, Helio, and Carlos lead the first wave.
The original Gracie Academy opened around 1932. Many people would be surprised to learn that the classes at the Gracie Academy were only private classes. There were no group classes like we train today.
The Gracie’s did some small group training among themselves but they wanted to keep jiu-jitsu in the Gracie family. If you were training at the Gracie academy in those days you were either very wealthy, or had the Gracie last name.
Brothers Carlos and Helio Gracie led the charge for the next few decades in Brazil. Between them they had 30 children 21 boys. Many would go on to be champions and lead the second and third wave of jiu-jitsu.
Helio Gracie had many fights/matches where he ended up the winner, or the matches ended in a draw and therefore the Gracie’s considered that a win. Eventually fighting into his 40’s, Helio was defeated by former student, and janitor at the Gracie academy, Waldermar Santana.
Someone from the Gracie family needed to avenge Helio’s loss. Enter Helio’s nephew, Carlos Gracie’s son, Carlson Gracie. This began the second wave.
(Note: Carlson did avenge Helio’s loss but it led to future family tension among the Gracie’s.)
The second wave and the Carlson Gracie era (1967-1993). In these years BJJ was in the shadows. Nobody knew what it was. Martial arts was dominated by more traditional arts. What was popular was what people saw in the movies. Mostly karate, kung fu, and judo.
To gain reach and credibility, the Gracies challenged other martial artists to fights. To show dominance of jiu-jitsu and to try and increase their student base. Carlson Gracie was by far the most successful fighter of this era. Most of his fights took place in the 1950’s and 60’s.
All of his experience was through fighting because there was no competitive jiu-jitsu scene back then. Carlson learned by trial through fire. That’s also how he liked to teach. If it worked in a fight it was added into the curriculum.
Carlson Gracie’s 7 Training Principles for Fighters
No gi is more realistic than training and fighting in a gi.
A fighter should be well rounded and learn takedowns, ground game and striking.
Learning how to take someone down is just as important as being able to keep them down.
Ground and pound is a fundamental part of jiu-jitsu and a high percentage way to win a fight.
Being on top position is always better than being on bottom in a fight.
Being strong and athletic does not prevent you from being technical.
For the purposes of high-performance fighters, classes should not be taught in private, but should be taught mostly in a group setting.
I was surprised to learn that Carlson Gracie is responsible for how most BJJ gyms train today. He opened his own school and introduced group classes with lots of hard sparring. He loved seeing two tough guys go at it.
BJJ culture as we know it comes from Carlson and his brother Rolls Gracie. The BJJ beach culture of flip flops, surf, Shaka (stick out your pinky and thumb), acai, “bro”, “brah”. This all still exists today. This wasn’t introduced by the Gracie Academy, which was more militaristic. This was the personality and traits of Carlson Gracie and his students.
A split was starting to develop between Helio Gracie and the Gracie Academy which focused on self-defence and private classes. On the other hand, Carlson Gracie Jiu-Jitsu which was get a bunch of animals in a room, set a timer and go.
Carlson Gracie was the first person to have a large gym full of competitive fighters and grapplers. He was an amazing coach with a heart of gold who made jiu-jitsu accessible for everyone. Jiu-Jitsu was now affordable and you could train with many other students at your same level or better.
Some of Carlson’s notable students are Murilo Bustamante (former UFC champion), Mario Sperry (IBJJF world champion, ADCC champion), Vitor Belfort (former UFC champion), Wallid Ismail, the Nogueira brothers (former UFC champion), Ricardo Arona (ADCC champion), and many others.
In these days it was common to take the gi off and slap fight. Known in Portuguese as “Taparia”. This was a reminder to keep their training as real as possible.
The problem was Carlson Gracie was not much of a businessman. Very few students actually paid membership fees. Moreover, jiu-jitsu needed someone to organize a governing organization. BJJ needed a leader for the next generation. Enter Carlos Gracie Jr. and the third wave.
The third wave and the democratic era. 1993-2007. Led by the son of Carlos Gracie, Carlos Gracie Junior, his cousin Royce Gracie, and Royce’s brother Rorion Gracie.
Jiu-Jitsu exploded in popularity in these years. Carlos Gracie Junior is the creator and head president of the IBJJF. International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation.
Rorion was the first Gracie to come to the USA in the late 1970’s, and created the UFC in 1993.
Many Brazilians moved to the United States to teach jiu-jitsu. An old joke is a Brazilian gets on a flight to the USA as a purple belt, gets promoted to brown in the air, and by the time they land are a black belt who’s ready to open a school.
The early days of the IBJJF sounded quite messy and lacked professionalism. Waiting all day long not knowing when you will be called to compete. Stories of Carlson Gracie running onto the mat and protesting the score, refusing to let the match continue until the score was changed in favor of his student. Coaches jumping over tables and changing the scoreboard in favor of their student.
BJJ was growing but was still dominated by young athletic males. It needed to start to appeal to a larger audience.
Carlos Gracie Jr. had a vision of BJJ being the most practiced martial art in the world. He made changes, more organization, improved the IBJJF each year. Carlos moved IBJJF headquarters, and world championships to California in 2007. Now most BJJ tournaments would be held in the United States.
The current, fourth wave from 2007 to present. The Internet era. No more slaps, less emphasis on a real fight. It’s become more sport, entertaining, and trendy.
The argument now is the BJJ is too far removed from what would work in a real fight. A lot of techniques practiced today would not be used in a real fight. Things like lapel guard, berimbolo, even shin-to-shin guard becomes very dangerous when someone can strike you in the face.
But does that really matter? As long as more people are practicing BJJ, isn’t that the main thing? Does the self defence vs. Sport argument matter anymore? Food for thought.
The main influences in the fourth era are no longer the Gracie family. Joe Rogan, Jocko Willink, and other celebrities send many people into BJJ gyms for the first time.
The leaders in this era often come from social media. This leads away from the reality of combat. The focus today is what will win a match based on a ruleset that might not reward positional dominance where you could win a fight with strikes.
Today BJJ has a professional tournament scene, online instructionals, seminars, and private lessons. There are many more opportunities to learn and to make a living compared to the early days of the Gracies whose only options were to fight no holds barred.
As someone who’s trained since 2007 it’s been fun to be along for the ride of the evolution of jiu-jitsu. I wonder what jiu-jitsu will look 50 years from now.
I hope you enjoyed my review. If you enjoyed it please share with someone you know.
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