Gracie Jiu-jitsu is known world wide as one of the most effective forms of hand-to-hand
Gracie Jiu Jitsu
combat. The Gracie family took the teachings of a Japanese man and adapted them to make them more effective, especially when dealing with a fight on the ground. Helio Gracie was probably the most instrumental in making this form of jiu jitsu into something unique. Helio’s main contribution was to adapt the martial art techniques so that they would be effective in defeating bigger and stronger opponents.
As he grew more adept, Helio launched the beginnings of Gracie Jiu-jitsu in a series of high profile matches. Despite not always being triumphant in these events, Helio won acclamation for lasting far longer than anyone thought he would be able to against more powerful and more practiced foes. In 1951 he took on Masahiko Kimura, then considered to be the greatest jiu jitsu fighter in the world. Kimura claimed that if the competition continued more than three minutes, then Helio would be proclaimed the champ; Helio lasted for thirteen. In 1955, the longest match in the world occurred when Helio held off a combatant twenty years younger than him and forty pounds heavier for three hours and forty minutes.
When Rorion Gracie, Helio’s son, departed Brazil to bring Gracie Jiu-jitsu to the United States, he planned to continue his father’s legacy. The Gracies wanted to establish jiu-jitsu academies to share the martial art methods that they had modified after many years of intense study with the rest of the population, and America was the perfect place to do so. Though Rorion initially struggled in founding his Brazilian Jiu jitsu institution, he won ever larger numbers of students largely by issuing the Gracie challenge. This was a call to any fighter of any field to meet him in hand-to-hand combat in order to see whose discipline was more powerful.
Gracie Jiu-jitsu truly arrived in the 1990s. Mixed martial arts tournaments were becoming an exciting new event, and in 1993 the Ultimate Fighting Championship was at its beginning. This tournament pitted fighters of different disciplines against each other in order to determine not only which fighter would be the ultimate victor, but which fighting style would prove to be the most effective. Royce Gracie took the Gracie name and made it immortal by winning the first UFC, and a total of three of the first four events. Everyone in the sporting world soon knew the Gracie name, and it became synonymous with victories against larger and stronger opponents.
Of all the martial art disciplines out there, Gracie Jiu-jitsu is probably the most well known. It was a long hard road, going from Japan to Brazil, then to California and finally the rest of America and the world. Jiu-jitsu academies all over the world have students who have signed up based on watching what Royce Gracie did in the Ultimate Fighting Championships, and then from learning about what his ancestors accomplished.
Brazilian jiu jitsu is incredibly fascinating to watch. Jiu jitsu schools and Brazilian jiu jitsu training programs are popping up everywhere because of the popularity of this martial art, which is often seen in Mixed Martial Arts arenas.
