Gracie Barra (pronounced Gracie Baha) is one of the largest Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu associations, with over 275 black belts and 40 schools or affiliates worldwide. It is headed by Carlos Gracie, Jr., brother of Rolls Gracie who was the founder of the first Gracie Barra Academy and a son of Carlos Gracie Sr., one of the originators of the art.
Carlos Gracie Jr. is the founder and head instructor of the Gracie Barra Academy, the largestBrazilian Jiu-Jitsu school in the world, located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Gracie Barra's black belts include numerous world class instructors and athletes.
At the heart of the Gracie Barra mission statement is the goal of training both the body and spirit, going beyond the 'winning-losing' or 'contest' philosophy present in other martial arts.[1]Instead, Carlos Gracie Jr. emphasizes what he calls the fundamental principle of Jiu-Jitsu: "Minimum effort for maximum efficiency,"[2] a method of utilizing strength through gentleness, an expression exemplifying both the mental and physical aspects of Jiu-Jitsu. In Carlos' opinion, Jiu-Jitsu is a method of education that can be used to foster one's personal development. Carlos considered the goals of Jiu-Jitsu to revolve around three aspects: physical education, personal achievement, and ethical growth. In other words, through the practice of Jiu-Jitsu, one would complete their personal development through the training of body and mind, becoming a person better able to contribute to society and the world.[3] Recognizing the never-ending quest for self-perfection, even today Carlos Gracie continues to study these techniques and principles with his students. The constant development of techniques demonstrates his adherence to these principles, continuously striving for further progress and knowledge.
The art began with Mitsuyo Maeda (aka Conde Koma, or Count Combat in English), a Japanese expert judoka and member of the Kodokan. Maeda was one of five of the Kodokan's top groundwork experts that Judo's founder Kano Jigoro sent overseas to spread his art to the world. Maeda left Japan in 1904 and visited a number of countries[2] giving "jiu-do" demonstrations and accepting challenges from wrestlers, boxers,savate fighters and various other martial artists before eventually arriving in Brazil on November 14, 1914.[4]
Since its inception, judo was separated from jujutsu in its goals, philosophy, and training regime. Although there was great rivalry among jujutsu teachers, this was more than just Kano's ambition to clearly individualize his art. To Kano, judo wasn't solely a martial art: it was also a sport, a method for promoting physical fitness and building character in young people, and, ultimately, a way (Tao) of life.[5][6] To a very large extent, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has also encompassed these philosophies.
It is often claimed that BJJ is a development of traditional Japanese jujutsu, and that Maeda was a jujutsuka. However, Maeda never trained in jujutsu. He first trained in sumo as a teenager, and after the interest generated by stories about the success of judo at contests between judo and jujutsu that were occurring at the time, he changed from sumo to judo, becoming a student of Kano's Kodokan judo.[2] He was promoted to 7th dan in Kodokan judo the day before he died in 1941.
Hélio Gracie himself had already risen to the rank of 6th dan in judo by the time of his fight against Kimura in 1951.[7]
When Maeda left Japan, Judo was still often referred to as "Kano Jiu-Jitsu",[8] or, even more generically, simply as "Jiu-Jitsu."[9][10]
Kigashi, the co-author of "Kano Jiu-Jitsu"[8] wrote in the foreword "Some confusion has arisen over the employment of the term 'jiudo'. To make the matter clear I will state that jiudo is the term selected by Professor Kano as describing his system more accurately than jiu-jitsu does. Professor Kano is one of the leading educators of Japan, and it is natural that he should cast about for the technical word that would most accurately describe his system. But the Japanese people generally still cling to the more popular nomenclature and call it jiu-jitsu."
Outside Japan, however, this distinction was noted even less. The distinction between a jutsu and a do is subtle, and is still used somewhat arbitrarily to this day.
Thus, when Maeda and Satake arrived in Brazil in 1914, every newspaper announced jiu-jitsu despite both men being Kodokan Judoka.[5]
The Japanese government itself did not officially mandate until 1925 that the correct name for the martial art taught in the Japanese public schools should be "judo" rather than "jujutsu".[11] In Brazil, the art is still called "Jiu-Jitsu". When the Gracies went to the United States to spread their art, the system became known as "Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu" and "Gracie Jiu-Jitsu."
"Jiu-Jitsu" is an older romanization that was the original spelling of the art in the West, and it is still in common use, whereas the modernHepburn romanization is "jūjutsu." Other common spellings are Jujitsu, Ju-Jitsu, and Ju jitsu.
The art is sometimes referred to as Gracie Jiu-Jitsu (GJJ), but this name is trademarked by Rorion Gracie and specifically refers to the style taught by him and his selected teachers. Other members of the Gracie family often call their style by personalized names, such as Charles Gracie Jiu-Jitsu or Renzo Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, and similarly, the Machado brothers call their style Machado Jiu-Jitsu (MJJ). While each style and its instructors have their own unique aspects, they are all basic variations of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Maeda met an influential businessman named Gastão Gracie who helped him get established. In 1917, his son Carlos Gracie, still a 14 year-old boy, watched a demonstration by Maeda at the Teatro da Paz and decided to learn jiu-jitsu. Maeda accepted Carlos as a student,[2] and Carlos went on to become a great exponent of the art and ultimately, with his younger brother Hélio Gracie became the founder of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, modern Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.[12]
In 1921, Gastão Gracie and his family moved to Rio de Janeiro. Carlos, then 17 years old, passed Maeda's teachings on to his brothers Osvaldo, Gastão and Jorge. Hélio was too young and sick at that time to learn the art, and due to medical imposition was prohibited to take part in the training sessions. Despite that, Hélio learned jiu-jitsu by watching his brothers. He eventually overcame his health problems and is now considered by many as the founder of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (though others, such as Carlson Gracie, have pointed to Carlos as the founder of the art).[12]
Hélio competed in several submission judo competitions which mostly ended in a draw. One defeat (in Brazil in 1951) was by visiting Japanese judoka Masahiko Kimura, whose surname the Gracies gave to the arm lock used to defeat Hélio.
The Gracie family continued to develop the system throughout the 20th century, often fighting vale tudo matches (precursors to modern MMA), during which it increased its focus on ground fighting and refined its techniques.[13]
Today, the main differences between the BJJ styles is between traditional Gracie Jiu-Jitsu's emphasis on self-defense, and Sport Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu's orientation towards point competition. There is a large commonality of techniques between the two. Also, there is a wide variety of ideals in training in different schools in terms of the utilization of technique versus how much to attempt to overpower an opponent.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu came to international prominence in the martial arts community in the 1990s, when Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu expert Royce Graciewon the first, second and fourth Ultimate Fighting Championships, which at the time were single elimination martial arts tournaments.[3] Royce fought against often much-larger opponents who were practicing other styles, including boxing, shoot-fighting, karate, judo, tae kwon do andwrestling. It has since become a staple art for many MMA fighters and is largely credited for bringing wide-spread attention to the importance of ground fighting. Sport BJJ tournaments continue to grow in popularity worldwide and have given rise to no-gi submission grappling tournaments, such as the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship.