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key parts of BJJ

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ONE Championship - The Home Of Martial Arts

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Thanks to the growing popularity of martial arts, more people are starting to appreciate the intricacies of grappling and the ground game.

Even if you don't have any ambitions of becoming a professional martial artist, you will find that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has plenty to offer.

#1 It Is Great For Fitness

Of course, any activity that gets your heart rate up and those sweat glands working is good for you. But BJJ as a sport is immensely well-rounded - not only does it give you a full-body workout, its many varied drills also help develop coordination, balance, and agility - motor skills that are beneficial to your everyday life.

Two-time No Gi Grappling World Champion Bruno "Puccibull" Pucci went from fab to fit after picking up the gentle art. The Brazilian athlete now uses his BJJ skills in the ONE Circle.

#2 It Teaches You Valuable Self-Defense Skills

Putting the perennial debate about the merits of sport jiu-jitsu versus those of street jiu-jitsu aside, many BJJ gyms incorporate a self-defense system into their programs.

You may learn, for instance, how to escape when someone has you in a bear hug or a chokehold, or how to launch an attack when you are lying on your back.

Hopefully, you will not ever have to use these in real life, but they are always good to know, and for good reason.

Alex "Little Rock" Silva started training in BJJ to protect himself from childhood bullies. He went to win the Copa De Mundo BJJ World Championship and the ONE Strawweight World Title.

#3 It Is Useful For Everybody

This point might not be made entirely clear until you watch a 50kg woman choke out a man who has 30kg on her - not an uncommon sight at a BJJ gym.

As a smaller person, you might find yourself initially squashed under someone much bigger and heavier than you are. But as you pick up more skills and techniques, you will find yourself less afraid of sparring with larger training partners.

Smaller people may also have an advantage in some ways - the smaller the hands, the easier it is to slip them under someone's neck for a choke.

Watch how Ryuto "Dragon Boy" Sawada manages to control a larger opponent like Aziz "The Krauser" Calim on the ground before submitting him with a rear-naked choke.

#4 It Builds Discipline And Confidence

Unlike the striking arts, where sparring is only introduced after you have trained for a while and have gained some basic skills, you are encouraged to start sparring, or "rolling" as they call it in BJJ, right from the beginning of your journey.

While scary and disheartening in the beginning - because you will be tapping more times than you can keep track - rolling is the only way to put the skills you have picked up to the test. And when you finally pull off that move or submission you have been drilling, you will experience an unparalleled sense of achievement.

Thanks to his intense BJJ training, Agilan "Alligator" Thani underwent a dramatic transformation and dropped over 110lbs. He emerged with newfound confidence and is now a leading welterweight in The Home Of Martial Arts.

#5 It Gives You A Mental Workout Too

There is a good reason why BJJ is always referred to as "human chess." For each move you attempt to execute, you can counter with many more.

As you progress, you will learn to think a few moves ahead, rather than just focusing on your next one.

The sport itself is always evolving, with high-level practitioners constantly inventing new moves and counter-moves - even black belts are known to attend BJJ seminars held by other black belts to learn from them.

Fans cannot get enough of Michelle Nicolini 's myriad of submission maneuvers. The eight-time BJJ World Champion is one of the greatest female grapplers on the planet and continues to conduct seminars all over the world.

#6 It Is A Great Way To Make New Friends

The BJJ community is, by and large, a friendly and welcoming one. Students with higher-level belts are usually happy to share their knowledge with beginners and give them feedback after a roll.

Within the community, there is a common saying that goes, "as long as you have a gi, you will be welcomed at any jiu-jitsu gym, anywhere in the world."

Eddie "The Underground King" Alvarez is perhaps one of the most recognizable faces in all of mixed martial arts. Thanks to his respectful and humble nature, the Ricardo Almeida BJJ representative is celebrated as an icon in the sport.
Read more: The Wonders Of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

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6 Great Reasons To Pick Up Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

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Spice up your workout routine by picking up this fun and challenging martial art.

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Intro to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: Part 2 -- The Basics I

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This article was written by Marc Barton, who is a 2nd degree Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt under Mauricio Gomes. Marc is the head instructor at Kingston Jiu Jitsu.
Today Brazilian jiu jitsu is one of the world's fastest-growing and most popular combat sports. The number of people training is growing exponentially. It is recognised as not just being one of the most effective martial arts but also having immense benefits for physical and mental health. But how did we arrive here, and what are the origins and history of this martial art that we love so much?

What exactly is 'jiu jitsu'?

The term jiu jitsu is derived from the Japanese 'ju', which means gentle, soft or flexible, and 'jutsu', which means art or technique. For this reason, many people refer to jiu jitsu as the gentle art. Jiu jitsu is the spelling used in Portuguese, whereas ju jutsu is a more direct phonetic translation of the Japanese words. Nowadays, 'ju jutsu' tends to refer to the original Japanese art, whereas 'jiu jitsu' tends to refer to the derivative Brazilian art. For ease and consistency, I will use the spelling 'jiu jitsu' throughout this article.

Modern Brazilian jiu jitsu is predominantly a grappling martial art with a particular emphasis on ground fighting techniques that use leverage and timing to achieve a submission on the opponent using joint manipulation and chokes.

Forged on the battlefields of feudal Japan

The roots of all modern martial arts can be traced back thousands of years to Buddhist monks in southwest India, from where they spread to China, Okinawa and mainland Japan. The story of modern jiu jitsu, however, starts on feudal Japan's battlefields. It is believed that jiu jitsu was initially developed as the fighting art of the samurai. The samurai were heavily armed and armoured on horseback. Their armour restricted their movements significantly and made the martial arts used in neighbouring Okinawa and China that mainly utilised striking techniques ineffective. A system of fighting that focused more on throws, joint locks and chokes was developed to make it possible for the samurai to defend themselves and fight effectively if they found themselves disarmed and on foot. The oldest recorded style of formally taught jiu jitsu is Shinden Fudo-Ryu, founded around 1130 CE by Ganpachiro Temeyoshi.

Jiu jitsu would evolve further in the 17th century during the Tokugawa shogunate when laws influenced by neo-Confucianism were imposed to reduce war. The civil wars of the Sengoku period ended, and a new era of stability arose. Unarmed combat became more popular during this period, and the practice of jiu jitsu became more widespread throughout society. By the early-1800s, there were hundreds and possibly even thousands of different schools of jiu jitsu, each with its own unique flavour and style, being taught in Japan.

A studio photograph of a Samurai in typical armour, taken by Felice Beato circa 1860 (public domain photo)

The vision of Jigoro Kano and a new art

In 1874, a young student at an English-medium school in Tokyo began searching for a dojo where he could study jiu jitsu as a means of self-defence due to the awful culture of bullying that was endemic at the school. Unfortunately, during the second half of the 19th century, jiu jitsu became less popular due to Japan becoming increasingly westernised, and Kano struggled to find a school where he could train.

It would take him until 1877 to find a willing teacher, Fukuda Hachinosuke, who taught the Tenjin Shin'yo-ryu style of jiu jitsu. Fukuda died in 1880, and Kano continued his study of jiu jitsu at another nearby school under the tutelage of Iso Masatoma. Iso, however, also died in 1881, causing Kano to move to yet another school; this time, he would train in the Kito-ryu style of jiu jitsu under Iikubo Tsunetoshi. In 1882, Kano opened his own school and dojo at the Eisho-Ji Buddhist temple in Tokyo and in 1883, he was promoted to the rank of Menkyo by Iikubo Tsunetoshi, an official teaching grade, who supported him by regularly visiting his dojo. It was not long before Kano began defeating Iikubo.

Kano named his school the Kodokan Judo Institute, with judo meaning 'the way of gentleness'. Kano's judo style combined the various styles and teachings of jiu jitsu he had been exposed to, and added his own discoveries and ideas. Kano was an educator by profession, and he also managed to create a standardised syllabus of throws, newaza ground fighting techniques and kata with a heavy emphasis on randori sparring. He also introduced the teaching of Judo into schools.

The Kodokan started with less than a dozen students in 1882 but grew steadily and had to move locations on several occasions to accommodate the large numbers of students flocking to train there. By the time of Kano's death in 1934, the Kodokan was a 510-mat facility with thousands of students.

From Japan to Brazil

The first time jiu jitsu instructors arrived in Brazil is believed to have been in 1909 via a bizarre set of circumstances. While on patrol in the Pacific Ocean, the Brazilian Navy cruiser Benjamin Constant caught site of a shipwrecked crew of Japanese sailors. Among the crew they rescued were two jiu jitsu instructors, Sada Miyako and Mme. Kakiara. Miyako and Kakiara returned to Brazil with the crew of the Benjamin Constant and ended up staying there for some time.

Following a short stint fighting challenge matches for a travelling circus, Miyako signed a contract with the Brazilian Navy and remained with them until 1912, teaching jiu jitsu to seamen and the military during that time. Legend has it that Sada Miyako competed in Brazil's first-ever Vale Tudo match against a Capoeira fighter called Cyriaco Franciso da Silva, which he lost in humiliating fashion.

A couple of years later, in 1914, another Japanese instructor arrived in Brazil, Mitsuyo Maeda. Maeda had spent many years training in judo at the Kodokan under one of Jigoro Kano's top students, Sakujiro Yokoyama. Maeda travelled to Brazil with four other students from the Kodokan. The group, like Miyako a few years earlier, spent time fighting challenge matches for a travelling circus.
Maeda was renowned for his ferocious newaza (ground fighting) based style of Judo. It should be noted that Maeda also still referred to Kano's style as Kodokan jiu jitsu, as opposed to judo. This was commonplace at the time, and hence the reason we train in Brazilian 'jiu jitsu' and not Brazilian 'judo' today.
A photograph of Mitsuyo Maeda taken in 1910 (public domain photo)
Maeda continued travelling around Brazil for several years before finally settling in Belem in 1920, and around this time, he met and befriended a businessman and politician of Scottish descent named Gastão Gracie. Gastão helped Maeda establish a Japanese immigrant community, and as an expression of his gratitude for Gastão's assistance, he accepted his son, a teenager called Carlos Gracie, as his student.

The Gracie Family take centre stage

Over the next few years, Maeda continued to teach Carlos, and in time Carlos would also share the art with his four brothers Oswaldo, Gastão Jr., George and Hélio. Hélio was smaller and weaker than his brothers and apparently had difficulty executing the judo-style techniques that had been passed down from Maeda. This led Hélio to adjust these techniques, focusing more on leverage and making them easier for smaller fighters to use successfully against larger opponents.
A photograph of Hélio Gracie taken in 1952 (public domain photo)
In 1925, the Gracie brothers, led by Carlos, opened Brazil's first jiu jitsu academy, and 'Gracie jiu jitsu' was born. Over the years that followed, the Gracie brothers would continue to refine the art and pressure-tested it regularly with brutal public challenge matches that pitted themselves and their students against practitioners of other fighting arts such as boxing, luta livre, capoeira, and luta romana.

The 1950s saw Gracie jiu jitsu rise to new levels of recognition, with Hélio participating in several high-profile challenge matches, including three against world-renowned judoka. Hélio fought Yukio Kato twice in September 1951, the first bout ending in a draw and Hélio won the second by choke. This led to the now legendary bout against the much larger Masahiko Kimura. The Gracie vs Kimura fight occurred in front of 20,000 people in the Maracanã Stadium in Ro de Janeiro. Despite fighting valiantly, Hélio lost via a gyaku-ude-garami armlock, now commonly referred to as a Kimura armlock. Despite the loss, Gracie received recognition for a spirited performance against a much physically larger opponent.

The next generations of the Gracie family

In the 1950s, Carlson Gracie would take up the mantle as the lead fighter in the Gracie family. Carlson was the first-born son of Carlos. Like his uncle, Carlson took part in many challenge matches and continued to raise the profile of Gracie jiu jitsu. Perhaps the most famous of these were his fights against the capoeira fighter Waldemar "The Black Panther" Santana. Santana had beaten Hélio in October 1955, and there was significant bad blood between Santana and the Gracie family, a former janitor at the Gracie Academy. Carlson and Santana would face off four times in high-profile fights, Carlson winning two and two ending in draws.
The legendary Rolls Gracie, pictured with my instructor Mauricio Motta Gomes
In the 1970s, Rolls Gracie rose to prominence. Rolls was born on March 28th, 1951, the love child of Carlos Gracie and Claudia Zandomenico, a young Italian air stewardess who worked for Lufthansa and lived in Rio. Because Rolls was born out of wedlock, Carlos's wife did not want to raise him, and Carlos entrusted his brother Hélio to bring him up.

At this time, Gracie jiu-jitsu was mainly taught based on Helio's style of using defensive grappling to wear opponents down and then submit them. Carlson had already started to modify the art, introducing a more aggressive style better equipped to meet the challenges facing jiu-jitsu fighters in Vale Tudo. But Rolls began incorporating new techniques learned from his training in other combat arts into his style of Jiu-Jitsu. He was particularly impressed with the work ethic of the wrestlers and brought that same attitude to his own training. Rolls would take his students on long runs, push the pace when rolling with opponents and was very aggressive in his pursuit of submissions. He always encouraged his students to train in other arts as he had, such as judo, wrestling, sambo and other grappling arts, to expand their horizons also.

Rolls taught many notable jiu-jitsu athletes in his short time as an instructor, including Rickson Gracie, Carlos Gracie Jr, Royler Gracie, and Rigan Machado. He promoted just six men to black belt before his tragic early death in a hang-gliding accident: my instructor Mauricio Motta Gomes, Marcio Stambowsky, Romero "Jacare' Cavalcanti, Nicin Azulay, Paulo Conde and Mario Claudio Tallarico.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship changes everything

The 1970s saw jiu jitsu travel across the ocean again, this time to the United States. In 1972, Carley Gracie, the 11th child of Carlos Gracie arrived there and was the first person to teach Gracie jiu jitsu in the country. Six years later, the oldest son of Hélio, arrived in California and opened an academy in Los Angeles.

In an attempt to increase awareness of his family's fighting art in the United States, Rorion created the 'Gracie Challenge', an open invitation for challengers from other martial arts for an 'anything goes' match against a Gracie jiu jitsu student. These matches are now legendary, and many were videoed and can be watched online. These matches would also provide the inspiration for another challenge match event. Together with Art Davis, Rorion created the 'The Ultimate Fighting Championship' (UFC), which pitted fighters from various martial arts and fighting styles against each other in a tournament style event. These events would be the start of the hugely popular and successfully mixed martial arts (MMA) movement. Rorion chose his younger brother Royce to represent them in the inaugural event in 1993. Royce was not a big man, but despite his smaller stature, he won all of his fights by submission and was crowned as the first UFC champion. Royce would go on to win the tournament two more times, in UFC2 and UFC 4. His victories were eye opening for many people, who realised it really was possible to defeat bigger, stronger opponents using the Gracie family's jiu jitsu. Another Gracie, Rickson, would take jiu jitsu to even higher levels in mixed martial arts. Rickson is the third oldest son of Hélio, and he would go undefeated in MMA, competing mainly in Japanese events such as the Pride Fighting Championships.

The Modern Era of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

After the success of jiu jitsu in the UFC and other MMA events, its popularity steadily grew. The Gracie family style of jiu jitsu started to become referred to simply as 'Brazilian jiu jitsu' (BJJ), and more and more people began to seek out and learn this exciting martial art that was dominating over other styles.

In 1996, the first ever BJJ world championships, commonly known as the 'Mundials', took place in Rio de Janeiro. In 2002, Carlos Grace Jr. founded the International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation (IBJJF), and BJJ started spreading rapidly from country to country. In 2007, the Mundials moved to California, where it has remained ever since, and over 6,000 competitors took place in the tournament in 2022. Roger Gracie, the son of Mauricio Gomes and Reila Gracie, would dominate the sport scene in the 2000s becoming ten-time world champion, and many believe that he is the greatest jiu jitsu competitor of all time.

Jiu jitsu continues to grow and evolve continuously, with new techniques and moves being constantly introduced. New academies are opening worldwide, and almost every large town now has at least one place to train. It has never been easier to find a place to train in this exciting martial art that started on the battlefields of Japan almost one thousand years ago.

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Today Brazilian jiu jitsu is one of the world's fastest-growing and most popular combat sports. It is recognised as not just being one of the most effective martial arts but also having immense benefits for physical and mental health. But how did we arrive here, and what are the origins and history of this martial art?