The Rise to the Top of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu

Gracie Jiu-jitsu is known world wide as one of the most effective forms of hand-to-hand 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 skilled, Helio launched the origins of Gracie Jiu-jitsu in a series of high profile matches. Despite not always winning these competitions, Helio received acclamation for lasting a great deal longer than anybody thought he would be able to against more powerful and more qualified foes. In 1951 he fought Masahiko Kimura, then seen as the best jiu jitsu fighter in the world. Kimura claimed that if the competition lasted longer than three minutes, then Helio would be proclaimed the winner; Helio lasted for thirteen. In 1955, the longest match in the world took place when Helio held off a fighter 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 America, he intended to continue his father’s legacy. The Gracies wanted to start up jiu-jitsu institutes to share the martial art methods that they had modified after many years of concentrated study with the rest of the planet, and America was the perfect place to do so. While Rorion initially faced many problems in setting up his Brazilian Jiu jitsu academy, he gained progressively larger numbers of students mostly by issuing the Gracie challenge. This was a call to any combatant of any field to meet him in hand-to-hand combat in order to see whose field was more powerful.

World-wide recognition would come in the 90s. Gracie Jiu-jitsu was represented by Royce Gracie at a soon to be famous mixed martial arts tournament called the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Defeating opponents much larger and stronger than he was, Gracie made it to the top spot by forcing the other fighters to tap out after he used various submission techniques to subdue them. If this was not enough, he did it two more times, winning not only the championships but the hearts of those involved in the martial arts world.

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.

Gracie jiu-jitsu caught the attention of the world in the early 1990s with the launch of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. These were mixed martial arts fights that paired fighters of different disciplines. The Brazilian jiu jitsu style is considered by many to be one of the most effective forms of combat.