Real roots of BJJ? while i myself have never taken any BJJ, i think its a pretty dandy art. But its relativily new. What exactly did the Gracie family learn before they came up with Bjj? I know they had alot of JUdo training, but obviosly they would not call it BJJ if it did not have JJ in it. What traditional style was also incorprated with the judo to form this art?
AFAIK some dude from Japan with a JJ/Judo background visited Brazil and The gracies helped him out somehow, so he taught them what he knew.. It grew from there.. (whether it's an improvement from traditional JJ/Judo is a debate for another topic I guess.. (cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war))
In the mid-1800's in Japan, there were a large number of styles ("ryu") of jiu-jitsu (sometimes spelled "jujitsu"). Techniques varied between ryu, but generally included all manner of unarmed combat (strikes, throws, locks, chokes, wrestling, etc.) and occasionally some weapons training. One young but skilled master of a number of jiu-jitsu styles, Jigoro Kano, founded his own ryu and created the martial art Judo (aka Kano-ryu jiu-jitsu) in the 1880's. One of Kano's primary insights was to include full-power practice against resisting, competent opponents, rather than solely rely on the partner practice that was much more common at the time. One of Kano's students was Mitsuo Maeda, who was also known as Count Koma ("Count of Combat"). Maeda emigrated to Brazil in 1914. He was helped a great deal by the Brazilian politician Gastão Gracie, whose father George Gracie had emigrated to Brazil himself from Scotland. In gratitude for the assistance, Maeda taught jiu-jitsu to Gastao's son Carlos Gracie. Carlos in turn taught his brothers Osvaldo, Gastão Jr., Jorge, and Helio. In 1925, Carlos and his brothers opened their first jiu-jitsu academy, and Gracie Jiu-Jitsu was born in Brazil. At this point, the base of techniques in BJJ was similar to those in Kano's Judo academy in Japan. As the years progressed, however, the brothers (notably Carlos and Helio) and their students refined their art via brutal no-rules fights, both in public challenges and on the street. Particularly notable was their willingness to fight outside of weight categories, permitting a skilled small fighter to attempt to defeat a much larger opponent. They began to concentrate more and more on submission ground fighting, especially utilizing the guard position. This allowed a weaker man to defend against a stronger one, bide his time, and eventually emerge victorious. In the 1970's, the undisputed jiu-jitsu champion in Brazil was Rolls Gracie. He had taken the techniques of jiu-jitsu to a new level. Although he was not a large man, his ability to apply leverage using all of his limbs was unprecedented. At this time the techniques of the open guard and its variants (spider guard, butterfly guard) became a part of BJJ. Rolls also developed the first point system for jiu-jitsu only competition. The competitions required wearing a gi, awarded points (but not total victories) for throws and takedowns, and awarded other points for achieving different ground positions (such as passing an opponent's guard). After Rolls' death in a hang-gliding accident, Rickson Gracie became the undisputed (and undefeated!) champion, a legend throughout Brazil and much of the world. He has been the exemplar of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu technique for the last two decades, since the early 1980's, in both jiu-jitsu competition and no-rules MMA competition. Jiu-jitsu techniques have continued to evolve as the art is constantly tested in both arenas. For example, in the 1990's Roberto "Gordo" Correa, a BJJ black belt, injured one of his knees, and to protect his leg he spent a lot of practice time in the half-guard position. When he returned to high-level jiu-jitsu competition, he had the best half-guard technique in the world. A position that had been thought of as a temporary stopping point, or perhaps a defensive-only position, suddenly acquired a new complexity that rapidly spread throughout the art. In the early 1990's, Rorion Gracie moved from Brazil to Los Angeles. He wished to show the world how well the Gracie art of jiu-jitsu worked. In Brazil, no-rules Mixed Martial Art (MMA) contests (known as "vale tudo") had been popular since Carlos Gracie first opened his academy in 1925, but in the world at large most martial arts competition was internal to a single style, using the specialized rules of that style's practice. Rorion and Art Davie conceived of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. This was a series of pay-per-view television events in the United States that began in 1993. They pitted experts of different martial arts styles against each other in an environment with very few rules, in an attempt to see what techniques "really worked" when put under pressure. Rorion also entered his brother Royce Gracie, an expert in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, as one of the contestants. Royce dominated the first years of the UFC against all comers, amassing eleven victories with no fighting losses. At one event he defeated four different fighters in one night. This, from a fighter that was smaller than most of the others (at 170 lbs, in an event with no weight classes), looked thin and scrawny, and used techniques that most observers, even experienced martial artists, didn't understand. In hindsight, much of Royce's success was due to the fact that he understood very well (and had trained to defend against) the techniques that his opponents would use, whereas they often had no idea what he was doing to them. In addition, the ground fighting strategy and techniques of BJJ are among the most sophisticated in the world. Besides the immediate impact of an explosion of interest in BJJ across the world (particularly in the US and Japan), the lasting impact of Royce's early UFC dominance is that almost every successful MMA fighter now includes BJJ as a significant portion of their training. from www.bjj.org. read more about it.
I know the differences, but WHAT style of Trad JJ did they integrate. This is somewhat answered here....
It was Kodokan mate. The only reason the Gracies were told it was jujutsu is because Kano was still using the term jujutsu when Maeda was studying with him. However, what they learnt may not have been pure Kodokan, even if there was no koryu jujutsu involved. It's hardly ever brought up by Gracie "historians" but there was a reason that Maeda was in Brazil and there was a reason he sometimes used the name Count Koma. He was a pro wrestler and had been travelling the world in that capacity. He'd mainly been wrestling in Europe but he ventured out to Brazil with a circus. Gastao Gracie was managing a boxer at the same event. Count Koma was Maeda's ring name. Apparently Maeda used almost pure Kodokan newaza in the ring but you never know. He may have passed on some of the wrestling tips he learnt to the Gracie boys.
Abraxas got to it first. Maeda didn't just do judo. He had experience with catch wrestling and other grappling styles. I heard that before he joined the kodokan (or possibly even after), he tried out different styles of JJ. If that's true, I would like to know which ones, too (which is what I think the original question was).
Im asking because, well, ground fighting has been around as long as fighting it self, and BJJ is only about thirty of fourty years old, so there had to have been another art that was predominantly ground based. Pancrase and Vale Tudo have alot of ground work but it isnt an 'all ground art' like BJJ.
Cant speak for pancrase but vale tudo is not really a style as such, the ground work you will see in that is a mix of wrestling and bjj, the proportions of which will very much depend on your instructors background.
"Vale tudo", in case no one knows, means "anything goes". It's not a style of anything. People train FOR the vale tudo, they don't train IN vale tudo.
I respect Brasilian Ju-jutsu. It is a tough art and an aggressive one, but it does not promote violence. My salute to the Gracie Family.
