Brazilian Jiu Jitsu's First Family - History of the Gracie Clan

There are many Brazilian masters of Jiu Jitsu, but it is impossible to say very much about the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) world without mentioning the Gracie family. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu really grabbed the world's attention in 1993 when Royce Gracie won the first ever Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), but BJJ has a long and distinguished history prior to that. Since 1925 more than 40 members of the Gracie clan have spent their entire lives teaching and developing and practicing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. In the process they have made it into a global phenomenon and created an empire of BJJ schools and academies.

Carlos Gracie emigrated to Brazil from Scotland in the early 20th century, where he met a Japanese judo and Jiu Jitsu master named Esai Maeda. Carlos opened his own school in 1925 with his brothers, except his smallest brother Helio. Legend has it that Helio was prohibited from practicing because he had a very small and weak body so he simply watched all the training. Although Helio memorized everything he saw, when he eventually was allowed a chance to apply the Japanese techniques he had previously only watched he realized he indeed did not have enough strength for many of the moves and throws. But he didn't quit; he started adapting moves in his own style to create more leverage with less strength. He also discovered that fighting on the ground can largely neutralize much bigger attacker's reach and power. Now these are some of the hallmarks of BJJ today.

Another factor that made Brazilian Jiu Jitsu different than the Japanese counterparts is the intentionally constant exposure of the Gracie's to real fight situations. The Gracie family has traditionally issued challenges to all other schools and styles to fights without rules. In these no-rules fights (called "vale tudo") the Gracie family and their students sought to demonstrate their belief that BJJ allowed anyone to defend themselves at any time regardless of size or strength or even age and gender. In 1947 the diminutive Helio Gracie went so far as to challenge the American world heavyweight champion boxer Joe Louis to a no-rules fight, but Louis' manager declined the invitation.

In 1978 Helio's eldest son, Rorion, traveled to the United States to teach Brazilian Jiu Jitsu knowing that this would open the art form to the rest of the world. Just like his father, he would soon issue the "Gracie Challenge" to fight anyone, anywhere, at any time. In fact this would lead to the origin of the UFC competition in 1993, which was essentially started as another "Gracie Challenge" to all other martial arts forms to settle "once and for all" which was the most effective. To everyone's surprise another Gracie, Royce, won the first UFC despite being the smallest fighter in the tournament. After that, worldwide interest in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu exploded. By 1994, even the US Army's Special Operations units had decided to largely adopt BJJ as their core hand-to-hand training system.