Roleta Brazilian Jiu Jitsu - Unity Is Our Strength

History: How Ju Jitsu evolved to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ)

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) is a martial art and combat sport that focuses on Grappling and especially ground fighting. It is a derivative of early 20th century Kodokan Judo, which was itself then a recently-developed system (founded in 1882), based on multiple schools (or Ryu) of Japanese Jujutsu.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) promotes the principle that a smaller, weaker person using leverage and proper technique can successfully defend against a bigger, stronger assailant using joint-locks and chokeholds to defeat an opponent.Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) can be trained for self defense, sport grappling tournaments (gi and no-gi) and mixed martial arts (MMA) competition. Sparring in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) (commonly referred to as 'rolling') and live drilling play a major role in training, and a premium is placed on performance, especially in competition.

The art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) began with Mitsuyo Maeda (aka Conde Koma, or Count Combat in English), an expert Japanese 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 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.

Maeda met an influential businessman named Gastão Gracie who helped him get established. In 1916, his son Carlos Gracie, still a 14 year-old boy, watched a demonstration by Maeda at the Teatro da Paz(Theatre of Peace) and decided to learn jiu-jitsu. Maeda accepted Carlos Gracie as a student 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 or BJJ.

In 1921, Gastão Gracie and his family moved to Rio de Janeiro. Carlos Gracie, then 17 years old, passed Maeda's teachings on to his brothers Osvaldo, Gastão and Jorge. Hélio Gracie 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 Gracie learned Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) by watching his (gracie) brothers. He eventually overcame his health problems and is now considered by many as the co founder of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu(BJJ) together with his brother Carlos Gracie.

Hélio Gracie 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 Gracie`s gave to the arm lock used to defeat Hélio (the Gracies threw in the towel only after Kimura had broken Hélio's arm.

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.

Today, the main differences between the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) styles is between traditional Gracie Jiu-Jitsu's emphasis on self-defense, and Sport Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) 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. There are many different schools and academies across the world, Gracie Barra is one of the most common academies.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) came to international prominence in the martial arts community in the 1990s, when a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu expert,won the first, second and fourth Ultimate Fighting Championships, which at the time were single elimination martial arts tournaments. The Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) expert fought against often much-larger opponents who were practicing other styles, including boxing, shoot-fighting, karate, judo, tae kwon do and wrestling. It has since become a staple art for many MMA fighters and is largely credited for bringing widespread attention to the importance of ground fighting. Sport Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (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.