Who is the founder of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu?

The founder of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu

Well, first of all, it may not be accurate to use the word founder or creator of a martial art since martial arts don’t seem to be created from nothing but instead they borrow from each other and evolve into different styles.

Certainly, Carlos and Helio Gracie did not create a new martial art out of thin air. They took what Mitsuo Maeda was teaching and modified it according to their unique interpretation.

Even though Mitsuo Maeda was a Judo black belt from the Kodokan, when he arrived in Brazil he told his students he was teaching them Jiu-Jitsu. Apparently, in the early 1900’s both Judo and Jiu-Jitsu were words used to describe the same art and were pretty much interchangeable.

There is a debate regarding who Carlos Gracie learned Jiu-Jitsu from, directly from Maeda or from a student of Maeda called Jacinto Ferro? However, the fact is that he was the first Gracie to learn Jiu-Jitsu and later introduced the art to his brothers George, Oswaldo, Gastao Jr and Helio.

In the 1930’s the Gracie brothers opened their own school of Jiu-Jitsu in Rio de Janeiro. After a few challenge fights with mixed success Carlos Gracie retired from fighting and his brother George took over as the main representative of the Gracie Academy. It’s known that Carlos stopped fighting (possibly teaching) and took the role of manager of the Academy from early on.

Because Carlos Gracie was the first Gracie to learn Jiu-Jitsu, some schools (mainly from the lineage of Carlos’ sons) consider him the founder of the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu and have his picture overseeing their mat area.

After George and Carlos Gracie had a falling out, the younger brother Helio Gracie took over as the main instructor and fighting representative of the Gracie Academy with Carlos as his mentor and manager. Their partnership was clear, Carlos will be the visionary and Helio will be the enforcer.

As the years went by, both Judo and Jiu-Jitsu started going in different directions. Judo evolved into a successful sport and its popularity grew all over the world. The Gracies (Carlos and Helio) resisted the influence of Judo in Brazil and kept on teaching their version of Jiu-Jitsu with emphasis as an art to be used in a “vale tudo” fight.

During the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s Helio Gracie fought representatives of other styles such as Capoeira, Judo and Wrestling. At one point it was clear to him that due to his skinny body frame he was not going to be able to throw or takedown bigger and stronger opponents. That’s why he developed the “Guard” position as one of his favorite positions to achieve victory. To clarify, we are not saying Helio invented the Guard, but he was forced to work from there and explore many techniques from there.

The Gracies did not believe in points, weight classes and time limits, which were prevalent in sports like Judo and Wrestling. For them, to define a clear winner in a fight, victory had to be achieved via submission or knock out, no matter how long it takes.

We can say that Helio Gracie took his Jiu-Jitsu towards the direction of favoring ground fighting with only limited throws and takedowns. At the same time, with no time limits in his mind, Helio Gracie favored a strategy of defense and survival first, where he will preserve his energy as much as possible and only going onto the attack when it was clear his adversary couldn’t beat him, had burned out all of his energy or made a critical mistake. “I never defeated my opponents, they defeated themselves”, is a known Helio Gracie quote.

Helio Gracie established some tenets for their art, Jiu-Jitsu not as a sport but as a martial art for a real fight, ground fighting as their main weapon, and superior defensive and survival skills as their main strategy. He also was an innovator, it is known that because of his frail physique he had to pay special attention to details and adapt many techniques in order to make them work for him.

With these basic principles as the bedrock for his discipline, Helio Gracie taught the new generation of Gracies, including Carlos Gracie’s sons: Carlson, Robson, Reyson, Reylson, Carley and Rolls. He also taught Jiu-Jitsu to his own sons: Rorion, Relson, Rickson, Royler, Rolker, Royce and Robin.

He developed many teaching techniques as well, many of them advanced for his time, including positive reinforcement and personalized teaching.

Grandmaster Relson Gracie (born in 1953), whom I received my black belt from, tells stories of his father Helio Gracie teaching all his brothers and cousins, and that he never saw Carlos Gracie teaching any class. He said that Carlos was dedicated to creating a diet and other activities related to spirituality.

On the other hand, there are videos of Helio Gracie teaching Jiu-Jitsu even at an advanced age. Of course Jiu-Jitsu kept evolving and the younger Gracies also contributed to the development of their style. In the 1960’s and 70’s Carlson and Rolls Gracie are known to have innovated the Jiu-Jitsu learned from their uncle Helio by incorporating techniques from other disciplines like wrestling.

It’s worth mentioning that the first Jiu-Jitsu Federation that set the first rules of Jiu-Jitsu as a sport was created with Helio Gracie as his first president.

This is how we get to 1993. Royce Gracie’s absolute dominance in the early UFC’s, a tournament with no rules and no time limits, made it clear that Gracie Jiu-Jitsu was a superior fighting style. Royce defeated bigger and stronger fighters with anaconda-like movements never seen before and the effectiveness of his art shocked the martial arts world. In one fight against Dan Severn, Royce survived underneath the bigger wrestler for about 15 minutes before submitting him with a triangle choke. It was clear that he was not doing Judo or Wrestling, but his method, movements and techniques were something different. “I am a product of my father’s work”, said Royce when asked what made him so dominant in the cage.

So, who’s the founder of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu? Maybe Carlos Gracie deserves the name of “founder” of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu for being the first Gracie to learn it, for opening the first Gracie Academy and being the leader, mentor and visionary of the family.

I believe that Carlos did not have enough time fighting and teaching to transform the Jiu-Jitsu he learned from Maeda. He definitely deserves recognition and I totally understand when some schools hang his picture instead of Helio’s.

However, in my opinion, it was Helio Gracie the one responsible for shaping the Jiu-Jitsu of Maeda into its own, unique style of fighting. It was Helio who set the principles of his art and created a lineage by passing on his knowledge to the new generation of Gracies. It was Helio Gracie who developed new techniques, new teaching methods and also created the first Jiu-Jitsu Federation. It was Helio Gracie’s Jiu-Jitsu on display when we saw Royce Gracie in the UFC.

Due to Helio Gracie’s controversial personality and because his son Rorion Gracie tried to erase the role of Carlos Gracie when he first introduced Jiu-Jitsu in the United States, many schools (mainly from Carlos’ side), do not recognize Helio Gracie as the founder of Jiu-Jitsu and don’t even hang his picture in their walls.

Some schools hang both pictures (Carlos and Helio), heck some of them even hang the photo of the owner of the school, Rolls Gracie, Carlson Gracie, Mitsuo Maeda and Jigoro Kano. Maybe this is the right way to pay tribute to the ones who paved the way for us to enjoy this beautiful art.

In my school, I have Helio Gracie’s picture. My lineage comes from his son Relson, who comes to my school at least once a year to teach seminars and promote students. I never asked Relson if I should put Carlos’ Gracie photo on the wall but I know that he would not agree with that. “Uncle Carlos never taught classes, he would just put a Gi for pictures and then he’ll take it off”.