Under a hot sun and piercing stares
Gracie Magazine #112

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The series 'Unifying Jiu-Jitsu' brings the (sometimes opposite) paths of success of academies: Megaton Gracie Miami and BJJ

 In the rigorous winter of Colorado, USA, Wellington Dias chops wood to provide the inhabitants of Colorado Springs who prefer (and can afford) to pay for heating rather than performing the hard labor. Meanwhile, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Pedro Valente takes his final exams before his vacation at Escola Americana ('American School'), a high-class school where the main language spoken is English.

We are far away in the year 1989, when Jiu-Jitsu wasn't a part of the professional plans of the man who wound up being the only one to fight all of the World Championships to this day, nor of he who became the owner of one of the academies with the greatest number of students in the world.

Megaton and Valente have different styles and trajectories. While the former is an obsessed competitor, the latter doesn't push students into taking part in tournaments. To the west, a laborer who fought financial and cultural difficulties in order to achieve recognition. To the south, a youth of keen intelligence who proved it possible to be successful doing what one likes, no matter in what area.

In common, Jiu-Jitsu and success.

Phoenix, Arizona, spring of 2006. Megaton shifts to sixth gear in his Nissan 350Z on Highway 51, and makes the speedometer's hand go wild as he gets away from the car flux of the afternoon. Don't the police out here stop people? They do... But they have to catch us first, right?" ponders the black-belt, before lowering the speed and taking exit 32, which leads to the commercial center where you can find Megaton Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy.

Ten children; led by wife Luca, warm up on the mats; and he arrives warning: "Don't forget to confirm a spot on the New Mexico excursion next week." Lamenting the proximity to the Pan-Americans, Wellington points out that he will do all in his power to take as many people as possible to the championship. He himself, in 2006, fought in a European Championship, in Portugal; in the Pan-Ams in Los Angeles, and is only not going to the World Champs if it rains on the desert where he lives.

While he waits for the end of the kids' class, with a humble, gentle voice; Royler Gracie's pupil recalls his participations in the biggest competition of Jiu-Jitsu, an arena where he had many gala performances, including submissions over Marcos Parrumpilha and Barbosa, beautiful takedowns, and wins over such standouts as Mauricio Tinguinha, Albertinho and Wagnney Fabian. The outcome was one silver medal and three bronze ones. The title, however, never came, and the eyes dive into the salty water as he remembers that the chances of winning get smaller and smaller. After all, even hiding his age (about 40, we reckon), Megaton is conscious that he is getting farther from the usual champions' age group.

"Sometimes I roll in bed, sleepless, anguished, because I still wanted to do so much... But I know I won't have time for it," the teacher ponders; his upper gi already on, over his shirt, ready to start a lesson to the 31 students assembled nearby. He then teaches a sweep, two guard breaks, one control position he nicknamed helicopter and, at the end, does his favorite takedown - a foot on belly that usually ends with an arm lock. "'This one, if you guys can't perform it, at least enjoy the view," he jokes, before throwing black-belt pupil Patrick Delaney into the air. The throw takes him back to memories of 18 years ago, as well as the reason that brought Wellington Dias to the USA

North Miami Beach, Florida; five days later. Choke from the back, the front, the side, high kicks, low kicks. straight, crossed punches; stick-strike, knife-attack, chair-strike. This is the 96th time Tom Kinsella, a hyperactive middle-aged executive, takes a Jiu-Jitsu lesson, since he began in July 2003. He doesn't have any difficulty defending himself and reacting against any of the attacks described above (and some others) performed by Pedro Valente in the furthest room out of the three used for private lessons at Gracie Miarni.

Blue belt around his waist and an attendance that began at three lessons and is currently at six a month, Kinsella fits master Helio Gracie's image of the ideal student. In the opinion of the father of Rickon and Royce, the athletic youth doesn't, need his techniques, since he's able to defend himself naturally. Helio's Jiu-Jitsu is for the weak. who has no alternative and needs to gain self-confidence.

Rigorously following this concept, the academy run by Pedro with brother Guilherme in the noblest area of the state of Florida has 122 students that Tuesday, scattered throughout the day in private lessons (which comprise the entire program), kids' classes (divided in three age groups) and in group lessons, where Jiu-Jitsu is taught in a general way, for beginners, whereas for advanced learners it is divided in time frames for ground, takedown, striking and self-defense techniques.

Enough activities to keep the place working from nine in the morning till nine at night. In Helio's words, "a colossus," which began to be conceived in 1994, when Pedro was a Management student of the University of Miami and an unexpected event set his fate.

Phoenix, Arizona. Megaton finishes demonstrating techniques, chooses pairs and gets the training started. After a few adjustments, lie practices with a black-belt with little hair and wrinkles that reveal old age. Michael Sillyman, who just placed third at the Pan-American Championship in his age group, has been a Megaton pupil for longer than anyone else. "Wellington's story is impressive. He got here with no money, no study and without knowing the language, and now lie is so successful" says the proud student. Certified in Jiu-Jitsu by Royler in 1991, when Gracie used to live in the US, it's no wonder that Megaton is able to create such baffling moves as the takedown he taught his pupils moments ago, the ones he used in many Worlds' and Pan-Ams, or the one that is, a bit out of focus, hanging on the division between his office and the mats, a perfect uchi-mata he accomplished in the 1989 US Open - of judo. Some don't know that, long before he became a compulsive Jiu-Jitsu competitor, Megaton was already active in judo. And, integrating the Brazilian team for the American Championship of 1989, Megaton got to the Olym¬pic center of Colorado Springs, already bearing the idea of mov¬ing very far from his childhood's Copacabana and trying to leave the condition of low middleclass with no perspectives.

In Colorado he cut wood in the winter, cleaned trays in the summer. survived as he could until he got married and moved west, leaving the cold mountains and getting to Arizona. In spite of not yet thinking of making a living from martial arts, Megaton nurtured a passion for competition, and fought in tournaments as he worked amid the stench of a garbage recycling factory. Fresh air was something he only got at Royal Palm park, where he'd practice martial arts with Michael.
In 1994, an argument with his boss cost him his job. Good thing that, till then, word of mouth had already yielded some students, and the dojo on the park's lawn had already become the classic garage of so many other stories of beginning Jiu¬Jitsu academies in America. In July of that year, Wellington Dias set up his first academy, called Jiu-Jitsu Brasileiro. Since then, he never had to exert any other activity in order to make a living.

Years later. on that hot night in the Phoenix-neighboring city of Glendale, where he just bought a five-room, two floor house he shares with Luca, daughter Mackenzie and dogs Moe, Max and Atreyu, Megaton is moved as he speaks of what Jiu-Jitsu has provided him with: "Could you believe someone who didn't study would have a traveling routine like mine, the whole year going from Japan to the Reunion Islands to Portugal? Jiu-Jitsu has given me all this."

North Miami Beach, Florida. One of the light-colored walls of Gracie Miami's office displays five diplomas: the University of Miami college and master's degrees of Pedro Valente and friend/manager James Robertson, and the Barry University Sports Management degree of Guilherme (whose master's is to be concluded this year). Usually, the student who arrives in the academy for the first time and takes the basics lesson is brought into this reserved room, where Guilherme explains what Jiu-Jitsu is and how the academy works. How did all this academic knowledge turn toward the organization of a Jiu-Jitsu academy?

A Gracie academy student since the 1960s, plastic surgeon Pedro Valente is considered by master Helio as his best friend. All of his children, Pedro Jr., Guilherme, Joana and Joaquim, since childhood have been taking lessons with the living legend, and Jiu-Jitsu is ever-present in the family. One specific episode, nonetheless, guided the professional direction of these well educated young people.

During the first UFC boom, in March 1994, when he was the event's champion, Royce, along with elder brother Rorion, visited Miami for a seminar. Pedrinho, who went to college there (and had attended all of Royce's bouts) was a purple-belt and assisted him. At the end, Rorion introduced the kid and told the participants that they should look for Pedro if they wanted to keep up with the program. Pedro then began teaching in the homes of his students, and later on in the university. When he graduated, in May 1997, the group was big and the occupation, which began unpretentiously, became his foremost project. So much that he set up his own academy classmate in college, ended up finding himself a job there, and Guilherme, on corning to the country to study, in 1999, also became a tutor.

Night falls on the East Coast. While 35 people train defense from aggression situations, in the sparring lesson for advanced students, cars line up in front of the academy's front door. They're waiting to get tables at the neighboring Outback restaurant, but they're entitled to a drive-in session: a big TV screen inside the academy is turned towards them, showing MMA classics. You can only get to see so much of the training, for a middle-height wall guarantees some privacy.

Inside, lined up on the wall opposite the main dojo, the academy's most visible area, three diplomas. They're the certificates of professorship granted by grandmaster Helio Gracie to three Valentes: the father and the two brothers who run the establishment. "Apart from Gracies, we represent the name with the most master diplomas," says a proud Pedrinho. These are not the college degrees, but they do occupy the privileged spot of the place.

With so many differences between the stories told in Arizona and Miami Beach, one observes another common detail: the Helio Gracie portrait, the red yellow flag of the Rio de Janeiro Jiu-Jitsu federation for background, hanging on both academies' walls. Oh, and, of course, the affiliation with GRACIE Magazine Association.