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Friday, April 5, 1996

Gracie Jiu-Jitsu

The kinder, gentler martial art still brings them to their knees

The phrase “martial arts” conjures up images of Bruce Lee’s brutal choreography or Jackie Chan’s brand of physical, thought violent, comedy. But a martial art doesn’t necessarily mean just beating the tar out of your enemy.

How so?

Think Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, Brazil’s most popular martial art.

At the turn of the century, Japanese immigrant Count Koma introduced Japanese Jiu-Jitsu to Brazil. Carlos Gracie, an eager student of Koma's, mastered the art and began teaching it in Brazil around 1930.

However, Carlos never instructed his younger brother, Helio Gracie, so Helio was forced to learn Jiu-Jitsu by observation.

While Carlos trained in and taught the traditional Jui-Jitsu, Helio had difficulty mastering the martial art because he lacked his older brother’s strength. As a result, he adapted the discipline to his body size, creating new moves to compensate for his lack of power. A year and a half later, he became an instructor.

Helio, who is now 82 years old, still teaches two to three classes a day.

The Gracie family’s efforts in continuing the Jiu-Jitsu tradition has increased the art’s popularity in the U.S. Rorion Gracie currently heads the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy in Torrance, California, and Royce Gracie won the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 1994.

Junior Pedro Valente, an International Finance and Marketing major, is one of a handful of instructors in the U.S. that is certified to teach Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.

Valente said the discipline is the “finesse martial art” because it does not require great physical strength. Jiu-Jitsu students learn submission holds, ground grappling and moves that close the distance in a fight. The focus of such instruction, he said, is to show students how to deal with common attacks, such as self-defense techniques against grabs.

According to Valente, Jiu-Jitsu serves as the perfect complement to other martial arts that use more powerful hits, such as karate.

“With moves and the idea of beautiful punches and kicks and choreography, it created the impression that real fighting was like it was in the movies. In real fighting that doesn’t apply. Real fighting ends up on the ground,” he said.

Valente came to U.S. in August 1993 to attend UM. In considering other martial arts, he could find no other that addressed ground fighting as effectively as Jiu-Jitsu. These skills, which he viewed as essential to successful fighting, can be used by any other martial arts.

But besides its versatility, Jiu-Jitsu also provides a method of self-defense that does not have to inflict injury on the opponent in order to win. The opponent has a chance to end the fight before serious injury results.

In the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Royce Gracie was able to prove the discipline’s effectiveness by defeating much heavier opponents.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship, seen nationwide on pay-per-view television, is an opportunity for fights utilizing different styles of martial arts to compete in a no holds-barred environment, as if they were batting on the street. Weight classes and time limits are not imposed, and competitors use every martial arts style imaginable.

Tournaments such as the UFC, Valente said, are the ideal opportunity to compare fighting styles in a real situation arena.

“How am I going to prove my martial art is effective? By putting two fighters together to compare styles,” Valente said.

What also makes Jiu-Jitsu a more attractive option to classical martial arts is that it involves less of the older customs of Eastern martial arts.

“ The evolutionary process was in Brazil, not in the Far East. It is not so much meditation, bowing and tradition. Because of that, we do a handshake instead, a more “our side of the world”, Valente said.

The Valente clan grew up with the Gracie’s. Valente’s family, including a father with an eighth-degree black belt in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, has “ been pushing me around the mats since I was one year old.”

A former Brazilian National Champion, Valente thought about forming  a Gracie Jiu-Jitsu club his freshman year. No East Coast Jiu-Jitsu academy exists, only “training associations.”

Inundated with calls from prospective students, Valente, with the help of  his friends Humberto Lopez Avery and Jose Luis Ortega, contacted Campus Sports and Recreation with their idea for a new club.

Almost two years later, Valente and Ortega, the club’s president, welcomed their first Gracie Jiu-Jitsu class on Saturday, March 23, 1996.

Valente is excited that students, alumni and faculty are showing up for the classes ready to learn.

Classes are held every Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Wellness Center.