Royler Gracie, a Brazilian jiu-jitzu champion, practices at the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy in Rio. (Anthony Faiola - The Post) _____Correction_____ In some editions Sept. 8, part of a word was dropped from a front-page article about martial arts in Brazil. A sentence referring to Helio Gracie should have read: Not for nothing has he earned renown from Rio to Tokyo as the grandfather of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. ___ Desde Washington ___ Marcela Sanchez on the policies and debates that are shaping events in Latin America. Desde Washington in English or Spanish. E-Mail This Article Printer-Friendly Version Subscribe to The Post

By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, September 8, 2001; Page A01

ITAIPAVA, Brazil -- Standing on the veranda of his vast ranch in a fighting kimono and black belt, Helio Gracie, 89, looked like Yoda meets Bruce Lee. "Strangle me!" he commanded. "Go on, take your best shot."

His guest politely declined, but Gracie would not take no for an answer. Not for nothing has he earned wn from Rio to Tokyo as the grandfather of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Even in Brazil, Latin America's largest nation and the most important martial arts center outside Asia, Gracie's skill is still rivaled by few, and his persistence by fewer.

"What? You think I'm fragile, eh?" barked the father of six black belts. "Don't make me laugh."

Reluctant hands enclosed the aged flesh of his throat, quickly tightening as the old man scoffed. But in a flash, he employed the trademark moves he first used more than 70 years ago when creating Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Planting his feet solidly on the floor, Gracie surged his bony hands upward with all the force of his balanced weight, breaking the grip on his throat and twisting back his attacker's arms with ease.

Such moves have allowed the Napoleon-size old master to overwhelm men twice his size through leverage and balance. They amount to a reinvention of the Japanese martial art.

"The Asians are famous for taking electronics and car designs and making them better," he said, laughing. "Well, we pulled the same trick. The Brazilians took their ancient martial arts and perfected them."

His is not idle bragging. In the martial arts, Brazil has become the new kid to knock your block off, thanks in large part to the Gracie clan. Here and abroad, Gracie's Brazilian jiu-jitsu has turned him and his sons into legends with their own line of posters, a monthly magazine and even trading cards.

Mechanics at gas stations who once lined their walls with pinups now sport action shots of the Gracies. In the United States, where three of Gracie's six sons have opened jiu-jitsu academies, Gracie's progeny are teaching their father's techniques to actors Nicolas Cage and Jim Carrey and to director Guy Ritchie, Madonna's husband. Over the past decade, the Pentagon, the FBI and other U.S. law enforcement agencies, including Maryland's Howard County Police Department, have contracted with Gracie's sons for courses in Brazilian-style combat and self-defense.

Martial arts experts say this nation of 170 million people has emerged as a world leader in the evolution of controlled hand-to-hand combat. Brazil, unlike most other nations in the Western Hemisphere, has a history steeped in the martial arts. Capoeira -- the only New World martial art -- was created by Brazil's African slaves in the 16th century and is now practiced professionally in at least 16 nations. Brazil is also a powerhouse in traditional Asian martial arts, having won various gold, silver and bronze medals in judo during the last three Olympic Games.

But the Brazilians, renowned for fusing foreign music with their own to create new sounds such as bossa nova in the 1960s, have done the same with Asian fighting styles. They did it by removing much of the spirituality and strict rules used in Asia, substituting technical innovations and a dose of hot-blooded aggression.

The "Brazilian School" has given rise to the controversially violent "no rules" fighting tournaments so popular here and now en vogue on U.S. pay-per-view channels. At the same time, the international success of local black belts has popularized Brazilian martial arts institutes in cities such as Boston, Madrid, London and Buenos Aires.

"The martial arts have become like music and soccer in Brazil," said Bernardo Conde, anthropologist and martial arts specialist at Rio de Janeiro's City College. "As Brazilians have innovated the martial arts, they've become one of our most successful cultural exports."

Since Brazilians tend to be slight of build, many have embraced the martial arts for personal safety and bragging rights in a nation with harsh urban violence, a Wild West-like frontier and a strong tradition of machismo. Many Brazilians, especially men, boast a swaggering mentality, admiring things big, dominant and extreme. Toss in a Los Angeles-like obsession with health and fitness, and martial arts fit the bill.

"If another man looks at your wife in the United States, you go and file a lawsuit, but in Brazil, you go and get in that guy's face," said Rorion Gracie, Helio Gracie's eldest son, who runs a Gracie Academy near Los Angeles. "If you're the smaller guy, you better know a martial art."

The popularity of martial arts here is evident along the streets of major cities. In Sao Paulo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, karate and judo schools have become ubiquitous. Afro-Brazilians with rippled abdomens practicing Capoeira, a highly acrobatic martial art that combines elements of African dance and music with combat, dot the white sandy beaches in the northeastern city of Salvador. More than 40,000 Rio residents practice Brazilian jiu-jitsu, sports authorities here say.

But what began as self-defense, critics say, has morphed into what some call a social menace. In Rio, for instance, a subculture of young, upper-class jiu-jitsu experts -- called "Pit Boys" for their aggression -- has become notorious in the local media for acts of violence, especially against gay men.

"Brazilian jiu-jitsu is not about self-defense. It is about the practice of violence," said Eugenio Ibiapino, a board member of Rio's Center Against Homosexual Discrimination. In one high-profile incident last year, one of Helio Gracie's great-nephews was involved in a jiu-jitsu attack against transvestites.

Brazilian gay rights leaders say that at least one in 10 incidents of gay-bashing in Rio, a city of 12 million, is related to jiu-jitsu fighters. "Anyone who says the Gracie family are sports heroes couldn't be further from the truth," Ibiapino said.

At Rio's 7,000-member Gracie Academy, Royler Gracie, one of Helio Gracie's jiu-jitsu champion sons, insisted that his family members are opposed to using their techniques in street attacks. They try, he said, to root out "bad seeds." But bad and goods seeds still sprout. And for better or worse, they were planted by Helio Gracie.

Born in Belem at the mouth of the Amazon in 1912, the son of a foreign service officer, Gracie grew into a slight and sickly teenager. But then Maeda Koma came into his life.

The Japanese immigrant who had sought his fortune in an Amazon gold rush ended up teaching Japanese jiu-jitsu. Gracie signed up and practiced nonstop, but he could not beat his larger opponents. Gradually he formulated a new theory.

Asian jiu-jitsu has always included leverage, but at more advanced levels, power and physical prowess also became important. Martial arts experts say Gracie changed that by perfecting new ways to balance himself and employing new forms of leverage that further reduced jiu-jitsu's reliance on size and strength.

Discovering strategic spots on his body -- on his feet, hands, knees -- he braced himself in ways that allowed him to generate greater force. He quickly began winning prizefights and incorporating other martial arts moves into what would become Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He rose to massive fame, particularly after winning what is widely considered the world's first "no rules" fighting tournament in Rio de Janeiro in 1932.

His sons followed in his footsteps, earning the clan greater acclaim. His sons do most of the fighting these days, but eager students are still willing to pay the old master more than $100 an hour for private classes. Gracie teaches now and then, but mostly he enjoys watching his black-belted boys.

"I've rendered a lot of men unconscious in my day," said Gracie, reminiscing at his ranch here west of Rio. "And I am proud when I see my sons do the same today."

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