He reportedly taught the first jiu jitsu lessons to Brazilian sailors on the deck of the training ship Benjamin Constant.

Sada Miyako, a Japanese Ju Jutsu fighter, was hired by Brazilian Navy to teach self defense to brazilian mariners. Any technique that is designed to work exclusively in a controlled competition with all of their associated rules, weight classes, time limits, safety considerations, and point systems, will give the practitioner a false sense of security since these circumstances are totally nonexistent in a real fight.The first historical record of the arrival of a Japanese Jiu Jitsu professor in Brazil dates back to December 15, 1908. The main reason for the divergence from this foundational principle is that these instructors are creating techniques for sport competition rather than real street fights. The problem is that most of these techniques violate the first guideline of Gracie Jiu- Jitsu – they are not street applicable. With the demand for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu instruction at an all-time high, thousands of self-proclaimed Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu instructors have opened schools around the world and are creating or modifying techniques at an unprecedented rate. If you modify a technique, you must verify that the new variation keeps you safe from all potentially dangerous strikes By practicing techniques that keep you safe from strikes, you will develop the most important reflexes and avoid habits that could lead to injury in a real fight.

Practicing techniques that are not “punch proof” will cause you to develop a false sense of security. Confident in his adaptations, he spent the next thirty years of his life proving his system’s effectiveness by using it to defeat numerous challengers, including several opponents who outweighed him by as much as 100 pounds.įocus only on practicing techniques that are fully street applicable.

Using these principles as a guide, he spent several years developing a complete system of self-defense consisting only of techniques that he could successfully apply against larger opponents. Accordingly, he began modifying the art to ensure that every technique was fully street applicable, energy efficient, and based on natural body movements. In most cases, he attributed the limitations to: 1) inapplicability against a striking opponent in a real fight, 2) overreliance on strength or speed, and/or 3) dependence on body movements that were awkward or uncomfortable for him. He points out that, despite the overall effectiveness and value of the Japanese techniques, nearly all of them had one or more limitations that prevented them from being fully useful to him. However, he vividly recalls experiencing great difficulty when he attempted to use the techniques on a larger opponent and, as a result, had to modify nearly everything he had learned to accommodate his frail physique. Grand Master Helio Gracie was introduced to the Japanese art of jiu-jitsu by his brother, Carlos, at such a young age that, as time passed, he no longer remembered many of the techniques in their original form.

Helio gracie young