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PROVING GROUND
Author: Daniel Duarte
Brazilian jujutsu thrives in America because of the dreams and aspirations of one person: Rorion Gracie.
He was the first man to transport the popular grappling system from its South American homeland to the martial arts Mecca of Southern California. He was the first man to take on all comers in America in style-vs.-style challenge matches designed to find out which art is most effective in real fights. He was the first man to concoct a grand plan to prove to the world that Brazilian-jujutsu experts are capable of defeating practitioners of any other art in no-holds-barred competition. He is the man who changed the martial arts world forever.
Brazilian Transplants
Gracie moved to America in 1978 and found that the martial arts scene was dominated by karate-style punching and kicking and, for a few eclectic practitioners, Bruce Lee’s jeet kune do.
As Gracie started teaching his father’s grappling art out of his garage in Hermosa Beach, California, he was confident that one day jujutsu would be an American favorite. For 10 years he struggled to make that a reality. He drew up plans for the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy, which he opened in Torrance, California, in 1989. He fought in challenge match after challenge match, always with the same result: victory.
“Because of everyone else’s lack of knowledge in the ground-fighting aspect of a real fight, it was no surprise that we defeated everybody who walked through our doors,” he says. “Yet there was no guarantee we would always win. Like everybody else, we were not punch-proof. One good punch could knock our fighters out, but I knew from experience that 90 percent of all fights wind up in a clinch and eventually go to the ground— which made the odds very good for [those of ] us who knew Gracie jujutsu.”
Along the way, Gracie developed the concept of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, a multi-style tournament that would pit art against art, and in 1993 the first installment was held. He watched as younger brother Royce tapped out one opponent after another despite their background and body weight. He smiled as the rest of the martial arts community became convinced of the superiority of jujutsu’s ground game, which was evidenced by the art’s rapid conquest of the fighting world.
“Everybody now does jujutsu,” he says. “They talk about passing the guard and defending the guard. They are all experts on how to attack and defend from the mount. Ground grappling has never been so popular, and that is because my father, Helio Gracie, made it very simple. I’m happy the message came through, and although some people call it by a variety of names, jujutsu is the fastestgrowing and most-recognized martial art in the world today.”
Then Rorion Gracie watched as his original vision of a tournament in which one martial artist faced another with few technical limitations and no time limits morphed into the ruleheavy mixed-martial arts extravaganzas of today. He watched as steroid-reek ing uber-athletes exploited the new ground-and-pound strategy and rose to the top. He watched as technique and finesse flew out the window.
Martial artists interested in learning from and participating in matches involving regular people, not supermen, were forced to abandon the big mixedmartial arts events in favor of traditional grappling tournaments. That is unfortunate, Gracie says, because those tournaments are guided primarily by Brazilian-jujutsu rules, which makes them a complicated affair. Furthermore, he adds, their outcomes are frequently subjective.
Keeping the Focus
The International Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Federation was founded with the purpose of organizing competitive events that will help its members, associates and supporters understand and pursue excellence in combat. The first IGJJF Open Championship, scheduled to be held in February 2003 in Los Angeles, will operate under a set of rules designed to bring the focus back to the original concept of the Gracie family: Competitions should reward technique and competitors should pursue the submission.
The Open Championship will give mixed-martial arts fans a chance to witness the technical side of ground fighting, a facet of combat that is not always displayed in NHB shows in which art takes a back seat to brute strength. “Often we see a fight degenerate to the ground-and-pound,” Gracie says. “No technique [is used] to finish the opponent, and that is what a lot of fans are missing.”
He also sees the IGJJF’s new tournaments as a vehicle for everyday jujutsu practitioners around the world to keep polishing their skills and not lose focus of what the art is all about.
“Some people want to get in shape or lose weight, some people like the competition aspect of it, [while others] like the philosophy of the art—but it’s all irrelevant,” he says. “The reason the Gracies have been teaching jujutsu for the past 80 years is to get the average person better prepared to defend himself in a real fight.”
Unfortunately, that simple concept seems to have fallen by the wayside in a large part of the Brazilian-jujutsu world. “In today’s tournaments, for example, a person scores a couple points or even an advantage, and if he holds onto that for the remainder of the round, he becomes the winner,” Gracie says. “He is the new world champion, but in some cases he knows deep down that if the fight had lasted another 30 seconds, he could have lost. That is not a convincing victory.”
Wearing the title of world champion should leave no doubt about who is the world’s best, but that does not always happen these days, Gracie says. The IGJJF aims to remedy that.
The organization will also attempt to do away with interference and distraction.
At regular Brazilian-jujutsu tournaments, it’s not uncommon to see coaches or trainers on the sidelines screaming at the referees to award a point or advantage to their competitor. And they often succumb to the pressure. Under the new rules of the IGJJF, that won’t happen. Either the competitor scores a clear point with the right positioning or the point is not awarded because the position was not 100 percent. Nothing is open to interpretation or coercion.
New Rules for an Old Game
To fix those nagging problems, Gracie devised a set of rules to govern the game:
• There are no time limits or advantage points.
• The cross side mount receives three points. The competitor must have control of his opponent for three seconds.
• The mount from the front receives four points. The competitor must have both knees and feet on the ground for three seconds.
• The mount from the back receives four points. The competitor must have both knees and feet on the ground, or he must have both hooks placed inside the opponent’s legs for three seconds.
• The competitor may not hold both of the opponent’s sleeves at any time with the intent of stalling. The referee reserves the right to give two warnings for stalling, which will count as two faults. The competitor then has five seconds to release the sleeves. The third warning will lead to disqualification.
• The competitor inside the opponent’s guard must try to pass the guard, and the competitor on the bottom must attack. If after five minutes the competitor on top cannot pass the guard, the referee will reverse the position.
If at the fiveminute mark the top competitor is at the half-guard position, the fight will not be interrupted. However, if he is placed back in the guard, the position will be reversed.
• If a competitor is on top of a cross mount and cannot accomplish the mount or stops attacking for more than 60 seconds, the match will be interrupted and he will have to choose one of two options: to pass or to defend the guard.
• If a competitor is in the top-mount position and cannot effect a submission and if he stops attacking for more than 60 seconds, the match will be interrupted and he will have to choose one of three options: to assume the top cross mount, to pass the guard or to defend the guard.
• Foot locks are permitted. Knee locks are permitted for brown and black belts. Ankle locks are not allowed.
• Immediate disqualification will result from deliberate bending of the fingers or toes, hair pulling, striking, biting, pressure-point attacks, eye gouges and groin shots.
• Immediate disqualification will also result from disrespectful gestures or verbal abuse directed at a referee, competitor or spectator.
• Matches will end with a tap out, when 12 points are accumulated or by referee intervention (disqualification).
Opportunity of a Lifetime
Gracie is certain the new tournament format will attract the top jujutsu competitors in the world. Three of them have already committed to show: 20- year-old Ryron Gracie, 18-year-old Rener Gracie and 16-year-old Ralek Gracie. The sons of Rorion, they are well on their way to becoming the next generation of Brazilian-jujutsu champs.
All winners of the Open Championship will receive cash prizes and medals, but up to nine of them will be treated to a special reward: a week-long all-expenses- paid trip to Brazil to train at Helio Gracie’s ranch. “I think all people who are enthusiasts of jujutsu worldwide will look forward to the opportunity to study with the originator of the art,” Rorion Gracie says. “It’s going to be like staying at Michael Jordan’s house for a week of training in basketball.” ...
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