The Gracie Family of Gracie.

It can be safely said that there is no one in western martial arts who has never heard of "Gracie"-whether rickson gracie, Joyce Gracie, Lorraine Gracie, Rizzo Gracie, Ralfa Gracie, Joel Gracie and Carlson Gracie, they are all famous figures in western martial arts.

Obviously, The Gracie Family left an indelible contribution in the history of modern Brazilian Wushu. In May this year, Cali Gracie came to China. His father, Carlos Gracie, once saw a teaching film about China Wushu, and since then he has been fascinated by China Wushu. He said to his son, "If you combine China Wushu with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, you can beat anyone."

Be famous for being small and seeing big.

The Gracie Family is famous for establishing and successfully popularizing a fighting sport-Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Brazilian jujitsu originated from Japanese jujitsu. At the beginning of last century, the petite jujitsu actor Maeda Hiroshi introduced the rules of ground fighting to Brazil. Known as the "Count of Fighting", he is an expert in ancient Jiu Jitsu and Kodokan Judo.

Maeda is good at fighting and participates in various competitions to test his skills. He often participates in all-contact fighting competitions. Although Maeda is only 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighs 154 Jin, he is a small man, but he is skilled. It is said that he has only lost once in his life.

19 14 entrusted by the Japanese government, Maeda came to Brazil to help Japanese immigrants set up resettlement sites. At this time, he got the help of casto Gracie, a successful businessman with a strong political background. Maeda became good friends with him and passed on his JIU jitsu knowledge to Carlos Gracie, Caster's eldest son. Carlos passed Jiu Jitsu on to his brothers osvaldo, casto and Aleo.

Gracie established Gracie School in Rio de Janeiro from 65438 to 0925. Maeda continued to travel in Brazil and around the world, while the young Gracis worked out the technical details, innovated and developed them, and finally formed a brand-new fighting technique specially used to deal with bigger and stronger opponents. Maeda didn't expect Gracie's fighting skills to stand out and become the greatest fighting system in modern times. Like Maeda, the Gracie brothers openly challenged all sects, regardless of weight or time. Once, Gracie actually advertised in the most famous newspaper in Brazil: "If you want to break your head and bones, you can contact Gracie."

Ariao Gracie is the youngest of the brothers. He is thin and often dizzy. The doctor doesn't allow him to do strenuous exercise. Airiau was disciplined by Carlos and often watched his brothers practice jujitsu. One day, Carlos didn't have time to train a student alone, and Airiau volunteered to substitute for his brother. He used technology to make up for his lack of strength. The learner was impressed by Airiau's technology and asked Elliot to teach him formally. While he was teaching, Airiau discovered many technologies. At that time, many technologies were not tested in actual combat. Airiau modified these technologies and made them suitable for small fighters like him (140 lbs). He added new technologies and deleted those that required great efforts or were not practical in actual combat. Finally, he became the best player among his brothers-the family champion. Ariao became a reformer. He developed new techniques and strategies and completed the evolution from "Japanese Jiu Jitsu" to "Brazilian Jiu Jitsu".

Both boys and girls must study.

Gracie is a big family. At present, there are more than 265,438+00 people in The Gracie Family, including 75 people with black belts in Jiu Jitsu. There are so many people in the same sport and the same family, and the scale is so huge that it is unique in the world. So "Brazilian Jiu Jitsu" is also called "Gracie Jiu Jitsu".

Because Gracie Jiu Jitsu was developed by Gracie, family members have a lot of freedom. They don't have to ask their mentor or grandfather. If a technology is not practical in actual combat, it will be modified or even abandoned. Practicality has become the core of Gracie Jiu Jitsu. Every technology has been tested in actual combat.

The Gracie Family's descendants can't do other things when they are young, but practice jujitsu. Regardless of boys and girls, they should eat special foods in a unified way, rest at a fixed time, and devote themselves to practice. In an interview with China media, Cali Gracie said: "Because I am a member of The Gracie Family, I have no choice but Jiu Jitsu."

From 1969 to 1972, Cali Gracie is the national jujitsu champion in Brazil and the champion of the "Infinite" mixed fighting competition. At that time, Jiu Jitsu had developed very well in Brazil, where private fighting was prevalent. After retiring, Cali worked as a coach at the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu School. Because of the outstanding effect of training the US Marine Corps, he was hired by a naval base in Virginia, USA. 1972, Cali moved to the United States, where she specially trained American soldiers and secret police, which was equivalent to obtaining the "official pass" of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He was also the first member of his family to bring Jiu Jitsu to America. After the Vietnam War, Cali finished his work in the army. He went to a club to teach. At that time, few people paid attention to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu except Brazilians. Although there is a TV station looking for Cali to do a program, it is only because he has never lost in the challenge. Everyone has a series of questions about him: where did you learn this technology? Is it in the mountains of Japan? Why is it so powerful? From 65438 to 0978, Cali went to San Francisco and continued to teach Jiu Jitsu on a small scale.

Although Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is famous, there is no article about Gracie Jiu Jitsu in American fighting magazines. It was not until 1989 that the first article on Brazilian Jiu Jitsu appeared in the famous magazine Playboy. It's about Cali's cousin Lorraine Gracie who designs martial arts moves for Mel Gibson's deadly weapon, and Playboy magazine spreads him and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with gorgeous words. Unlike other people in the family, Lorraine has a law degree. He is ambitious and wants to add value to his family's jujitsu and become a global fighting empire.

Because the American public at that time was deeply influenced by Bruce Lee's films, it was easy to combine martial arts with fighting instead of actual self-defense and actual combat. Practicality is The Gracie Family's pride. Their skills are not good-looking. Jiu Jitsu looks like two people rolling on the ground, but it is actually quite practical. Being misunderstood by the public is a headache for Lorraine, but he has his own plans.

Lorraine said he wanted to organize a challenge. He and his younger brothers, Rickson, Ross and Basil, are ready to accept the challenges of other types of players, and the result will prove which one is better. Some dangerous challengers followed. The Gracie brothers won. Lorraine recorded the whole process with a video camera and made a video of the challenge clip, which was promoted in Brazil and Los Angeles. In the voice-over, Lorraine said: "95% of actual combat ends with both sides wrestling and rolling, and the ground attack is what Gracie Jiu Jitsu is best at."

People have bought this teaching video and signed up for Gracie's course, and the business of the club has gradually flourished. But lorraine is not satisfied. He wants Gracie Jiu Jitsu to get more attention. Once, Cali returned to Brazil and mentioned to his uncle and cousin, "In fact, we can bring random combat to the United States."

The fighting competition caused a sensation in America.

Since 1950s or even earlier, the "Vale tudos", a fighting competition combining various categories, has become popular in Brazil. Lorraine and many brothers in the family have participated in this competition. He also launched a similar competition in America. He called it UFC (Ultimate Fighting Competition), which later became a long-running series of events. 1993165438+1October 12, the first UFC competition was held in Denver, Colorado, USA, and was widely regarded as the first world mixed fighting competition in the future.

The champion before the game was repeatedly guessed. What genre of martial arts can finally win the championship? At that time, there were boxers, sumo wrestlers, karate champions, taekwondo masters, and KenShamrock, an American who had already succeeded in the Japanese comprehensive martial arts competition Pancrase. However, Luo's younger brother Ross won the championship in less than five minutes, and even the powerful Shylock lasted only 57 seconds in front of him. You know, he is the lightest. Since then, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu has caused a sensation in the United States.

There is no doubt that this activity promoted Jiu Jitsu. Besides karate, Thai boxing and boxing, Jiu Jitsu has become one of the compulsory courses for American boxers. Quite a few people practice Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and watch the game. There are many games on TV programs in Boston, new york and Detroit every day. It seems that jujitsu and mixed fighting have surpassed boxing.

In fact, in the United States, Jiu Jitsu has become the second largest fighting skill after boxing. In Japan and Europe, Brazilian jujitsu is also sought after by people. Kali was invited by the Japanese Emperor to train a Japanese a freedom fighter, and achieved good results. In 2000, in a high-profile retirement battle, Recksen Gracie, a 42-year-old jujitsu player, defeated Masakatsu Funaki, a Japanese fighting idol, with a score of 12 minutes and 49 seconds, ending his fighting career unbeaten and causing a sensation throughout Japan.