Rener Gracie was Paddy “The Baddy” Pimblett‘s recent podcast episode guest.
During the episode, the two discussed the many things that make them excited about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu; one of them being the history of the Gentle Art.
Rener explained how BJJ came to be through the Gracie family:
It goes to the early 1900’s in Brazil, where my granduncle Carlos and his brother, my grandfather Helio Gracie, were introduced to Jiu-Jitsu as young men there.
The challenge was, my grandfather was uniquely physically unfit. He was a frail, very weak young man. And, as a result, he was restricted from doing the Japanese Jiu-Jitsu techniques that his older brothers were practicing and were capable of doing.And because his physique was so frail, when he finally did venture out on the mat and made his way out there as a teenager, he realized that the techniques were suitable for his brothers and their students were not suitable for him.
So, those adaptations to the original Japanese rendition to the art are what gave birth to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as we now know it and as it’s being practiced so widely around the world.
Rener also shared his opinion on what makes BJJ truly different, as opposed to the Japanese predecessor of the art:
It’s the acceptance that just because you’re underneath someone doesn’t mean that the fight is over. You could be on the bottom…
And my grandfather, being so small and so frail his whole life, he was often just rag-dolled to the bottom of the fight.
So, his mindset was: “Look, you might take me down, you might get on top of me. But this fight isn’t over until you either knock me out or choke me out or submit me in some fashion.”So, that right there gave birth to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in my opinion. And it’s what made it into such a unique and amazing art today.
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