Gracie Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy
Gilbert, Arizona

How Your FREE Class Works

Step Three:

After you’ve had a chance to experience a full lesson and have a better understanding of the sport of jiu-jitsu and its effectiveness for self-defense, you can decide to continue taking classes or not.

There’s no pressure to continue your training at our dojo, but we’d love to have you as part of the team!

What it Means to Learn Gracie Jiu-Jitsu

The Gracie method extends beyond the straightforward submission of adversaries. The Gracie concept equips practitioners with the skills necessary to lead healthy lives and make the most of their bodies and minds.

Here are some of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu’s core principles:

• The martial art encourages leading a life devoid of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. The reason for this is that maintaining a healthy physique is essential to excelling in the art.
• In accordance with the family’s ideology, maintaining relationships with loved ones and close friends is essential since it helps practitioners grow mentally and spiritually.
• BJJ is a self-defense martial art and combat sport centered on grappling, ground fighting, and submissions. BJJ focuses on the ability to take an opponent to the ground, dominate them, take control of the situation, and then employ a variety of moves to submit them using joint locks or chokeholds.

Through the inventions, techniques, and adaptations of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu and Judo, BJJ ultimately developed into its own distinct fighting sport and became a crucial martial art for contemporary MMA. International governing organizations, like the IBJJF, define the guidelines and requirements for sport BJJ contests.

BJJ is based on the idea that a smaller, weaker person can successfully defend themselves against a bigger, stronger, heavier opponent by using leverage and weight distribution, taking the fight to the ground, and using a variety of holds and submissions to win.

This idea is adapted from traditional Japanese jiu-jutsu. Sparring, sometimes known as “rolling” within the BJJ community and repetitive drills are very important to learning and retaining the art, building muscle memory, and for the growth of the practitioner.

BJJ may also be practiced as a way of life, a means of fostering moral character, a way to meet like-minded people, and an effective means of boosting physical health.

History of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

The grandson of George Gracie via his son Pedro, Gasto Gracie of Rio de Janeiro, wed Cesarina Pessoa Vasconcellos, a rich Ceará family member, in 1901, and made the decision to move in Belém do Pará.

Gasto Gracie joined the American Circus in Belém as a business partner. The Italian-Argentine Queirolo Brothers brought the Japanese judoka and prize fighter Mitsuyo Maeda there in 1916 as part of circus performances. Additionally, Gasto was instrumental in assisting Maeda in establishing a Japanese community in Brazil.

The oldest child of Gasto, Carlos, began to study judo after seeing a Mitsuyo Maeda demonstration at the Da Paz Theatre in 1917. Thus, as a way of saying thanks to Gasto for assisting him in settling in, Mitsuyo Maeda, better known as Conde Koma, accepted the offer to teach Gasto’s son Carlos. But after facing financial difficulties and losing his own father, Gasto and his family moved back to Rio de Janeiro in 1921.

Carlos and his brothers Oswaldo, Gasto Jr., George, and Hélio passed on Maeda’s jiu-jitsu instruction to neighborhood Rio de Janeiro martial artists.

There is a version that claims Helio was too young and sluggish to master the skill at the time, and because of his medical condition, he was unable to physically participate in training. However, it is now known that Helio went on to become a coxswain for the local rowing team and a skilled swimmer. Hélio successfully picked up the technique of Jiu Jitsu by observing his bigger brothers practice, but owing to his frail frame, he learned to utilize leverage and certain body motions rather than brute force to effectively submit his opponents.

As a result, Hélio Gracie is now credited for shaping Brazilian jiu-jitsu into what it is today.

While many members of the Gracie family found success in competition, Carlos’ grandson Roger Gracie is recognized as one of the most successful.

Six times at 100 kg, one at 100+ kg, and three times in the Absolute class, Roger won the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship. Additionally, he won the Absolute class at the Pan-American Championship in 2006 and the 100+kg and Absolute categories at the European Championships in 2005.