Gracies Invades a Judo school 1988

An Army of Gracies Invade a Judo school to show off Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) is a martial art and combat sport that focuses on grappling and especially ground fighting with the goal of gaining a dominant position and using joint-locks and chokeholds to force an opponent to submit or be knocked out depending on what submission method is used. The art was based on early 20th century Kodokan Judo, which was itself then a recently-developed system (founded in 1882), based on multiple schools (or Ryu) of Japanese Jujutsu.

The art began with Mitsuyo Maeda (aka Conde Koma, or Count Combat in English), a Japanese expert judoka and member of the Kodokan. Maeda was one of five of the Kodokan’s top groundwork experts that Judo’s founder Kano Jigoro sent overseas to spread his art to the world. Maeda left Japan in 1904 and visited a number of countries giving “jiu-do” demonstrations and accepting challenges from wrestlers, boxers, savate fighters and various other martial artists before eventually arriving in Brazil on November 14, 1914.

Today there are four major branches of Jiu-Jitsu from Brazil. Gracie Humaita, Gracie Barra, Alliance Jiu-Jitsu, and Carlson Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. Each branch can trace its roots back to Carlos Gracie, and Mitsuyo Maeda.

Samurai and Fair Fights

In a recent post, I responded to a a statement on the aikido forum, quoting a noted aikido instructor, Mr. Isoyama. I criticized his knowledge of at least one aspect of Japanese culture, based on his quoted statement about hakama length. I received a very decent email from one of his students who disagreed with my conclusions – and the upshot of it was we chose to continue to disagree.

It will thus perhaps appear that I bear Mr. Isoyama some animus (I do not!) in citing another statement Nathan Scott quotes him as saying that I must disagree with. “Isoyama Hiroshi Shihan … explained the frontal attack/ushirowaza setup found in Aikido as being something done for reasons of “samurai manner”. Basically, saying that it would have been un-samurai like to sneak up behind someone to attack them. So even in practice they would not train that way, lest others would think them low class.” Again, I can only state that this statement – very common among Japanese and Westerners who have an idealistic fantasy of the samurai, and evidently little actual knowledge of bushi history – is not borne out in fact. Most of the oldest jujutsu-ryu specifically have any number of surprise attacks, including attacks from the rear, WHERE THE ATTACKER WINS. No counters (they were developed later in Japanese history, in peacetime – the oldest ryu had killing methods at their core, and central were methods of quickly dispatching the vulnerable, not self-defense or counters!) Read more

This Is Why I Learn Aikido

You know, a lot of time… shit happened to us, especially accidental fall.
By practicing Aikido, at least I get used to take some fall.
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Kids Enjoy Aikido Training

Kids really enjoy doing Aikido training as you can see them below. Very funny little kids.
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Ki Secrets Revealed

Looking for your training enlightenment?

For more pictures, please visit: mikkabouzu

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