A Look at the Roots of Brazilian Jiujitsu

Brazilian Jiujitsu is a martial art and combat sportchallenge matches, they grew their name and the
that obviously developed in Brazil. What isn't assport grew as well throughout Brazil.
obvious though, are it's roots. The Gracie familyIn the early 1990's they brought popularity to
are acknowledged as having developed Braziliantheir martial art through the early Ultimate Fighting
Jiujitsu out of Judo. The two martial arts areChampionship matches that involved mixing
actually very closely related. Where they differ isdifferent martial arts styles against each other to
the emphasis on takedowns (Judo) and groundprove the effectiveness of BJJ. It was originally
work (Brazilian Jiujitsu).billed as pitting the martial arts against each other
Both BJJ and Judo contain very similar elements,to prove which one was the most effective.
they both are made up of takedowns andThe art has grown tremendously in North
throws, ground work, positional control, andAmerica and throughout the world since then as
submissions. They differ in the emphasis of thosemany people flocked to learn BJJ not only for
techniques and the training involved.sport reasons, but self defense and to get in
Where Judo is focused mostly on takedowns andgreat shape. All of which BJJ is excellent for.
throws and involves some ground work. BJJ is theAs a sport it is highly strategic and athletic
opposite and involves less of a focus on throwsinvolving sophisticated techniques that have
and takedowns, (though they are important todeveloped and evolved greatly over the past
BJJ) and more focus on the ground skills,decade. For self defense it is a large piece of the
positioning, and submissions.puzzle and many martial artists have realized that
The Gracies took the Judo skills they learned,their game is incomplete without some skill on the
(Judo was commonly called Jiujitsu in those days,ground. And for fitness and getting in shape it
and further developed the skills so that size andoffers one of the most intense workouts
strength would matter less and a much smallerinvolving everything from cardio conditioning to
man could effectively control and defeat a largerstrength and explosiveness to fat loss and getting
and more physically powerful one.in top shape.
They took out most of the more powerIt is now recognized as an intricate and
dependant techniques and sharpened thesophisticated martial art with highly skilled
techniques that required more leverage in orderpractitioners testing their skills throughout the
to work. After defeating many opponents in sportworld in competitions.