History of the Arts

BRAZILIAN JIU-JITSU

is a martial art, combat sport, and a self defense system that focuses on grappling and especially ground fighting. The art was derived from the Japanese martial art of Kodokan judo in the early 20th century

It teaches that a smaller, weaker person can successfully defend against a bigger, stronger assailant by using leverage and proper technique—most notably by applying joint-locks and chokeholds to defeat the other person. BJJ training can be used for sport grappling tournaments (gi and no-gi) and mixed martial arts (MMA) competition or self defense.Sparring (commonly referred to as 'rolling') and live drilling play a major role in training .

The art began with Mitsuyo Maeda (aka Conde Koma, or Count Coma in English), a member of the then-recently-founded Kodokan. Maeda was one of five of Judo's top groundwork experts that Judo's founder Kano Jigoro sent overseas to demonstrate and 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. In 1917, Carlos Gracie, the eldest son of Gastão Gracie, watched a demonstration by Maeda at the Da Paz Theatre and decided to learn judo. Maeda accepted Carlos as a student and Carlos learned for a few years, eventually passing his knowledge on to his brothers.

Jiu-Jitsu came to international prominence in the martial arts community in the early 1990s, when Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu expert Royce Gracie won the first, second and fourth Ultimate Fighting Championships, U.F.C which at the time were single elimination martial arts tournaments Royce fought against often much-larger opponents who were practicing other styles, including boxing, shoot-fighting, karate, judo and tae kwon do.Royces win created great interest in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and in the new Mixed Martial Arts style of fighting . It took many years but now MMA has overtaken boxing as the most popular combat sport. Sport BJJ tournaments also continue to grow in popularity worldwide and has given rise to no-gi submission grappling tournaments, such as the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship.

Brazillian Jiu Jitsu is gaining fast popularity in many parts of the world and is looking to be one of the most popular martial arts around.

MIXED MARTIAL ARTS (MMA) 

is a full contact combat sport that allows the use of both striking and grappling techniques, both standing and on the ground, including boxing, wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu {BJJ}, muay Thai, kickboxing, karate, judo and other styles.

The roots of modern mixed martial arts can be traced back to the ancient Olympic combat sport of Pankration. Various mixed style contests also took place throughout Europe, Japan and the Pacific Rim during the early 1900s. The combat sport of Vale Tudo that had developed in Brazil from the 1920s was brought to the United States by the Gracie family in 1993 with the founding of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) .

KICKBOXING AND MUAY THAI

is a combat sport from Thailand that uses stand-up striking along with various clinching techniques.. Descended from muay boran, muay Thai is Thailand's national sport. Muay Thai is referred to as the "Art of Eight Limbs" or the "Science of Eight Limbs" because it makes use of punches, kicks, elbows and knee strikes, thus using eight "points of contact", as opposed to "two points" (fists) in boxing and "four points" (hands and feet) used in other more regulated combat sports, such as kickboxing, boxing, and savate. Muay Thai, like boxing and various forms of kickboxing, is recognised as a very effective striking base within MMA, and is very widely trained among MMA fighters. Fighters (some of whom have won titles) such as Anderson Silva, Wanderlei Silva, Mauricio Rua, Thiago Silva, Alistair Overeem, Jose Aldo, Amir Sadollah, Gina Carano, Cristiane Santos employ a broad range of tactics born of muay Thai. Countless other mixed martial artists have trained in the art, and it is often taught at MMA gyms as is BJJ and Wrestling.

Many techniques associated with muay Thai are often seen in MMA, such as punches, elbows, clinch fighting, leg kicks and knees.