Rickson Gracie is considered by many to be one of the greatest fighters and jiujitsu practitioners alive today. Although there are many other highly skilled and technically proficient fighters competing today, none exemplify and embody the spirit, mind and body approach to Jiujitsu in the way that Rickson has.
Your timing and energy to execute the right techniques at the right time are largely responsible for your level of proficiency. We will see how his experience can benefit us, both in our struggle and in our lives. Rickson was born into a Jiujitsu family. He started training almost since he could walk. He received his first degree black belt in Jiujitsu at age 18. He currently holds a seventh degree black belt in Gracie Jiujitsu. He is considered by the Gracie family as one of their best practitioners.
For years, Rickson has been reported to be undefeated in more than 400 fights. These included Jiujitsu tournaments, no holds barred matches, wrestling, sambo, open weight freestyle competitions, and street fighting. One of his best-known fights was against the well-known Brazilian fighter Zulu, who at the time was undefeated in over 140 bouts.
This fight and victory brought Rickson national notoriety and greatly increased his popularity in Brazil. Five years later, the two fought again in a rematch. Zulu went on in the press about how he would beat Rickson this time. He once again lost when Rickson emerged victorious in the second match. In another well-known and documented fight, a popular video, which eventually surfaced on Gracie In Action Videos, shows Rickson fighting Luta Livre champion Hugo Duarte on the beach in Rio de Janeiro.
Although this video unreasonably portrays Rickson as a street fighter, nothing could be further from the truth. It’s actually as close to an ideal representation of what a modern warrior should look like. Physically, he is naturally fit and looks substantially younger than his age. Philosophically, he is a firm believer in a healthy lifestyle, as well as a healthy outlook characterized by discipline, perseverance, and fairness in sportsmanship. In 1997, he at a wrestling tournament north of Toronto, Canada. One of Rickson’s students was competing and had made it to the finals. He was up against a Canadian competitor who displayed great skill and technical ability. Ultimately, the Ricksons wrestler was victorious via decision. The other team was visibly unhappy, as they felt strongly that their fighter had put up a better fight and should have won the match based on the points system. To their surprise, Rickson came over to shake their hands and tell them that his fighter was very impressive and that he should have won the decision. Rickson is also a big proponent of the belief that in order to be a well-rounded martial artist, one needs to train all three levels of body, mind, and spirit.
Many of his students cite the benefits of training with him as maintaining youthful vitality, improving balance and reducing stress, increased self-awareness and confidence, as well as increased energy and a deeper sense of inner peace. In Japan, the media have called him the perfect example of the samurai spirit. Rickson along with his brothers had learned Jiujitsu from his father, Helio Gracie, who had been taught by his brother, Carlos Gracie.
Carlos had learned Jiujitsu from the then Japanese Jiujitsu Champion Esai Maeda. It was Carlos’s father, Gastao Gracie, who helped Maeda establish a Japanese immigrant colony in Brazil. In return, he taught Gastao’s son Carlos Jiujitsu as a token of his gratitude and appreciation. 65 years later, this would bring Carlos’ nephew Rickson to Japan to compete using the modern and adapted form of Jiujitsu. Rickson’s notoriety in Japan began when his brother Royce became widely known after winning the US event, The Ultimate Fighting Championship, now commonly known as the UFC. It is there that Royce easily defeated 3 opponents in one night to become the champion.
One of those opponents was Ken Shamrock. Very popular in Japan at the time as one of the best Shootfighting competitors, he was bigger and more muscular than Royce, but Royce beat him quite easily. Because of this, Royce received a lot of media attention in Japan. When during interviews, Royce was asked, “Are you the best fighter in the world?” Royce would reply that his brother Rickson was much better than him. This heightened interest in Rickson from the Japanese media and from media outlets around the world. Rickson’s name and abilities would later gain legendary status. He trains all three components, the physical, the mental and the spiritual, but not separately. The key is to combine these components: A combination of determination, heart and skill. Another crucial component in this mix is adaptability. To be a capable fighter, you must be able to beat a stronger, faster, or more agile opponent. You must be able to capitalize on your opponents’ weaknesses and mistakes. You also need to focus on using your strengths to offset your weaknesses.
Knowledge of these is key.
Probably the most special aspect of Rickson’s approach to jujitsu is how personal it is.
You’ll rarely see technical magazine articles by him and he doesn’t have a series of how-to videos. For him, Jiujitsu is something very special and he shares it on a personal level. Thus he transmits the respect, friendship and camaraderie that accompany learning art. Probably one of the most illuminating things about Rickson Gracie is his evolved vision of no-holds-barred and mixed martial arts competition.
If you look at the overall evolution of Rickson’s character, you’ll see how early on he started out as a fighter who would fight anyone, anywhere, as a means to test his family’s system of Jiujitsu, right up to the end. Advanced martial artist of today who feels the obligation to transmit something more than fighting techniques. He will pass on a moral code of honor and the development of character traits like respect. These are the critical traits in becoming a well-rounded martial artist that Rickson feels should be inseparable from MMA today. His opinion is that the more quality the fighters who compete in these events have, the less violent the events will be and should be. The less technical ability fighters have to respond, the more likely they are to use violent tactics.
The fighter who has technical ability seeks to use that ability to achieve an end result. Fighters with low technical skill are more likely to get as violent as possible in an effort to brutalize their opponent and create a chance to knock them out. Even efficient punching fighters have a greater advantage and will engage in less violent fights when highly skilled. They choose their shots with much more precision and can knock out an opponent with less brutality than less skilled ones. It is obvious that Rickson’s view is that martial arts training is a very personal activity.
His breakdown of the most crucial aspects of training are as follows: First, you must know the techniques inside out. Then when you master your technical skills, you need timing, you have to be able to perform a technique at the right time, with the right speed. Finally you need conditioning. That’s flexibility, cardiovascular conditioning, and ideally some strength training.
Much of this type of training can be done on your own, and Rickson himself spends a lot of time training alone.
Obviously, it’s essential to have training partners to exercise with and fight with, but there’s still a lot you can do on your own.
Here is a quote taken from Rickson Gracie himself,
“Jiujitsu is a fight that combines all the elements and all the virtues of the human being. It is not a sport in which you only need to be physically skilled, or agile, or coordinated. You must also be mentally prepared, using your emotional control, your patience , your courage and your conviction. I mean, these are all factors that have to be combined. You can’t just attack. You can’t just be rude and forget the strategy of being calm and defending at the right time for counterattack later. It’s a combination of patience and aggressiveness with a lot of harmony”.
From this quote we get an idea that in order to function at your best in Jiujitsu, you need to be well-rounded and self-aware. You also need to apply every aspect of yourself in your performance. This is where the spiritual aspect of Jiujitsu meets the mental and the physical. Rickson’s view is that jujitsu’s greatest strength lies in its adaptability, and that adaptability is what allows it to unite different functional martial arts into a mixed martial arts arena. For a fighter to be complete, this adaptability, being able to adapt to a variety of situations, is necessary and critical to a fighter’s functionality. A Jiujitsu fighter must adapt his approach to what his opponent is doing. If his opponent is trying to hit him, he can jump into the punches and kicks and attempt a takedown. If his opponent goes for a throw or a takedown, the Jiujitsu fighter can defend and if he is knocked down, he can fight for a dominant position, from which he strikes or seeks and sets up a submission. If he is in a bad position, he can escape and get to a better position. The most important point is that Jiujitsu allows a fighter to have a solid defensive base from which he can attack and from which he can further develop his offensive and attacking abilities.
It is important to note that although Rickson considers himself to be a grappler and jiujitsu fighter first, he ultimately considers himself a well-rounded grappler and mixed martial artist in the truest sense. The most accurate description of Jiujitsu for Rickson Gracie is not a martial art but more exactly a philosophy, a philosophy to deal with and confront everyday life. His workouts are more like meditation than exercise. It’s about getting into a moment-to-moment flow and feeling a balance between body, mind, and spirit. It’s about losing yourself in the moment. Just being aware of what is happening at one moment and flowing to the next. Just going into it with all of his being, and the stamina, flexibility, and strength come of their own. This is a staple of Rickson’s training, very loosely orchestrated, very relaxed, and loosely rigid. It’s easy to understand why he’s received so much attention throughout his career. We can eagerly wait and see what will come after him.