Part Seven (7) The art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or BJJ. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is first and foremost a grappling or ground fighting art. Today it is one of the main pillars of Mixed Martial Arts or MMA. It is best known for its ability to control a opponent on the ground and allow its practitioners to "submit or Tap Out" their adversary with the implementation of chokes, and joint locks. The original style was developed by Carlos and Helio Gracie in Rio about 1925 after they were taught Judo (see earlier post on Judo). Carlos took the Japanese Judo style and began to make modifications to it and his younger brother Helio then took the teachings and further modified the system into what we see today as the dominant ground fighting system on the planet. The spread of BJJ has been a slow but steady growth around the world since its first exposure in UFC 1 in 1993 (see last post). The reason for the slow rise is due to only two factors, the lack of teachers outside of Brazil and the time it takes to earn a Black Belt. The average time being 10 years, where most other martial arts on average take around 4-6 years of dedicated practice. BJJ is by far and away the hardest black Black Belt to attain. Then youngest age a BJJ practitioner can expect to attain the coveted Black Belt is 19 years old. Children can not be promoted to Black Belt.
