Mitsuyo Maeda Koma
Maeda a Japanese man was in Brazil to over see Japanese immigration into the country. Whilst doing so he became friends with Gastao Gracie who was instrumental in helping Japanese immigrants establish communities in Brazil.
Maeda was a World Jiu-Jitsu Champion and did something that was not usually done by teaching Gastao Gracie’s son Carlos the art of Japanese Jiu-Jitsu circa 1918.
Carlos Gracie
After learning traditional Jiu-Jitsu from Maeda, Carlos passed on his knowledge to the others in the family. He then decided to open the first Gracie Jiu-Jitsu academy in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Carlos Gracie was small in stature as were others in the family, so they went on to refine the Jiu-Jitsu Carlos was taught so that anyone of any size could use the techniques. Carlos also brought in the “Gracie Challenge”. This was where anyone could come and test their skill against Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. After Carlos’s brother “Helio” who was the current representative of the family lost to a former student name Waldemar Santana the family looked towards Carlos’s eldest son Carlson Gracie.
Carlson Gracie
Carlson Gracie (17 yrs old, 72kg) fought Waldemar Santana (94kg). This was Carlson Gracie’s first professional Vale Tudo fight. Carlson revenged Prof. Helio’s loss to Santana.
Carlson went on to fight 19 professional matches and remained undefeated. Carlson reigned as world champion for 30 years in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
At age 20 riding on his new found fame Carlson Gracie opened his own academy. At that time there were only 2 academies in Brazil under the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Team – the original Gracie academy in the city and Carlson’s in Copacabana.
Carlson had his own approach to teaching Jiu-Jitsu with a more aggressive style of training and a reputation of not holding any information back from his students. When tournaments came around a total of only 2 fighters could represent the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Team. Accordingly, the students from the 2 Gracie Jiu-Jitsu academies would fight to qualify to represent the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Team. This was a cause of tension as Carlson’s students would always qualify for the tournaments.
When Carlson started the academy in Copacabana, he invited Rolls Gracie to come and train with him – which he did and went on to become a great Jiu-Jitsu fighter.
Later Rolls and Carlson had a disagreement which led to a splitting of the team at the Copacabana academy with each Carlson and Rolls retaining their own students but sharing time for use of the mat. Carlson’s students continued to win the qualifying events for tournaments aggravating the rivalry. To put an end to this rivalry, Carlson decided to put his own name to his style of Jiu-Jitsu and no longer used the general term Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, so became “Carlson Gracie Jiu-Jitsu”. This enabled students from the other Gracie academies to qualify for tournaments. After Rolls’s tragic death, Carlos Gracie Jr, who was a student of Roll’s was asked to take over the duty as instructor of Rolls students which he did and moved to Barra.
With Carlson’s unique style of training, conditioning and techniques, the Carlson Gracie Jiu-Jitsu academy in Copacabana went on to produce world champions in Jiu-Jitsu, Submission Wrestling and Vale Tudo/No Hold Barred. This led to Carlson Gracie becoming one of the most sought after coaches in Jiu-Jitsu history.
Carlson Gracie Jr.
Being the son of a legendary father, it was no surprise that Carlson Gracie Jr became a Jiu-Jitsu Champion. Picking up the name “the Prince of Jiu-Jitsu” Jr went on to compete and become a champion in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Greco Roman Wrestling and Vale Tudo/MMA. After taking on teaching duties at the main academy in Copacabana Brazil and helping to produce some of the best fighters in the world, Carlson Gracie Jr moved to Chicago in the United States. With a mission to spread his families style of Jiu-Jitsu and to carry on the legacy of creating champions, Jr now has his own academy in Chicago. As well as having his own Jiu-Jitsu team he is sought after to teach seminars around the world to other academies, law enforcement and military services.
