I’m a part-time PhD student in the UK, and spend most of my time either avoiding writing my thesis, or alternately rolling around with sweaty men (and less sweaty women) in Brazilian jiu jitsu. Or messing about on internet forums, naturally.
I’m just about old enough to remember Thundercats the first time round, in the UK at least, and its firmly embedded in my nostalgia banks, along with He-Man, Mysterious Cities of Gold, Dogtanian etc. So as someone who loves living in the past, I’ve been having a great time for the last few years, seeing how most of the companies with rights to my fave cartoons have started pandering to grown-up children like me with DVD box sets. Since I’ve been happily working my way through the Thundercats ones (which gives my beaten up old tape of Exodus a welcome rest), thought I’d sign up for some Thundercat forums and see what people are saying.
Royce certainly popularised it, by his performance in the first five UFCs. The originator, depending on who you ask, is either his grandfather Helio or Helio’s elder brother, Carlos - probably the most sensible answer would be that both of them can claim the title of ‘founder’.
It originates from a judoka, Mitsuyo Maeda, travelling to Brazil in the early 20th century to try and set up a Japanese colony there. Gastão Gracie, the father of Helio and Carlos, was a Brazilian diplomat, and he helped out Maeda. In return, Maeda offered to teach his son Carlos. By 1925, Carlos felt he’d learned enough to set up his own academy: he called it ‘jiu jitsu’ because at the time Maeda came to Brazil, ‘judo’ was not the only term in use. Some called it ‘Kano Ju Jitsu’ (Jigoro Kano is the guy who founded judo, based on his study of earlier ju jitsu styles which were going out of fashion back then, in the late nineteenth century). There are a load of different ways of spelling it, but ‘jiu jitsu’ is the one that stuck in Brazil.
I could go on: I’m planning to write a big fat history post on my blog once I gathered enough sources together. I love researching stuff, so looking forward to getting it all finished: only drawback is that as I don’t speak Portuguese, lots of BJJ history books I can’t read.
Basically speaking, BJJ is something that grew out of judo, but kept the focus on newaza, or groundfighting, also adding in stuff from SAMBO and wrestling (especially Rolls Gracie, known as particularly open-minded).
