2009 Pan American news

If anyone still has doubts that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is growing at an unbelievable speed, in spite of a bad economy, this years Pan American Tournament should silence those doubts. With a record attendance of 2,430 competitors, the IBJJF still managed to do a great job keeping the event running smoothly.

With only 3 athletes, we represented  MVBJJ bringing home 4 medals and helping our competition team (Gracie Humaita) to be first place in the master division., It was also great to see Professor Villardo returning to the mats after 9 years without competing.

A Brief History of the Evolution of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

By Paul Mahoney 

Today, we can observe many varieties of Jiu-Jitsu in the martial arts world. All these well marked varieties of Jiu-Jitsu have descended with modifications over a period of time from a common ancestor. Most variations that have appeared were not able to survive in the harsh struggle for existence, but a few styles have appeared that are surviving in the fierce competition of the mixed martial arts world today. The modified styles of Jiu-Jitsu that have succeeded are those that have become more diversified in structure and are thus able to dominate in places previously occupied by other styles. One variation of Jiu-Jitsu that has continued to become more improved and dominant in relation to others, is called Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and it is this variation whose history we wish to trace.

Our method of tracing this history will be to begin in the present and walk backwards through time hoping to discover the common ancestor of the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu being taught in America and around the world today. As we journey backward through time, we will meet some of the individuals who have been influential in the creation of Jiu-Jitsu from its early beginnings in Japan to its modifications in Brazil and finally to it’s present day success in America.

We will begin our journey back through history with a very talented instructor who is teaching Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Palm Beach County. Professor Mauricio Villardo traveled from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to the United States in 2001 and brought Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with him .In 2002, Professor Villardo established the Mauricio Villardo Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy in Boca Raton Florida, followed by Academies in Wellington and Loxahatchee. Of course, Professor Villardo did not independently create Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and therefore we must continue to walk back through time in order to locate the origin of his unique style of BJJ.

We must travel with Professor Villardo back to his home in Brazil .When we arrive in Brazil, we will stop and meet with the family who created the style of Jiu-Jitsu which is in fact the common ancestor of all the various branches of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu which we see being taught and practiced in America and around the world today. This family is the legendary Gracie family, now being led by the grand patriarch, Helio Gracie.

Professor Mauricio Villardo is connected to the Gracies through Master Royler Gracie, Helio’s 5^th son. Mauricio trained and assisted Royler, teaching in Brazil . He is a third degree Black Belt, and is certified by the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation. Therefore, Professor Villardo can trace his Jiu-Jitsu back to Brazil and to the Gracie family through his relationship with Royler Gracie. The Jiu-Jitsu that Professor Villardo teaches in Florida is a direct descendant of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.

Let’s continue our journey backward, deeper into the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu tree. Our search does not end with Royler Gracie, because Royler did not create Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. He was taught Jiu-Jitsu by his father, Helio Gracie. We could spend a long time visiting with Helio, who is now 95 and still teaching and training every day, but we must continue traveling back to the early 1900’s in order to discover the source of the Jiu-Jitsu being taught by Professor Villardo, Royler Gracie and Helio Gracie. Helio Gracie was born in 1913. He was the youngest of five sons born to Gastao Gracie. By 1930 he was teaching Jiu-Jitsu with his brothers in Rio, and in 1940, he opened an academy in Rio and continued teaching Jiu-Jitsu to Brazilians. In 1967, he formed the first Jiu-Jitsu federation. However, our journey does not end with Helio. Although he was instrumental in creating what has become Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, he did not originate it. We must travel back in time and visit his oldest brother, Carlos Gracie.

Carlos Gracie was born in 1901 and died 1998. During his childhood, there was a large Japanese population in Brazil, and his father, Gastao Gracie was helping a man named Esai Maeda to establish a Japanese immigration colony in Brazil. Maeda, who later was given the title “Conde Koma” or “Count Combat”, was a Judo champion, who in 1904 traveled from Japan to the United States to demonstrate Judo to President Roosevelt. He later settled in Brazil where he met Gastao Gracie Their friendship resulted in the Maeda teaching Gastao’s son, Carlos Gracie some Judo, which Carlos in turn taught to his brothers, one of whom was Helio. The time was 1914. But where did Esai Maeda learn Judo and how are Judo and Jiu-Jitsu related?

We must now take one final step into the past in order to locate the common ancestor of the various forms of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu we meet in the world today. This search will take us from Brazil to Japan where we will meet the teacher of Esai Maeda and the creator of Judo, Jigaro Kano. Jigaro Kano modified the Jiu-Jitsu that had been used by the warrior class during the Feudal period in Japan. At first, his style was actually called Kano’s Jiu-Jitsu and by the late 1800’s he had renamed it Judo, the gentle way. It was this Judo that Jigaro Kano taught to Maeda who in turn passed it on to Carlos Gracie.

For now, our journey ends here. These are the facts and beyond this the history of Jiu-Jitsu becomes speculative. That of which we can be certain is that Jigaro Kano created his own system of Jiu-Jitsu and called it Judo. Kano passed his way onto his student Esai Maeda who traveled to Brazil in 1914 and shared it with Carlos Gracie. Carlos Gracie made modifications to what Maeda brought from Japan and taught these modified techniques to his brothers. By 1925, the Gracies had opened an academy and were calling their style, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. One of Carlos brothers, Helio made more adaptations to this system so that a smaller person could easily apply them to larger person. Grand Master Helio Gracie would continue to make modifications that would improve Gracie Jiu-Jitsu and he taught this to his sons. One of those sons is Master Royler Gracie, who passed this Gracie Jiu-Jitsu to Professor Mauricio Villardo.

This historic journey should help us to keep in mind that Brazilian / Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is a method of fighting that is evolutionary in nature and continues to change with the time moving toward the perfect fighting system. 

Wellington Jiu-Jitsu instructor says Sport's lessons extend well beyond the workout

By Jodie Wagner

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

WELLINGTON — Unlike many Brazilian children, Mauricio Villardo spent little time on the soccer field.

Instead, the Rio de Janeiro native preferred to be surrounded by water. "I thought surfing would be the sport in my life," he said.

As a teenager, though, he chose a different path.

Small in stature, Villardo, now 32 and the father of a 2-year-old daughter, took up Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as a means of defending himself on the tough streets of Rio.

"I was small, and Rio de Janeiro is very dangerous," he said. "I had to defend myself. When I was 14, I started to move around in the city a lot, take the bus. Sometimes, if you don't know a few techniques, then you're going to get robbed.

"So I started to get involved in martial arts. I was impressed with the jiu-jitsu, because the jiu-jitsu allows a small person to beat, or at least defend, against a bigger person. That's the only way I could survive."

Soon after he began martial arts training, he gave up surfing for good. He focused on jiu-jitsu and soon rose through the ranks of the country's top fighters. In 1996, he won a world championship and also placed second in the event at the Pan American Games.

"Jiu-jitsu is like chess on a mat," Villardo said of the martial art, which evolved among the samurai of feudal Japan and consists primarily of grappling techniques. "You've got to really think. You have so many moves, so many variations."

Since 1997, Villardo has been teaching those variations to thousands of martial arts students.

Soon after winning his world championship, he left his competitive career to focus on teaching.

"That was a time in my life where I kind of said, 'You know what? I think I'm really going to dedicate myself to it,'" he said of martial arts instruction. "It's not only a sport. I'm going to take this as a lifestyle."

Villardo began teaching Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at the famed Gracie Academy in Rio de Janeiro and at other schools in Brazil before he and his wife, Renata, decided to move to Florida in 2002. Their dream was to open a martial arts school of their own.

"I had an opportunity to come to America," said Villardo, who settled in West Palm Beach before moving to Wellington four years ago. "My mother lived here. She's retired now, but she lived here and she's a naturalized U.S. citizen.

"It would have been easy for me to get a work visa. I thought that was great, because I could expand the jiu-jitsu to Florida, which at that time had no academy in Palm Beach County. Even in Broward, they didn't have many. I ended up teaching, bringing the jiu-jitsu from the Gracie Academy."

Villardo opened his first Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu school in Boca Raton in 2002, and added locations in Wellington in 2004 and in Loxahatchee in 2005.

His schools train more than 100 students, most of them adults whose goals are to pursue a healthy lifestyle, build self-control and confidence and make friends.

"The thing I try to bring into the school is beyond self-defense," said Villardo, a third-degree black belt who works closely with the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office to train its law enforcement officers. "We have a very good, solid group of people. This is like a family for them.

"They don't practice this just to get safe, or compete. They come here to socialize. We have many different kinds of people. We have teenagers, we have doctors, lawyers - all kinds of people - training here. On the mat, they are looking for the same goal."

With Villardo's help, many have achieved it.

"BJJ has become a lifestyle for me," said Paul Guzman, a physician who began training with Villardo last February. "I am much healthier in mind, spirit and body than I ever have been."

For information on Mauricio Villardo Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, call (561) 856-1361 or visit www.brjj.com.

Click on the article to see the full page