Sensei of Senseis- Grand Master Helio Gracie

Sensei of Senseis- Grand Master Helio Gracie

GM Helio

I’ve heard people ask, “What made Grand Master Helio special?”

I usually answer them when I can, but it’s not a simple answer. Mostly, of course, these revolve around his great contribution to the art of Jiu Jitsu, although he was one of the people responsible for the largest sporting family in history.  Here are a few of the things that have always stuck out to me.

1. Refinement of the art of Jiu Jitsu.

He created and articulated an objective for Jiu Jitsu: “To give an average person the ability to defend against a bigger stronger opponent.” The method for achieving this was chiefly through a defensive approach, by allowing a bigger, stronger opponent to burn himself out while attacking you, and waiting for the right opportunity to escape or finish the fight with a joint lock or a strangle.

A. He then plugged the techniques into a game-plan for different real situations:

For the average man

For a woman

For a child

For a professional grappler

For a professional fighter

He wasn’t concerned with taking the new student, and having them fight the other students or compete with the other students right away.  His number one concern was to prepare them for what they came in for: the most common attacks that could possibly occur in real life situations.  Most of these were grabs, or a strike from an aggressive yet dangerous non Jiu Jitsu opponent.  Once he felt they were competent at defending against these most dangerous attacks, he would allow the student to continue to sharpen their sword against less common, less dangerous attacks from Jiu Jitsu practitioners during practice.  He didn’t want them to pick up bad habits, so he kept them focused on the real danger: bigger, stronger, aggressive, striking attackers.

B. And created a continual process of “cutting out the fat.”

Cutting out the fat means throwing out the least useful, trainable, learnable techniques in favour of the most useful, safe, trainable, learnable techniques. In essence, simplification of the art into its most effective components. He differentiated the realms of practice. Safe, sportive practice, in order to sharpen the higher level practitioners. He had beginners train exclusively common and likely attack scenarios. He had professionals focus on positional development including standing practice and look at other martial arts (e.g., boxing). If you look at the Master Text (pictured below), you may notice the total number of base techniques in relation to other Jiu Jitsu styles is relatively low. This is because he knew that overall simplification and distillation is incredibly important when it comes to refining an art.

2.  His willingness to prove the efficiency and effectiveness of his life’s work and craft.

He fought in challenge matches, going out and putting it on the line multiple times in order to prove and learn. In training, he always let bigger, stronger people get into attacking positions, which allowed him to refine techniques and eliminate useless notions.

3. His focus on the student and their learning process.

He was entirely focused on transmitting the magic, efficiency and power of the art in a step-by-step easy-to-digest process. He created a teaching pedagogy that was years ahead of its time, teaching from the top of society all the way down to the average man and woman. And there is no question he was an incredible transmitter of concept and form.

4. His dedication to continual improvement throughout his life.

He continued to refine and perfect the techniques and strategies until his 95th year.  He started the process in 1925 and never stopped working on taking power and explosiveness out and using leverage points, weight distribution, brilliant strategies and the most effective techniques in each situation.

5. His humility to admit when he was wrong.

In the video below, he admitted that he may have been wrong in some area or other but always tried to act in a positive way. Although not every view by GM Helio would be agreed upon by everyone, times and viewpoints change, a major part of his mindset was to eliminate useless and inefficient actions in favour of more efficient habits and beliefs. A major example of this was his adherence to the Gracie Diet, which he believed made his digestion more efficient and thus increased his resistance to sickness as well as improving recovery time.

6. His standards for teachers and professors.

GM Helio had very high standards for his professors, and only gave out a handful of Professor Diplomas in his lifetime. This was partly due to the process in which he developed the art. He didn’t have a legion of professors and teachers within the first 5-10 years. He taught for 8-10 hours a day, privately for years refining each aspect of the experience for his students. He spent decades refining the art of Jiu Jitsu in a way that best served his students.

7. The process for granting professors belt and certificate.

He created a graduated scale so there were many opportunities to measure and check the quality of the instructor.