Gracie Jiu-Jitsu | The Gentle Art

Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, known as ‘The Gentle Art,’ is based on the principle that a smaller person can defend successfully against a more athletic, bigger, stronger attacker using leverage and proper technique. Founded by Helio Gracie in the earlier part of the 20th century, Gracie jiu jitsu has roots in Japanese jujutsu. It is an art that has evolved over decades of practice become renowned as the most effective and most humane system of self defense in the world.

At Daniel Gracie Academy, we teach and practice the principals of Gracie jiu jitsu with students of all backgrounds and abilities. With students ranging from children as young as 5 to seniors, we instill our core values: Respectful, Confident, Humble, Positive, Kind. 

Benefits of Brazilian jiu jitsu

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is one of the most rewarding martial arts in the world. In just a short time of consistent training you will start to realize both physical and mental benefits that jiu jitsu has to offer. Unlike many other martial arts, it has no striking, instead your work mostly takes place on the ground, submitting your opponent with chokes and joint locks.

Excellent physical workout

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu classes include a variety of low and high intensity workouts with little rest. This makes BJJ sparring a great form of cardio vascular and aerobic exercise. Research has estimated a 5 minute sparring (or roll) session will burn around 500 calories on average. You build strength and tone throughout your entire body. Increased agility, sharper reflexes, more acute senses, improved blood circulation and respiration are among the physical benefits that come with the constant motion, gripping and maneuvering required in a jiu jitsu match.

Exercise for the mind

Often referred to as physical chess, there’s much more to jiu jitsu techniques than learning muscle memory, balance, leverage, and framing. The education of your body starts with your mind. There’s a huge amount of data to consume and remember, and because no one opponent is exactly the same, you’ll be forced to constantly adapt. You can train for years and never stop learning new positions, techniques, transitions and strategies in BJJ.

Learn to protect yourself

Jiu Jitsu teaches you valuable self defense skills that are effective and safer tht striking arts. The ground survival techniques you learn allow you to restrain an attacker first then utilize submissions to render an opponent unconscious or immobilize their joints if absolutely necessary.

Become part of a community

Jiu-Jitsu practitioners form close bonds. You will find you have much in common with your gym community and the wider BJJ community.

Sense of achievement

BJJ has a belt and stripe system. You will feel a great satisfaction when you rank up to the next belt.

Learn patience with Jiu-Jitsu

In Jiu-Jitsu you’ll often have to wait for the best time to make an escape or bait an opponent. When trying to escape, especially when wearing a gi, you’ll need to patiently defeat each of your opponent’s obstacles before successfully making an escape.

Develop problem solving skills

Oftentimes in BJJ you’ll come across guards or game styles you’re not familiar with. Sometimes you’ll have to improvise on the fly to try and pass these guards or overcome new styles.

Build discipline

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is mentally and physically challenging. To continuously make it to class each week consistently requires discipline in the face of regular and normal “losses” in sparring. This regular routine and consistent practice is so important for growth.

Calm under pressure

One of the biggest lessons you learn in jiu jitsu is to relax, especially when in an uncomfortable or compromising position where your first reaction might be to panic. Relaxing under pressure allows you to better conserve your energy and plan your next move. You will learn to maintain calm breathing at all times and as you learn more, develop the confidence in knowing you will figure a way out.

Confidence

Which brings us to one of the greatest benefits of jiu jitsu: the confidence and self esteem you will develop as you learn master techniques and realize you can handle this. After training in BJJ for an extended period of time you’ll have an impressive list of successes through sparring or competing. Your achievements on the mat will help you deal with the stresses of live as your perspective evolves. Not to mention the confidence you will carry know you can defend yourself.

A lesson in humility

Without the rain, you can’t truly appreciate the sun. With every success, you will experience losses. These losses are necessary and crucial for your learning journey. Still, the act of submitting and losing means that your ego necessarily takes a healthy hit every time you tap out. However, you’ll soon realize you learn more from how you lost a match than from how you won one.