I think it's very important for the life of the students
to have a professor with an open mind,
with whom they can learn
and receive enough material that they can choose their right game,
having good direction so they can give the most of themselves,
developing the best style for their body types,
for the way they train
and face all these teachings.
It is very important to have professors who can show them that journey.
I was lucky in life.
I had a father who was a very positive man
and gave me a very important philosophy about life,
who was Carlos Gracie.
The man who knew how to lead with a mentality
which benefited many people in the world.
I had another great influencer -
my uncle Helio,
who worked with my father
and was the professor who used to coordinate the school's teachings
for all of those who were training,
and he could directly influence teachings and guidance
that those people would receive.
And my brother Rolls, who was closer to my age,
with whom I had a very strong connection and we were very close.
He had a skill, a direct influence on those who he taught,
and I was influenced greatly by him.
And from all of that, analyzing this trilogy,
my father opened my mind to look at the world in some way,
and with a very open perspective;
My uncle was focused on that mindset that you had to be a samurai,
training and dedicating yourself, disciplined within the principles of the martial arts;
My brother Rolls had the mentality of developing a combative game -
in which if you could attack the most,
the opponent would have no option to defend himself, let alone to attack you -
and using several techniques.
Rolls was a person who, being influenced by my father
to have this open mind,
started to go out into the world and engage with other martial arts
And he believed that an individual should learn everything.
So, the Jiu-jitsu I practice today has a lot his influences and teachings.
Although all three have a similar mindset of having complete Jiu-Jitsu.
But Rolls always looked for...
my uncle Helio was a little closed when it comes to the knowledge that he would teach,
as if you could only train that, if you could be really focused on that,
that should be enough to prepare yourself for any fight.
Rolls had a more open view, that if you could
look for other things that could enrich your Jiu-Jitsu,
that would make your Jiu-Jitsu better.
So, I had all these influences and, in fact,
they were all very important to my life,
because my father philosophically opened my mind,
about having no limits to where you can get to.
My uncle taught that you need to train hard, determined, and focused on that,
on your ability, and the more you dedicate yourself, the more focus you have,
you end up being unbeatable.
And Rolls brought that learning experience on which if you can enrich your game with external
things that could work well with it, you will always improve yourself.
Then, I started to use those three ideas and I built my own mind
based on what I understood from what they meant.
With my way of understanding,
I followed this path and created a teaching method in my school
with all these rich elements that I received from those three professors,
which were the three professors who have influenced my life in Jiu-Jitsu.
My Jiu-Jitsu style was the unification of those three concepts,
which brought to me the following way of thinking:
- Jiu-Jitsu is a mechanism for helping others.
This came a lot from my father,
about something that works for humanity.
The idea that we are working for the humanity.
To train to be a focused individual, a determined one,
sacrificing to their maximum to achieve their goals -
that was the contribution from my uncle.
Because he said he used to practice all day,
he used to teach all day,
he would think only about it,
and even as skinny as he was,
he could achieve some unimaginable goals.
All thanks to this training-oriented mindset, of this “radicalism” for training,
And to the focus on what he wanted.
So, I put it into my day-to-day teachings as well.
And from my brother Rolls, the idea of having an open mind,
of learning everything I could.
Both with people from outside and with my own students.
And to enrich my “teaching menu”,
regarding what I could offer to my students.
So, I implemented a broad Jiu-Jitsu,
with no borders, where I would include whatever could be adapted and would be good for it.
And based on that, the curriculum at my school, and for Gracie Barra,
never mentions that you cannot teach new things.
For example, if you are having a guard passing class.
The technique, the way you will pass the guard can be your creation.
You can create it, you can search for something, you can imitate something.
You can do whatever you want.
But you need to teach a class about guard passing.
This will not constrain your creativity to improve your guard passing techniques.
You do not need to show ‘this’ or ‘that’ guard pass move.
Or if you will teach a leg throw;
You can create a leg throw movement.
You can teach any movement you like,
or one that you believe is the best for your students.
Or a hip throw.
You can choose the technique, but on that day
you must teach a hip throw, whatever it will be.
So, the basic system of our teachings
does not constrain in any way the technique evolution,
nor the style the professor wants to teach.
It just needs to be in accordance with the Gracie Barra system.
So, I think it made Gracie Barra
a teaching method that does not constrain anyone,
which gives the mechanisms,
and tools so that we can all use our creativity
in the daily classes to teach what we want to.