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