Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
It is often claimed that BJJ is a development of traditional Japanese jujutsu, and that Maeda was a jujutsuka. However, Maeda never trained in jujutsu. He first trained in sumo as a teenager, and after the interest generated by stories about the success of judo at contests between judo and jujutsu that were occurring at the time, he changed from sumo to judo, becoming a student of Kano's Kodokan judo. He was promoted to 7th dan in Kodokan judo the day before he died in 1941. Many people believe that Gracie holds a Judo rank of 6th dan including Masahiko Kimura. However the Kodokan has no record that Hélio Gracie has held any dan grade in Judo.
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Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Since its inception, judo was separated from jujutsu in its goals, philosophy, and training regime. Although there was great rivalry among jujutsu teachers, this was more than just Kano's ambition to clearly individualize his art. To Kano, judo wasn't solely a martial art: it was also a sport, a method for promoting physical fitness and building character in young people, and, ultimately, a way (Do) of life. To a very large extent, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has also encompassed these philosophies.
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Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
The art began with Mitsuyo Maeda (aka Conde Koma, or Count Coma in English), an expert Japanese judoka and member of the Kodokan. Maeda was one of five of the Kodokan's top groundwork experts that Judo's founder Kano Jigoro sent overseas to spread his art to the world. Maeda left Japan in 1904 and visited a number of countries giving "jiu-do" demonstrations and accepting challenges from wrestlers, boxers, savate fighters and various other martial artists before eventually arriving in Brazil on November 14, 1914.
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Megaton
Wellington "Megaton" Dias is an official black belt representative of the Royler Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Association. He resides in Phoenix where he directs the Megaton Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy, the #1 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu academy in Arizona. Megaton has had over 30 years of training in both Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Judo.
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Congrats to Ilan
Congrats to Ilan Heller for competing and place 3rd at the recent Storm BJJ tournament.
