An interview with Callum Medcraft, the founder of Jiu Jitsu Style.

by Can Sönmez

A quick note from the author…

A training partner of mine here in the UK has recently embarked on producing his own BJJ magazine, which will be called Jiu Jitsu Style. I caught up with Callum about the project, where he told me how he developed the idea and his plans for the future. In the interests of full disclosure, I should mention that I will probably be involved in the magazine myself at some point.

The FightWorks Podcast: I thought I’d start by asking what is your background in BJJ?

Callum Medcraft: I first got introduced to BJJ when I was doing my degree in Brighton, and I had – I guess like many people – heard about the Gracie family through the UFC, and was just gobsmacked by this martial art, this discipline that seemed so applicable to self defence.

My first real contact, I was living in Brighton and I was very lucky, because there was a Gracie Barra black belt called Marcio Gomes who also lived in Brighton. He had an academy down there, so that was essentially Gracie Barra Brighton. Marcio was a black belt under Gordo – the guy who invented the half guard, I think I’m right in saying?

So, I went down there, and it was quite a lucky position, because Marcio was a very high level black belt, and he also taught at Roger’s a few days in the week. He was a really good instructor, and he was pretty much about the same weight as me. It was a really friendly academy, we didn’t have massive numbers. That was the start for me. I got hooked pretty quickly, and as a student, I probably spent more time grappling on the mats, when maybe I should have been studying [laughs]. Worked out ideal for me!

Then through moving – I’d just finished university – back home to Buckinghamshire, I was a bit in between academies. So I had a couple of months where I had nothing really, then a place popped up in Windsor but it quickly shut down again. Luckily I found Kev, where we train now, and that was it, really.

That’s how I started and yeah, instantly hooked as soon as I started, just got a real buzz for it.

The FightWorks Podcast: Ok – and you’re a blue belt at the moment, aren’t you?

Callum Medcraft: Yeah, I’m a blue belt. It was weird actually, because I got my blue belt just as I left Marcio’s. I don’t know how long I’d been training, but I felt like it was coming, the blue belt was coming. I was a four stripe white and then literally at that point I moved away.

When I started training in Windsor, it was with some guys that also trained with Roger in London, so obviously they also spoke to Marcio as well. I went down to Brighton for a weekend to visit my brother, who still lived down there. I dropped in to train, and I’ve never forgotten my belt, but it was the one day I remember I’d forgotten to bring my belt.

So I was like, “Marcio, can I borrow a belt?”

He was really annoyed. I was thinking, what’s the problem? Then he pulled out a blue belt from his bag and said, “I was going to give you this at the end.” [laughs].

So yeah, I got it then. I’m a blue belt now with four stripes, and I definitely don’t feel ready for purple. [laughs]

The FightWorks Podcast: Why did you want to start your own BJJ mag?

Callum Medcraft: To be honest, the main reason I wanted to start it, I like magazines and I like reading print media, and in honesty it was almost the lack of anything that really covered the UK and European scene. I read Graciemag and I really like it, and I still think there is a lot left in print media. I think there is something nice about seeing these nice features spread across a magazine.

I just think the sport is growing so much in the UK, and I think the thing we’ve got with BJJ – which I don’t think you have with other martial arts and sports so much – is the people who are involved in it get so passionate about it that I really believe there is an audience.

I love jiu jitsu, but even when I talk to other people, there is so much you don’t know about, the history of it and certain characters within the sport. God knows how many times a new competitor’s name gets bandied about and I’ve no idea who he is. I’m hopeful that is the sort of thing you’ll pick up from reading a magazine.

That was it really. Jiu jitsu is such a great sport, and we’ve got karate magazines, thai boxing magazines and boxing magazines, so I thought it would be great if we had some sort of glossy magazine for us. I mean, and you’ll obviously know this as well, there is a great community of bloggers out there who are really talented writers and there is such interesting content always flying around, and I just think it is a real shame that maybe there isn’t the exposure that perhaps they deserve. Hopefully it’s an idea that people will embrace.

The FightWorks Podcast: Related to that, you mention that there’s already a few other BJJ mags around, like Graciemag, BJJ Legends, Tatame etc. So, do you think you can bring something new to that?

Callum Medcraft: Yeah, I hope so. The thing I was saying, they’re publications that are based out in America. The first thing, the way that we want to be different is that we want to address the European jiu jitsu scene first and foremost. We plan to have a lot more interviews with UK based competitors.

The thing that I think Graciemag especially does really well is that they’ll do a nice feature on a big competition with nice picture spreads, and it looks great. I think it would be great if we had that sort of coverage for UK competitions as well, and European competitions, so we plan on doing that.

I just think there is room: I think we’ll do things slightly differently, we’ll try and be a little bit more edgy and slightly more out of the box with how we lay things out. I definitely think there is room for a UK based publication. We’re going to be covering different things: obviously we might cross-over a few times throughout the year, when we both want to cover the Worlds or have an interview with someone, but I think there is plenty of scope for us to do things differently.

We want to really have something in the magazine that will appeal to everyone, be it that you like reading a feature with a world champion, or even, closer to home, we’re planning to have features with European competitors who maybe aren’t on the global radar but that people in the UK are more aware of, like Oli Geddes, Michael Russell and people like that. Competitors that people might not know about, but then when you read about them, it’s like, God, you really should do.

Then in the same respect, we’re looking to do some pretty cool reviews on products and things like that, which maybe the other magazines don’t touch on so much. Yeah, I think there is plenty of room for us to bring something slightly different to the table.

The FightWorks Podcast: So, will the magazine only be focused on the UK, or take in big BJJ centres like Brazil, the US and Japan as well?

Callum Medcraft: Yeah, definitely it will. We’ve said from the outset that we want it to have a UK slant, because it is based in the UK, but we’re not just going to cover the UK. What we’ve planned on doing is having an interview with a UK based competitor in the first issue, but we’re hopeful that will stretch further afield to an interview with a European based competitor.

We’re going to cover the UK and European scene, but we will also address world events as well. But the main emphasis, when we do our tournament reviews and things like that, we’ll cover UK tournaments and European tournaments, if we can get to them [laughs].

Yeah, the scope for them, like I said, we’re hopeful to get high profile competitors in there, but we definitely won’t be covering, I don’t know, the Texas Open or something, because we won’t be there. I think that’s covered already, so we won’t be doing that sort of thing.

The FightWorks Podcast: A lot of BJJ news, reviews and discussion at the moment is online and free: why did you decide to go for print, with all the extra costs that involves?

Callum Medcraft: Well, the big thing, like I said before is that there is plenty of legs left in print. I’d like to see more print products out there for jiu jitsu, because it emphasises the prestige of the sport, I think. Obviously like you said there is plenty of reviews, news and things like that, but I think the way you have to tackle it is keep all the content fresh and try and add a new angle to everything.

Some things, it’s not a newspaper though there will be news in there, but hopefully the content which will be in the magazine will be as much as possible exclusive to the magazine, that will be important. I just think there is still plenty of life in having this physical magazine that you can take around with you, and read at your leisure. I’m hopeful that there are still plenty of people who still think like that.

I mean, a lot of what we intend to include will be covering these UK tournaments and European tournaments, hopefully there will be a lot of people who would love to see their name up in lights, so to speak, almost a memento. I just think as much as you see interviews bandied around on the internet I still think there are a lot of people who like seeing really nice photo-led interviews and features that you can keep forever. That’s what we’re hoping to deliver.

The FightWorks Podcast: On a more personal note, was it tough for you to make the decision to quit your job and dedicate yourself to this new venture full time, given how that seems like a big risk?

Callum Medcraft: Yeah, it was a tough decision, considering I’d just started a new job as well. My background is in media, I’ve always been interested in writing, but my background is really TV and broadcast, before I started my last job, and then I did a journalism diploma, and started getting published a bit, in football.

But yeah, it was a big risk: I’d just got a job at quite a big English football club, but the opportunity had come up, where I thought it’s time we had something, and I’m lucky enough to have been in the position where I met someone through my old job that enabled us to do this and make it financially feasible to actually make this product.

We didn’t want to compromise, we didn’t want to say, “right, we’re going to do this jiu jitsu magazine,” but we’ve got to compromise and produce a half-arsed product. I wouldn’t have done this unless I thought that we can deliver a really good product, which we are going to.

So it was a risk, but I don’t see it as a big risk now, because it’s trying to do something that you enjoy, and I really believe in it. It was a tough decision in that people might have raised a few eyebrows, but it’s not a tough decision in that I get to talk about jiu jitsu all day, so I’m happy. [laughs]

The FightWorks Podcast: [laughs] Cool. Just to finish off, anything you want to mention about the magazine, such as when it is coming out, that kind of thing?

Callum Medcraft: Yeah, we haven’t got a date nailed down as of yet, but we want to get the first issue out just after the European Championships, so towards the middle end of February. We’ve got some pretty exciting things in the pipeline with regards to the launch: there’s a few tournaments in the UK that we might look at launching it.

It’s going to be accessible to everyone, and like I say, we’re going to cover the UK and Europe and world events, but we’re going to make it accessible to everyone. Wherever you are in the world, you can get the magazine. It is going to be in print form to start, but we’ve got plans looking at digital and bits and pieces.

That’s about it, really: hopefully people will enjoy it, and we’ve got some good writers on board, so I think it will be good.

The FightWorks Podcast: Cool, I look forward to reading it. Thanks Callum.

Callum Medcraft: No worries, mate.

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Can Sönmez is a blue belt training at Roger Gracie Buckinghamshire. He also runs a BJJ resources site and training blog at slideyfoot.com.

Carlos Gracie Junior

This week’s episode of the FightWorks Podcast is really two episodes in one. Each of the two interviews we present here would normally be a week’s worth of content but we are feeling especially generous with the 2010 BJJ World Championships on the way this coming weekend!

The first feature interview is with Carlos Gracie Jr.. Many of the Gracie family are key characters in how jiu-jitsu became what it is today Carlos Junior is no exception. He is the head of all Gracie Barra schools, the president of the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation, and the publisher of GracieMag. Influential indeed!

The second of our interviewees is none other than Jean Jacques Machado. One of the five Machado brothers (and a cousin to Carlos Gracie Jr.), Jean Jacques won his weight class in the 2001 ADCC Submission Grappling Championship and is highly regarded for his teaching skills. Another terrific interview brought to us by FightWorks Podcast contributor Christian Simamora.

Of course we will also review some listener email, voicemail, and go over the plans to cover the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Championship coming up this weekend at the Long Beach Pyramid in Los Angeles!

[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (recommended)
[mp3] Download the show

CARLOS GRACIE JUNIOR INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTION

Fightworks Podcast: Ok family, we are at Gracie Barra Headquarters in Irvine, California. We have big pleasure on the show today to speak with Carlos Gracie Jr, sometimes referred to as Carlinhos, sometimes called Master Carlos. He has many names, but today we’ll just say, hello Carlos, how are you?

Carlos Gracie Jr: I’m very well, thank you, and thank you for coming here to interview me, my friend. It’s a pleasure.

Fightworks Podcast: Well Carlos, we have a lot of things to talk about, and you have a lot of roles in the world of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. You wear many hats, but today, we’re only going to focus on a little bit, because we don’t have hours and hours, we just have some time. So today we’re going to talk a little more biographically, about your life, about Gracie Barra, and that sort of thing.

Maybe later, maybe another day I’ll come back, and we’ll talk about the Federation, Gracie Mag, and all that great stuff. Sound ok?

Carlos Gracie Jr: Ok, yes, that’s good.

Fightworks Podcast: Ok. So, I guess the first question, Carlos, would be how do you – because you have so much work, so many different jobs in jiu jitsu – how does Carlos Gracie Jr himself? How do you think of yourself in the world of jiu jitsu?

Carlos Gracie Jr: A difficult question, my friend, to say or talk about how I define myself. I think I define myself as one of the collaborators for the growing of jiu jitsu. All my intention is to bring jiu jitsu to a better level. So everything I did in my life was for this, how I can benefit jiu jitsu and benefit the people who are in this environment.

Fightworks Podcast: And when you say that, these days, jiu jitsu is a global phenomenon, right? It’s gone way beyond the beginnings in Rio.

Carlos Gracie Jr: Yes. Only people who lived, maybe, twenty years ago, a little more, a little less, can see this difference. That’s because in those times, people were imagining how jiu jitsu might grow, what can jiu jitsu become. So it was just a few people who had the inspiration, and could create something that could envision what is happening now. I had the luck to be one of them.

Fightworks Podcast: I think there is probably more than luck involved, because you’ve been working very hard to spread jiu jitsu for years.

Carlos Gracie Jr: I think I was lucky, that’s just a word to say, but I was inspired to do something more than most of the people wanted to do, and be accommodating that kind of life, you know? I expected something else, and in the beginning, you start to expect something from others. I tried, with others doing something, but when you see that its not happening, then I started to think, “Man, if I want something to happen, I have to do it myself.” So I started doing things, and inspire things as I was inspired, putting those things that are capable of helping me to think as I think, to help accomplish those things.

Fightworks Podcast: Well, I want to talk a little bit about Rio, actually, maybe more than a little bit about Rio, because a lot of our listeners are in different parts of the world. Not many of them get the chance to visit Rio, and they were not around back in the early days of jiu jitsu in Rio. One thing before we talk a little bit about history and the past: last week, I read in O Globo, one of the big newspapers in Brazil, that last week the legislative assembly of Rio tried to pass a proposal that said jiu jitsu was going to be part of the…I’m going to say this in Portuguese, so you can correct me. They said it is going to be part of the ‘Patrimonio immateriao‘, of the state, of Rio. Can you explain what that means to our audience? Not just what ‘patrimonio immateriao’ means, but what that means for jiu jitsu.

Carlos Gracie Jr: I think it was the government realising and accepting that the jiu jitsu was very important for Rio de Janeiro, for the country of Brazil. A long time ago, the first time I came to the United States, just when the UFC made jiu jitsu and the Gracie name start to appear around the world, I was in the supermarket, buying some things. We were talking in Portuguese, and the cashier was Brazilian.

He looked to me and said, “You guys are Brazilian, a jiu jitsu fighter, a Gracie? Ok,” and the guy said, “thank you very much for bringing a Brazilian name to the next level, because people here start to treat me better because I’m Brazilian, right now, because of you guys, what your family is doing for the name of Brazilians, in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.”

Now people know about Brazil, because before that, people around the world knew nothing about Brazil. They just knew that Brazil have samba and soccer, something like that. “Oh, Brazil is in Argentina.” They don’t know. Now, people know what Brazil is, they respect Brazil, Brazil is around everywhere, pass their culture, mixing their culture with other countries. People now understand how Brazilian people are, so, I think Brazil has to consider that, just because of jiu jitsu.

Fightworks Podcast: Right. Well, I think all of our audiences knows how important jiu jitsu is to us, for sure. One of the interesting things that we sometimes hear is that the perspective, or the feeling about what jiu jitsu is in Brazil is not the same feeling we all have, because to all of us, it is something we love to do all the time. We can’t do enough. But sometimes the media in Brazil portrays jiu jitsu not always the best.

Is that true, or how is it there?

Carlos Gracie Jr: The media in Brazil are never fair. I think its a characteristic of the people involved in this business. They always put sensationalism into everything that happens. When the jiu jitsu started to grow over there, instead of saying good things about jiu jitsu, they always pick some boys who are fighting in the streets, some boys who are messing around, and put those guys like stars, to say bad things about jiu jitsu, because they know the jiu jitsu population is huge in Brazil. So, they can sell more newspapers.

We talked one time, when I brought a journalist inside my school. He came to me, to ask some questions, to embarrass me against other peoples’ jiu jitsu. They wanted to create a polemic situation. So I said, “yeah, come to my school.” I bring him inside, and had a class there. I said, “You guys can easily put him sitting during the class,” and told him, “I think you guys could make a very fair interview and research deeply. Put some journalists inside the schools, make some research and see what the teachers are teaching, if they are encouraging people to fight in the streets. Then you guys can be real journalists.”

The guy said to me, “I know Carlos, that everything is like that. But we are sent to the streets to say bad things about jiu jitsu. I have to come here and create a polemic, I cannot tell the truth. That’s the truth.”

So I said, “Ok man, I cannot help you to create worse things than there already are.”

Fightworks Podcast: It sounds like there is lazy journalism, at least in regards to jiu jitsu, down there, because it’s easy to sell newspapers and it’s a big story.

Carlos Gracie Jr: Now what’s happened, jiu jitsu has grown around the world, it has recognition from the biggest countries. They have the army adopting jiu jitsu, it’s a curriculum in the army, and other countries are doing the same. Now Brazil, they could do this before, but they never did that. But now they’re late, in recognising that, but they want to do something. I think in Brazil, they never considered people that are there. You have to go out of Brazil and do something good, and then, they treat you like a hero.

For example, when Rickson was fighting in Brazil, doing things there, they never said nothing about Rickson. When Rickson went out and started fighting in Japan, winning fights there, and people around the world considered him, then the people in Brazil considered him as well. This happened for Rickson, Minotauro, and many other fighters in Brazil. They are recognised in Brazil because they are recognised outside of Brazil. So Brazil always tries to imitate what other countries do.

Fightworks Podcast: Well, it looks like things are changing, so that’s a good sign. So, let’s start at the beginning. Many of our interviews with people in the jiu jitsu community start with “how did you become involved in jiu jitsu,” and I think that’s kind of a strange question that doesn’t apply to you, because you were born into the jiu jitsu family. But, can you kind of talk about your memory of your early days, being exposed to jiu jitsu?

Carlos Gracie Jr: When I realised I was into jiu jitsu, I already was, because my father, my uncles, my older brothers, my cousins, they all work in jiu jitsu. We’d be sitting at the table to talk, for dinner or lunch, the talk is about jiu jitsu. If we gather together, wherever we stay, the talk is about jiu jitsu. Everything at home is about jiu jitsu. Who is training more, who is training less, who beat who, we have to train more, guys not teaching well…only this kind of arguing or talking. So, what’s happened is that my father created the first Gracie school, in Brazil in 1925. My uncle Helio and the other uncles were teaching there in his school, they work together.

Later, my father moved to Teresopolis. Teresopolis is like, I live in LA and I move to south of Orange County, something like that. It’s one hour, in the mountains, and he got a huge house over there, and the plan was that all the young kids would live over there, no matter if they’re sons, nephews or grandsons, everybody live in that house. We studied in Teresopolis and lived there, and the school was in Rio de Janiero. The ones who got to age sixteen or something like that moved to my uncle’s Helio’s house in Rio de Janeiro, because at that time he was the one who ran the schools over there. They moved to that house and started to work at the school, and at the weekends went to Teresopolis and got together with everybody.

Fightworks Podcast: Ok, so let me repeat to make sure I understand. So, there was a house in Teresopolis, that your father Carlos owned, and that’s where all of the grandkids, the children, everybody went all the time, until they were sixteen.

Carlos Gracie Jr: They lived there, studied there, lived with their mums, without their mums, it didn’t matter. They create like a place that they have thirty kids living there, and we had eighteen maids, working to serve everyone, working the house. The house had eighteen bedrooms, it was like a hotel, functioned like a hotel. We all lived there, and my uncle took care of the schools and lived in Rio de Janeiro. Those who start to help in the schools moved to his house in Rio, and start to help in the school, under his control. On the weekends, the school was closed, so everyone moved to Teresopolis and spent their weekends there. Sunday evening, whoosh, back to work in the school. That’s how it worked. When I got to about fifteen, sixteen, I moved to Rio de Janeiro to live in my uncle’s house, to give more attention to jiu jitsu, learn jiu jitsu and stay there, do whatever they asked me to do.

I learned jiu jitsu helping my brother Rolls and my cousin Rorion teach, because in my time, they were the main instructors in the Gracie school over there, both of them.

Fightworks Podcast: Rorion and Rolls.

Carlos Gracie Jr: Rorion and Rolls. Rolls was one year older than Rorion. So, I learned jiu jitsu under them. I helped them teaching, they used me to teach others: this is the way I learned jiu jitsu. I think it is the best way to learn. Stay there, the guy explain to the students, the students apply on you. I train jiu jitsu with the students, and they teach, they stay there, they control the training, and most of those are private classes. So I stayed there all day, since I wake until the school closed. That’s how I learned jiu jitsu.

Fightworks Podcast: A lot of the people today that we consider big and important teachers in jiu jitsu, big personalities in jiu jitsu, they originated and were altogether with you? As a child, as a teenager, in Rio, in the ’70s and ’80s? That seems like a very important time to the people who today are important figures in jiu jitsu, because you, your cousins, everybody was in Rio at the same time. I think there has to be some way that the culture of Rio, in the ’70s and ’80s, had a certain effect on you guys together. I mean, we hear a lot of pretty crazy stories of Rio then.

Carlos Gracie Jr: Rio de Janeiro was a fanastic city, very beautiful, mountains and beaches close by. It was a great city to be raised in, the culture was very nice, but all the big cities in the world are growing and growing. They don’t coordinate well, and now, Rio de Janeiro became a little bit violent, because there are a lot of poor people living there, drug dealers and things like that.

Now they try to get the control again, but it is much more difficult, because they didn’t plan the growing of the city before. So now, they are struggling with this.

Fightworks Podcast: But, it sounds like from what you’re saying, twenty years ago it was a pretty nice place to grow up?

Carlos Gracie Jr: Very safe, just full of middle class people living there, poor people living around, living well. I didn’t see many bad things happen, you know? There were just boys in the street messing around, but positive things, not bad things like robbing, shooting one another, drug dealers. At that time, you didn’t see those things happen much.

Fightworks Podcast: You mentioned your brother Rolls. We have had a lot of guests come on our show, and they talk about what an important influence Rolls was for them. Relson talks about Rolls, Fabio Santos, Jacare Cavalcanti…everybody talks about how important Rolls was to them. Can you tell our listeners what Rolls meant to you?

Carlos Gracie Jr: Rolls meant a lot to me, because when he died, I was the one who continued his school. Gracie Barra, today, is a continuation of Rolls’ school. He was my main instructor, even though I learn from others, like my uncle Helio, my cousin Rorion, they teach me a lot, everyone teach me a little part of what I built myself. But Rolls was my main instructor, the guy I choose to say “you are the guy I follow, your ideas.”

He was a good brother, he always think in a group, thinking about everyone, helping. So his personality was a humble guy, and the other side, very valiant. Always there for the people who needed him, and always helping you, try to make you better, thinking about others. He was a real leader in that time. Rolls was the one everyone admired, and everyone chose as the leader of jiu jitsu in his era.

So, I was lucky to have him close to me, I learn a lot with him. I was just lucky to have real contact with him at that time.

Fightworks Podcast: A lot of people talk about, like I said, the positive impact that he had on them. Do you think jiu jitsu would be different today if Rolls were alive? Would it be in a different place or have gone in a different direction?

Carlos Gracie Jr: It’s difficult to say because he was the one who always had ideas ahead of the people at that time. That’s why he was one of the guys who inspired me to do something, ahead of the way people were thinking at that time. I don’t know, it is difficult to say because, everything I said to you I guess, you know? But I think that he would have accomplished a lot of things in jiu jitsu. It is difficult to say if it would be better or worse, but…things happen. Its a guess.

Fightworks Podcast: One of the things that we heard about him was that competition was important to him, that he was one of the people who was a proponent of jiu jitsu competitions. So, my question now is how important to you, Carlos, is jiu jitsu competition, and how important should competition be for the average jiu jitsu person out there?

Carlos Gracie Jr: That exactly tells me something. I think we all, I think all Gracies have inside them…I think all human beings have inside them some kind of competition. Sometimes it is not on the mat, but in the companies, in everywhere you go: you’re competing against someone or something. So, its in my family, my father and my uncle, because my father had twenty-one children and my uncle had eleven. Many times they are the same age, so I saw my father and my uncle arguing a lot about, “No, Rocian can beat Relson!” or “Carley can beat Rorion!” or someone is fighting another someone who is better, “No, this one!” Then, sometimes when were playing, they would pick someone, “Come on, put the gi on!” They go to the mat, and make the guys fight. The guys are playing soccer, and suddenly they have to fight with each other there, just because there is an argument that one can beat the other. That competition grew a lot inside my family, but in that time we all had the same school, we were all together, and this arguing together. What happened was that my older brothers started to open their own schools and have their own students. The competitions started to be inside the Gracie school, so the school at that time against the Carlson schools. “The students at the Gracie school can beat all the Carlson schools”, and Carlson was mad with that, and prepared his students to beat us, because we were the competitors from the Gracie school at that time, because my father’s school, my uncle and us were against Carlson now.

So, things start to grow inside us, and then, the students of our students start to open a school like Romero ‘Jacare’ open his schools, or Fabio Santos have his schools, and then, the competition starts to spread around. The tournament was a consequence of that mentality of people building good students to beat on each other to prove that they are good teachers. That’s where it starts. But how do I see that competition? The competition means a lot to me, because I love it, I want my students to be very good, my son, everyone, and what I pass to my students is that we have to still win tournaments around the world, everywhere, it doesn’t matter where. We have to have a very nice team, to compete in every corner of the world. That’s my mentality, that’s how I want to go. That’s what we’re doing now, we have teams everywhere. In the Asian tournament, the European tournament, the small tournament, we are there, and in most of those tournaments, we are always on the podium.

Competition means education, for the student. I never say to my students that they have to win. I don’t push them. I say to them, “do your best.” It never means too much to me: a competition is not a means to an end. It is something else to make their personality, make them better as individuals. So, when you go to a competition, you have to accomplish a lot of tasks in yourself, inside. You have to be disciplined. You sometimes have to lose weight, so you have to discipline your diet. This educates you how to stay in shape later on, making sure your body works well, like your cholesterol and things like that, how to avoid being lazy with your body.

Competition gives you security about yourself, because when you go to compete, you go to fight someone like you, and you’re alone over there. You challenge yourself to try to accomplish something, making you focused. This adds a lot of things into your personality. The result of that competition is nothing: if you win, you can win today, lose tomorrow, or win because you get one guy, lose if you get another. You can’t control those things, but what you can control is yourself. To be there, to be standing there, and competing, the result of the competition doesn’t matter. Do your best in that time. If you do well, the result is good, if you don’t do well, try to be better next time, go again. This will make the personality of the individual better, that’s why I focus a lot on competition, I encourage the guys to go there. Not because I want a gold medal, because I’m selfish and I want my academy to be ‘the best’ – my academy is a result of the work we do inside. If we lose the competition, I don’t care. I just want the guys to be there. But the result? It doesn’t matter.

Fightworks Podcast: So speaking of competitions, its not long until the most important competition in the world for the gi. The World Championships are coming up in just a few weeks. You must be very excited.

Carlos Gracie Jr: I’m used to it, because we have been competing for decades, and I always deal with this. Now I’m much more mature than I was before. So, like I say, I’m excited to see how people in competition are going to do, how the people have fun over there, how we can make something that will help everyone that goes there and make them better.

So, about my team, I just push them and inspire them to train more, to believe in themselves and everything they believe they can accomplish. I go there, sit in the bleachers and try to watch and see what I can get, if they do some mistakes, so I can see their fights and later on talk to them about that and maybe give an explanation why they win and sometimes why they lose, why they didn’t fight like this or like that.

So if I stay down there and talk with people, I can’t see any fight, I can see nothing, because people always want my attention, to do some things. I disappear in the middle of the crowd so I can see what the guys are doing.

Fightworks Podcast: I have just one or two more questions for you. You said that when we started the interview, I started with the big, difficult question? [laughs] I think I have another difficult question. It would be difficult for me to answer, so I’m going to ask you: what is your favourite thing about jiu jitsu?

Carlos Gracie Jr: I think my favourite thing about jiu jitsu…jiu jitsu is my life. The lifestyle that I have because I’m involved with jiu jitsu, I think is great. I would not change the kind of life I have for any other kind of life, even if I was a billionaire. I would like to be a billionaire with the mentality I have today, because if I was a billionaire with my mentality, I could accomplish a lot of things and help a lot of people. So, to be a millionaire with poor mentality, I would just be looking to have a good watch and drive a good car, have a good house, and show that I am something for the others, and could not use my money for the benefit of other people.

So I think jiu jitsu, the best thing in jiu jitsu for me, is what I build of myself, what jiu jitsu did for my personality, for me as a human being. I learned a lot inside the schools, I learn a lot with my professors, I learn a lot with my students, with my friends. Jiu jitsu schools, for me, my students, are an extension of my family. What I see happen inside them and outside, that’s what has made me what I am today. I think that is the most important thought that jiu jitsu brought to me was this: build myself.

Fightworks Podcast: Carlos, any last things that you would like to say to our audience? Like I said, we have people listening in a lot of places in the world, they probably won’t ever have the opportunity to say “hello Carlos, how are you,” or “thank you Carlos,” you know, have a conversation with you. What’s the last thing today that you would like to say to all those people out there?

Carlos Gracie Jr: I’d like to say that everyone who is involved with jiu jitsu, or is doing something for jiu jitsu, or getting help from jiu jitsu, that they are not alone. I consider them as my brothers. If one day you could do something for them, helping in any situation, help them to build something, give them inspiration, or they give some inspiration for me, I’m always hoping for those exchanges. I’m always open to help them in anything. We are all in battle to help one another.

Fightworks Podcast: Carlos Gracie Jr, thank you very much for being on the Fightworks Podcast.

Carlos Gracie Jr: Thank you for coming here, man, its a long, long, long way to come here to interview me [laughs].

Fightworks Podcast: The traffic wasn’t too bad. We’ll see on the way home what happens, maybe I’ll have a different opinion then. But it was worth it. Thank you.

Carlos Gracie Jr: Thank you.

It’s the time of year for giving. I’m here to make the case today that one thing that the Mighty 600,000 should have on their wish list this year is a subscription to one or more BJJ magazines. We all have a favorite BJJ podcast but it’s nice to have something to hold in your hands with great photos and interviews with jiu-jitsu personalities. And magazines can definitely do a little better job at showing jiu-jitsu techniques than we can!

Let’s go in alphabetical order. And just to clarify, this post is about magazines whose primary mission is providing information about Brazilian jiu-jitsu, front and center. I won’t be able to do either magazine justice in a paragraph, but I can give a quick intro.

BJJLegends published its first issue in 2009. Based out of Los Angeles, California, the magazine has featured articles and interviews with BJJ and grappling stars from all over. BJJLegends is published quarterly and every issue comes with a DVD of jiu-jitsu moves and interviews. The quality is high, with heavy paper stock. A year’s subscription (4 issues) to BJJLegends is $49.99 but its editors tell me that can be found for $12.99 per copy in Barnes and Noble, amazon.com, Borders books, Hastings books/music, some BJJ academies. There are wholesale discounts for academies.

GracieMag originates in Brazil where its first issue was printed in 1996. (Trivia: It was previously known as the Journal Gracie before that time). It still calls Brazil home but has full time staff in New York and publishes all of its content both in Portuguese and English inside the same magazine. Each issue contains interviews, articles, and technique sections and is also printed on heavy, very high quality paper. A year’s subscription (12 issues) to GracieMag is $89.50. GracieMag can also be found in many BJJ academies who are part of the GracieMag Association.

If you kindly suggest to your significant other that you would like a subscription to a jiu-jitsu magazine as a holiday gift, you can remind her that it is a normal gift to give a BJJ person. Brazilian jiu-jitsu industry research that 64% of jiu-jitsu people received BJJ-related gifts during the holidays last year. Your loved one surely would not want you to be one of the minority of people who don’t get a good BJJ holiday gift, would they?!?

So my final recommendation: no matter which magazine you decide to get, SUPPORT BRAZILIAN JIU-JITSU MEDIA!

For full disclosure’s sake I should mention that content that originates here at The FightWorks Podcast (an occasional BJJ poll or short article) sometimes finds a home in these publications. But we received no compensation for this posting.

Mighty 600,000 there is an event on the way you need to be aware of! Rio de Janeiro, the birthplace of modern Brazilian jiu-jitsu, is a candidate to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games! I know that our calendar now reads 2009, but in just a few days on October 2nd the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will meet in Copenhagen to decide whether the Olympics will be held in Madrid, Chicago, Tokyo, or Rio.

While Brazil has tried to host the Olympics several times in the past, Rio is a very strong contender now and if it wins it would be the first time in history that the Summer Olympics are hosted in Latin America. But the real reason I am writing about Rio hosting the 2016 Summer Olympics is that if Rio is selected, Brazilian jiu-jitsu will have an historic opportunity for publicity.

Of course, jiu-jitsu is not an Olympic sport. It is not yet even an exhibition sport at the Olympics. But whenever the Olympics takes place, journalists from all corners from the globe produce television pieces on the host country’s culture. Reports on samba, capoeira, Carnival, and our beloved addiction will light up television screens around the world.

So cross your fingers, pray to your jiu-jitsu deity of choice, do whatever you can on October 2 and hopefully Rio de Janeiro will win the bid for the Olympics so BJJ gets the global attention it deserves!

Jon, a member of the Mighty 600,000 from North Carolina is sidelined with an injury and cannot train at the moment. So what did he do? He still attends jiu-jitsu class, but since he cannot train, he takes notes on all the moves and details that were taught during class.

Jon called our toll free number 877-247-4662 and is curious if the rest of the Family does the same thing, and I’m pretty interested too. I have seen plenty of guys who take notes at BJJ class. I think a lot of the BJJ blogs out there are often people’s online repository of what happened in class that day for them. (Slideyfoot’s Training Log is just one example.)

So what about you? Do you maintain a notebook or diary of what you learn in jiu-jitsu class? Let us know in the poll above, and be sure to leave a comment below!

I received a phone call from FightWorks Podcast cohost Dan yesterday morning from the airport in Northern Virginia as he waited to board the plane for a 14 hour ride to Beijing. Why in the world is Dan heading to Beijing?

The Chinese mixed martial arts promoter Art of War contacted The FightWorks Podcast headquarters recently and offered to bring one of us to cover their MMA event this weekend, which is being generously funded by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed al Nahyan, who also recently funded the World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Cup in Abu Dhabi.

I have obligations and am not able to attend, but Dan said he was up for it and realized that in addition to covering the event (which is flying in some serious star power from MMA to attend), we could also take the opportunity to document how Brazilian jiu-jitsu is progressing in China. As an added bonus Rickson Gracie, Royce Gracie, and Renzo Gracie will be in attendance. Dan mentioned Royler Gracie going as well but I haven’t confirmed that. So there will be no shortage of Brazilian jiu-jitsu content waiting to be captured too.

So I want to be candid in stating that Dan’s travel and hotel room were paid for by the promoters. We are very conscious of the conflict of interest that is present whenever a promoter makes it possible to cover their event when financial constraints prevent us from doing so on our own. Rest assured we will do what we can to prevent coverage from being affected. I know there may be some in the Mighty 600,000 saying, “Who cares if Dan’s trip was paid for by them? It’s not like this is international affairs! It’s an MMA event!” I understand that sentiment but when it comes to our journalistic integrity here on the show I play things pretty conservatively.

In any case the plan is for Dan to bring back some audio and photos of the Art of War event this weekend that will likely be covered in Episode 157 of The FightWorks Podcast. [This coming Sunday's show (#156) is already finished! More on that tomorrow!]

Alliance’s Rubens Charles (aka Cobrinha) disputes the two points given to his opponent Otavio Souza, of Gracie Barra at the 2009 Pan-Ams.

The 2009 BJJ Pan-Ams are in full swing! Yesterday in Los Angeles marked the second day of the three-day event, which featured incredible competitors and record numbers of participants.

Yesterday I live blogged the black belt divisions (and a touch of the brown belt divisions), which captivated the large audience from one end of the room to the other. I also managed to sit down with several important voices in Brazilian jiu-jitsu to help recap the action for you. In today’s episode of The FightWorks Podcast you will hear from:

• Pan-Ams event organizer Mike Buckels, of the IBJJF
• Kid Peligro, the author of The Gracie Way and longtime BJJ journalist
• Luca Atalla, the editor in chief of GracieMag.
• Carlos Gracie Jr., the head of the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation
• Alicia Anthony, the sport’s busiest photographer whose work is found at aliciaphotos.com

Also included in today’s show: several calls from the Mighty 600,000, and Aesopian and I will finish discussing a popular recent post on his website called 10 Quick Tips for White Belts.

[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (recommended)
[mp3] Download the show

One last post before closing out the year. I thought it would be good to let folks know about BJJ blogs I’ve found useful, entertaining, and informative. Or just cool. So, here we go, in no particular order:

• Aesopian’s Totally Awesome Journal
  Probably my favorite of the new offerings this year, as much for the emphasis on the demonstration of techniques as how whiz-bang cool he’s rigged things for sharing the content on social media sites like Digg and Technorati. I will be watching this one closely in 2007.
• BJJ Vision Quest 2006
  Valerie is one of the coolest females you could find out there. She’s quit her job in favor of driving around the United States to train Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Not only is she addicted to BJJ, but she shares the stories of her travels, her training, her highs and lows and more. Again, good work on the photos.
• Gumby’s Blog
  No, I’m not just putting this here because The FightWorks Podcast is aligned with On The Mat. I think if anyone were to put this list together, it’d include Gumby’s blog. Having been around the game so long, and as far as I know, being the only black belt among those of us regularly writing and creating BJJ content out there, his blog deserves a spot.
• It’s Not Ballet
  Written by Southern California brown belt Andreh Anderson, this one hasn’t been around very long but I like reading about other’s training experiences. Thank you Andreh.
• Got Jits?
  Jason Stoll started this blog as a white belt and has been writing about his newfound addiction with Brazilian jiu-jitsu since the beginning. He recently received his blue belt (congrats!), and I look forward to reading how things go for him in 2007. The one bit of constructive criticism for Jason is I think his site needs an RSS feed.
• Gracie Barra BH Marbella
  Though this blog doesn’t update as regularly as my curiosity would like, this one hit me with two of my real passions, Spain (I used to live there) and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, so it made the list. It’s always cool to see how BJJ is spreading outside Brazil and North America.

Okay, there you have it – my favorite Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blogs of 2006. If you’ve got any that you really like watching out there, be sure to let other know by adding it in the comments below!

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