Hélio Gracie

Hélio Gracie
Born	October 1 1913 (1913-10-01) (age 94) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Martial art practiced	Gracie Jiu-Jitsu
Teacher(s)	Carlos Gracie
Rank	10th Degree Red Belt

Hélio Gracie (born October 1 1913^[1]) is regarded by many as the creator of "Gracie Jiu-Jitsu" although some, like grand-master Carlson Gracie,^[2] credit the foundation to Carlos Gracie Sr. Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is also known as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ). Hélio is the only living 10th degree master of the discipline and is widely considered as one of the first sports heroes in Brazilian history; he was named Black Belt Magazine's Man of the Year in 1997. He is the father of the world-renowned fighters Rickson Gracie, Royler Gracie, Royce Gracie and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) founder Rorion Gracie. Gracie is also a 6th dan in judo.^[3] Today, Hélio teaches οccasionally in Brazil and accompanies his sons to fights.

History

Beginnings of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu

When Hélio Gracie was 16 years old, he found the opportunity to teach a Jiu-Jitsu class, and this experience led him to develop Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. The Director of the Bank of Brazil, Dr. Mario arrived for class as scheduled. The instructor Carlos was running late and was not present. Hélio offered to begin the class with the man. When the tardy Carlos arrived offering his apologies, the student assured him it was no problem, and actually requested that he be allowed to continue learning with Hélio instead. Carlos agreed to this and Hélio began as an instructor. Hélio realized however, even though he knew the techniques theoretically, in actuality, the moves were much harder to execute. Due to his smaller size, he realized many of the jiu-jitsu moves required brute strength that his physical nature did not allow. He began adapting the moves for his particular physical attributes, and through trial and error learned to maximize leverage, thus minimizing the force that needed to be exerted to execute the move. From these experiments, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, formally Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, was created. Using these new techniques, smaller and weaker opponents gained the capability to defend themselves and even defeat much larger opponents.

Arrest

Hélio was involved in an attack on Luta-Livre teacher Manoel Rufino dos Santos in 1932, at the age of 19. In an interview for Playboy Magazine he regretted that act with this statement:

Hélio was prosecuted and sentenced to two and a half years in jail. An appeal was made to the Supreme Court by Hélio's lawyer Romero Neto and the sentence was upheld, as the court said "Today it was with Manoel Rufini dos Santos. Tomorrow it will be us." A couple of hours after that decision Brazilian President Getúlio Vargas pardoned Hélio. According to Hélio, one of his students had a brother who was an ambassador and was very close to Getúlio, and he intervened in favor of Hélio. Hélio and Getúlio subsequently met many times and Hélio eventually taught Getúlio's son Maneco.^[4]

Fight career

Hélio stated in an interview that he had around 15 fights. He began his fight career when he submitted professional boxer Antonio Portugal in 30 seconds in 1932. Also in 1932 he fought American professional wrestler Fred Ebert for fourteen 10 minute rounds until the event was stopped by the police. In 1934 Hélio fought professional wrestler Wladak Zbyszko, who was being billed as a "world champion", for three 10 minute rounds. That match was declared a draw. Hélio did win against Taro Miyake, a Japanese professional wrestler who worked for Ed "Strangler" Lewis in the U.S.

Hélio loses match to Masahiko Kimura due to an armlock. The headline reads: "(moral) Victory for Helio Gracie."

Hélio also fought several Japanese judoka under submission rules. In 1932 he fought Japanese judoka Namiki. The fight ended in a draw, but according to the Gracies the bell rang just seconds before Namiki would have tapped out. Hélio had two fights with Japanese judoka Yasuichi Ono after Ono choked out Hélio's brother George Gracie in a match. Both fights ended in a draw. Hélio fought another Japanese judoka Kato twice. The first time was at Maracanã stadium and they went to a draw. Afterwards, Hélio asked for a rematch. The rematch was held at Ibirapuera Stadium in São Paulo and Hélio won by front choke from the guard. In 1955, Hélio went on to fight leading judoka Masahiko Kimura at Maracanã stadium. Kimura won using ude-garame (bent arm lock) - a hold later named the Kimura by the Gracies. In 1994, Hélio admitted in an interview that he had in fact been choked unconscious earlier in the match, but had revived and continued fighting. In 1967, during a live television interview, Helio was challenged by capoeira practitioner Valdomiro. Helio, as always, accepted the challenge and defeated him via back choke on a live television program called "Desafio 67" that took place one week after the challenge was made. Hélio shares the world record for the longest fight in history with his former student Valdemar Santana, a feat achieved when they spent 3 hours 40 minutes fighting with Hélio losing by technical knockout due to exhaustion. That fight was held at the YMCA in Rio de Janeiro in May, 1955. [This can't be true - what about the 1912 match Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling match in Sweden between Martin Klein of Russia and Alfred Asikainen of Finland, which Martin Klein won after 11 hours and 40 minutes?]

Helio Gracie Black Belt Teachers

• Rorion Gracie
• Rolls Gracie
• Relson Gracie
• Rickson Gracie
• Rolker Gracie
• Royler Gracie
• Royce Gracie
• Robin Gracie
• Pedro Valente
• Gui Valente
• Francisco Mansor
• Joao Alberto Barreto
• Helio Vigio
• Pedro Hemeterio
• Armando Wriedt
• Flavio Behring
• Ryron Gracie
• Rener Gracie
• Joaquim Valente

External links

• The Gracie Academy
• Valente Gracie Miami School

Career highlights

• 1932: Submitted Antonio Portugal by armlock
• 1932: Draw with Takashi Namiki
• 1932: Draw with Fred Ebert
• 1934: Draw with Wladek Zbyszko
• 1934: Submitted Taro Miyake by choke
• 1935: Draw with Yassuiti Ono
• 1936: Draw with Takeo Yano
• 1936: Submitted Massagoichi by armlock
• 1936: Draw with Yassuiti Ono
• 1937: Submitted Erwin Klausner by armlock
• 1937: Submitted Espingarda
• 1950: Submitted Landulfo Caribe by choke
• 1950: Submitted Azevedo Maia by choke
• 1951: Draw with Kato
• 1951: Submitted Kato by choke
• 1951: Defeated by Masahiko Kimura by armlock
• 1955: Defeated by Valdemar Santana by TKO (fight duration 3h 45min)
• 1967: Submitted Valdomiro dos Santos Ferreira by choke

References

1. ^ Gracie.com. The Real Gracie Family Tree
2. ^ ^ a b Virgílio, Stanlei (2002). Conde Koma - O invencível yondan da história (in Portuguese). Editora Átomo, pp. 93-104. ISBN 85-87585-24-X.
3. ^ According to Masahiko Kimura in his book "My Judo", Helio Gracie was a 6th dan judo at the time of his fight with Kimura in 1951 (see extract at http://www.judoinfo.com/kimura2.htm). Kodokan records have Hélio Gracie recorded as a 3rd dan in judo, but it is not unusual for a foreign judoka's actual grade to be higher than that officially granted and recorded by the Kodokan.
4. ^ Interview with Hélio Gracie - from Playboy magazine (Brazilian issue) February 2001. Translated by Roberto Pedreira of Global Training Report

Sources

• Gastão and Hélio Gracie talk about Gracie Jiu-Jitsu - interviewed in 1997 for Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Videos
• Hélio Gracie recalls the famous challenge match against Kimura - interviewed in 1994 by Nishi Yoshinori from Kakutou Striking Spirit