Create Something Great After 4 Years
A common myth in martial arts is that a master studies for 40 years, develops an almost superhuman understanding of self-defense, creates the perfect system and turns out generations of unbeatable fighters. Prior to the popularity of mixed martial arts, many of the magazines such as Black Belt were full of stories about which martial art was the best.
If you polled most martial artist today and ask them if a martial artist could create a great system after four years, I would bet that over 90 percent would say, “No.” However, we have two notable examples of great martial arts systems being created by relative novices.
Dr. Jigoro Kano and his student Kyuzo Mifune practicing Judo from the Public Domain
Jigoro Kano began his study of Ju-Jitsu at age 18 in 1878. He earned a teaching certificate in two styles by age 22 in 1882. He then created his own style of Ju-Jitsu that he renamed Judo.
Kano’s style was not readily accepted and several masters made disparaging remarks about his style. However, in 1889, his students took on some of the best Ju-Jitsu students at the Tokyo Police Tournament. Kano’s students won 10 matches and drew one match. His system was not questioned any longer.
In the late 1910s, one of Dr. Kano’s students, Mitsuyo Maeda, went to Brazil to establish a Japanese emigrant community in Belem, Brazil. Gastao Gracie, a local politician, helped him get established. In gratitude, Maeda took Gracie’s oldest son, Carlos Gracie, as a student.
Carlos Gracie, oldest brother and founder of the Gracie Academy with his younger brothers
Carlos’ story may be even more impressive. According to several sources, Carlos only studied with Maeda for two to three years. He may have been a blue belt, which was a junior rank Yet, he taught his brothers including the man considered to have been one of the greatest innovators, Helio Gracie, what he learned and they created a style, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, that has taken the world by storm.
The key to both of these gentlemen’s success was that they made their art stand up. They taught effective self-defense to their students, who also became excellent competitors. They were also dedicated to making their art the best it could be.
For every Carlos Gracie and Jigoro Kano, there is a 1st or 2nd degree Black Belt, who has created their own style and named themselves 9th degree as founder of the art. You don’t hear about them after a few years because their art does not stand the test of time. That is the test of whether it is great or not.
