Combat Sports Historian and Martial Artist
Posts about martial arts history.
With Choque, Vol. 2 (Amazon affiliate link), Roberto Pedreira picks up the story of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in what he considers its heyday in Brazil, 1950 – 1960. Besides Carlos and Helio Gracie, several other academies, such as Oswaldo Fadda’s, were also thriving. Judo was gaining in popularity but had not overcome Jiu-Jitsu in popularity. Vale Tudo matches were at the height
I recently read Choque: The Untold Story of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil, Volume 1 by Roberto Pedreira (Amazon affiliate link), which tells an alternate story of BJJ’s beginnings than we have been told by in various interviews with members of the Gracie Family. “Choque” translates to “shocking” in Brazilian Portuguese. While Pedreira exhaustively researches and cites primary sources, mostly Brazilian newspapers,
Ryan Hall fought Gray Maynard at the TUF 24 Finale on December 3, 2016. I heard about the bout on the Anik and Florian podcast. Ray Longo talked about the bout and shared his concerns that Hall completely shut down Maynard but his style may make it difficult for him to get fights. After watching the bout, I understand what
Ad Santel gained his reputation as a dangerous catch wrestler from his frequent bouts with judoka from Japan during the 1910s and a story from the second George Hackenschmidt training camp for the Frank Gotch rematch. According to legend, Frank Gotch paid Santel, a skilled submission wrestler, $5,000.00 to injure Hackenschmidt’s knee in training. While this story may or may
When I first started training in martial arts in 1995, the stories tied to the founding of most martial arts were pretty fantastic with superhuman feats of physical prowess and fighting ability attributed to their founders. Whether Kung Fu, Karate or Judo, the founder took the skills learned in previous martial arts, modified it and defeated everyone. These claims are
Sam Hill, a Seattle businessman, brought Professor Yoshiaki Yamashita to the United States in 1902. Professor Yamashita intended to help spread Dr. Jigoro Kano’s relatively new martial art of Judo. Accompanying Professor Yamashita was his student Mitsuyo Maeda. Maeda would go on to teach Carlos Gracie in Brazil. The Gracies modified the techniques into the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Over
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
I was watching the UFC Fight Night prelims on Facebook Saturday night. The fights all ended in before time expired. One ended in the third round, one in the second round and three in the first round. One of the things that I notice was that none of the fighters in the first four fights were attacking from guard. They
When I was a kid growing up in St. Louis, the only martial art that I had heard about was Karate. Taekwondo was considered Korean Karate. I did not know about any of the grappling arts at that point. However, KPLR Channel 11 ran a series of films on Saturdays for a month featuring Mr. Moto, played by Peter Lorre.
3 times over the last 150 years, martial artists created more modern versions of older martial arts. Unlike many prior systems, the innovators of these modern martial arts chose to share this information with outsiders and spread their arts around the world. Jigoro Kano’s dissemination of Judo is the best case study for how to develop and spread a martial