Over the weekend video emerged of Mark Zuckerberg competing at his first jiu jitsu tournament:
I also practice this sport called Brazilian Jiu Jitsu which involves rolling around the floor with sweaty men 2-3 times a week. It’s an exhilarating sport for a nerd like me, because it is the only sport that I’ve experienced where a smaller and weaker practitioner can consistently beat a larger opponent using technique.
I’m going to tell you the story of the development of jiu jitsu by looking at it’s three names: Gracie jiu jitsu, Brazilian jiu jitsu and Submission grappling. I think the story of jiu jitsu is not only fascinating but it gives deeper insights into the process for how innovation works and spreads new ideas.
1. Gracie Jiu Jitsu
Jiu jitsu is unique in that you can trace the development of the sport to one family – the Gracie Family of Brazil. The sport was initially developed by five brothers (the Gracies) who learnt it from a travelling Japanese judoka – Mitsuya Maeda.
One version of the story is that the smallest and weakest of the brothers – Helio Gracie was pivotal to the development of jiu jitsu because was too small and weak to successfully execute the throws of the Judo style. Instead he focused on using high leverage techniques where he could pit an opponent’s small muscle groups (such as the arm muscles) against his large muscle groups (e.g. his leg muscles).
This period was characterised by challenge fights in Brazil between members of the Gracie family and practitioners of other martial arts. Below is a video of one such challenge fight.
2. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
This chapter begins with Rorion Gracie moving to California in 1978 in order to open up a school and begin to teach Gracie Jiu Jitsu to Americans. This period really kicks into gear in 1993 with first ever Ultimate Fighting Championship event which signals next phase of the development of the sport – the transition from Gracie jiu jitsu to Brazilian jiu jitsu.
UFC 1 was marketed as a no-holds barred tournament where representatives of different martial arts – taekwondo, sumo wrestling, kickboxing, karate etc would compete to find out which martial art was supreme.
The early UFC’s were essentially a marketing campaign for the effectiveness of Gracie jiu jitsu. It is an urban legend that the Gracies chose Royce Grace (the smallest and weakest of Rorion Gracie’s brothers) specifically in order to show the effectiveness of jiu jitsu against larger and stronger opponents.
The early UFC’s were dominated by jiu jitsu. Royce Gracie, the Gracie jiu jitsu representative, won UFC 1,3 and 4.
The early UFC’s worked and interest in Brazilian jiu jitsu skyrocketed. Suddenly every karate, taekwondo, jeet kune do student suddenly wanted to study and practice jiu jitsu because of how effective it proved in the early UFC’s. Along with the interest, the number of schools and associations catering for these new students also ballooned – Gracie Humaita, Gracie Barra, Carlson Gracie Jiu Jitsu, Alliance.
This meant more black belts being imported from Brazil and coming over to America and training and creating American grown black belts. The sport was evolving into ‘Brazilian Jiu Jitsu’.
Interestingly, one factor that drove this evolution in name was that one wing of the Gracie family had trademarked “Gracie Jiu Jitsu” and so other schools were forced to identify themselves as ‘Brazilian Jiu Jitsu’ schools.
This meant more black belts being imported from Brazil and coming over to America and training and creating American grown black belts. The sport was evolving into ‘Brazilian Jiu Jitsu’.Interestingly, one factor that drove this evolution in name was that one wing of the Gracie family had trademarked “Gracie Jiu Jitsu” and so other schools were forced to identify themselves as ‘Brazilian Jiu Jitsu’ schools.
3. Submission Grappling
Both Gracie Jiu Jitsu and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu are practiced in the Gi (the big cotton kimono-like uniform), which is a historical precedent from Japanese Judo. The Gi allows greater control of your opponent through the use of grips. When wielded by an expert, the very clothes on your back become part boa-constrictor, limiting your movement, slowing you down and choking you.
However, you might notice that UFC is not fought without any such uniform and both fighters are bare-chested (in the case of men) or wear athletic tops (in women’s competitions). No-gi brazilian jiu jitsu was developed to better simulate the conditions of fighting in MMA.
This marks the latest transition of the sport from ‘Brazilian jiu jitsu’ to ‘Submission grappling.’ This era is marked by two things – one is taking off the gi and the other is the addition of leg locks to the library of effective submissions.
This marks the latest transition of the sport from ‘Brazilian jiu jitsu’ to ‘Submission grappling.’ This era is marked by two things – one is taking off the gi and the other is the addition of leg locks to the library of effective submissions.
“Why would you ignore 50% of the human body?”
– Dean Lister
For much of the sport’s life it was governed by the IBJJF (International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation). One of their most famous decisions was the banning of leg locks, which was considered a cowardly technique and too dangerous to be allowed in competition.
Leg lock practitioners were seen as brutes because leg locks were opportunistic attacks which required the attacker to ‘crank’ the submission in an uncontrolled manner. This would lead to catastrophic injuries. This is in contrast to the 99% of submission techniques taught in jiu jitsu where you can progressively increase pressure on the opponent, allowing them to tap before they are injured or pass out.
The breakthrough for leg locks came from an unlikely source. A former philosophy lecturer from Columbia University originally from New Zealand and now living in New York. Ironically, Danaher suffers from a crippling knee injury which prevented him from ever competing. This is the man who innovated and created a leg lock system that would change jiu jitsu.
John Danaher’s greatest contribution to jiu jitsu has been developing a system of control to leg locks.
Success has followed, with the creation of the Danaher Death Squad, a group of athletes who all practice the system. In the same way that jiu jitsu had to prove its effectiveness against other martial arts (karate, taekwondo etc), leg lockers had to prove that their techniques were effective in competition.
Innovation
So the question I posed at the beginning of this post. What can jiu jitsu teach us about the process of innovation?
There’s a number of lessons:
Traditions last for no reason: Wearing of the gi. Basically useless for mma training. But for a period of 10 years, MMA fighters still trained in the gi and became black belts in the gi because it was the best training they had available, until the recent evolution into wrestle-jitsu style that is more suited to MMA.
Incentives and Rule sets matter: IBJFF basically embedded a certain philosophy of fighting and progression through a set of positions, whereas ADCC incentivises more submissions and more exciting matches. IBJFF banned leg attacks which crippled any innovation in that area
Names reflect progress: The sport used to be called No-Gi jiu jitsu whereas submission grappling is a whole new term which better describes what the sport is about. Rather than the absence of a uniform.
Ideas need to have sex: Mixing things together. (Jiu jitsu doesn’t work if you just stand up. Wrestling up from side control)
Constraints force you to innovate: Helio Gracie was super weak and small, so he focused on the ground work aspect of judo and focused on high leverage techniques.
Innovation comes from overlooked areas: Brazilian jiu jitsu evolved from ground techniques in Judo. Leg locks were ignored by Brazilians and only taught by the periphery of submission grapplers (catch wrestling