Rickson Gracie live with Marcelo Alonso, PVT
By Leonardo Correa
May 28, 2020 - (8 min read)
Rickson Gracie spoke with Marcelo Alonso on his Youtube channel live stream on May 25, 2020. They talked for almost 2 hours (Portugues-BR). I am writing a summary on the most relevant topics related to jiu-jitsu:
- Competition and the ruleset
- Modern grips
- New vs old school
- Becoming the number 1 Gracie
- Aspiration to become a great instructor
- BJJ philosophy and invisible jiu-jitsu
- His life today
- Thoughts on UFC
They spent a lot of time talking about the "vale-tudo" era back in the 80's, 90's. That's a fascinating part of MMA history, however, it is not the focus of this article.
What does "vale-tudo" mean?
Vale Tudo refers to any unarmed, full-contact combat sport with relatively few rules. It became popular in Brazil during the 20th century. The precursor of modern MMA we see today.
Marcelo Alonso is a professional journalist and has been covering BJJ and MMA when this was all called "vale-tudo" back in the days.
BJJ competition and rules
Nowadays athletes study the rules and take advantage of the gray areas to win fights. That is ok no problems. Athletes don't go to tournaments to take risks. They want to use the rules to win, not to submit. Athletes have to fight about 8 times in one day so they save energy for the next fights. This encourages athletes to save energy. According to Rickson, 9 or 10 fights are boring because no one wants to take risks.
In his opinion, there should be no rules such as time limit, advantages, or points. This explains why Gracie family is no longer interested in MMA. They truly believe BJJ essentially needs time to set up moves and a 5 minutes round adds serious limitations to jiu-jitsu fighters. Rickson emphasizes the Gracie family doesn't need to prove anything anymore. Their job is done. MMA has evolved and everybody trains multiple martial arts. He appreciates the evolution and athleticism of the sport.
Modern grips
Grips should be dynamic in a way to you can do something useful. When grips are just to hold or tie up the opponent they won't help you in a real fight situation or MMA (he says "vale-tudo"). My opinion: Gracie family members still keep Helio Gracie's views alive. BJJ was created to save you in a real-world situation. This is why they value the self-defense aspect of BJJ.
Rules should encourage athletes to take risks and prevent stalling.
He suggested removing any room for referee's interpretations to prevent different standards. Also, create rules to make BJJ more offensive.
New school vs old school
BJJ new school is different from the old school. Old school every fighter was prepared for a "vale-tudo" fight as well as competition. The preparation is only one. Nowadays a BJJ world champion is not ready for a real-world situation. Some fighters are good in Gi but look like a "fish out of water" in NO-GI. They focus too much on techniques that are not efficient in a "vale tudo" fight. Some athletes rely on one grip to keep the fight stuck. This is not good for a "vale tudo" situation in his opinion.
He is ok with any new techniques that add efficiency to BJJ. He is not ok about new techniques created whose main purpose is to stall the fight - this is where he draws the line between efficiency. If one can use it in "vale-tudo", it is efficient and he really respects, such as leg-locks.
He is extremely happy about the BJJ evolution. He acknowledges that leg-locks are extremely efficient for BJJ.
It is noticeable: Rickson never uses any pejorative or negative terms to refer to the "new" school or techniques that he does not consider essential for BJJ. He is very respectful towards anyone, which is an example of a great character.
In another video, Rickson talks about leg-locks back in the 60s', '70s. The Gracie family was never against leg-locks, opposite to what people said. They only used leg attacks when nothing else worked during a value-tudo match. It was their last resort. Rickson even had to use a leg-lock in one of his "vale-tudo" fights. They stopped doing heel hooks because there was no good medical treatment for knee injuries. At that time, one heel hook could cause the end of a fighter's career.
Reaching the top
Rickson talks in detail about his relationship with his master, mentor, cousin/brother Rolls Gracie. Rolls used to submit him multiple times in the beginning. However, things slowly changed and overtime, Rickson was able to close this gap. One day in Petropolis-RJ, after a long and tough session, Rickson was able to finally submit his master Rolls Gracie. They looked at each other, Rolls hugged Rickson and said: "well done my brother, well done".
According to Rickson, Roll knew that Rickson was the best. From that time on, Rickson never again trained hard with Rolls and never tried to submit him anymore. Rickson still paid huge respect to Rolls until his death and still does it. This is when and how Rickson became the number one fighter of the Gracie family.
The word of wisdom
Back in the days, Rickson Told his dad (Helio Gracie) I would like to be a great instructor. Helio said:
"ok my son. To be an excellent instructor, learn the positions very well. Make sure you understand what the students need. You need more than techniques. You need to add value to their lives. Your job is half to teach techniques and half to make people better in general. Make an aggressive person able to control their instincts, make weak people confident, etc"
Rickon also considers it important to teach people invisible things like breathing, efficiency, good base, etc, find alternatives in any situation in your life.
New philosophy
He has been thinking over the last few years about what's best for the future of BJJ.
He is happy about the evolution for sure. He wants to make BJJ more accessible to disadvantaged people, who are not there to do daily tough sparring. He understands some people want a war every day but most people don't. This is the segment he would like to explore.
People can learn BJJ with "no trauma". He wants to take away that "alpha-male" philosophy. Make more "gentle" to learn BJJ. Get smashed every day is not for everyone.
He wants to decrease that violent training style in favor of a new learning methodology. He wants to give as much time students need to develop their techniques, with no pressure to fight or compete.
He will focus on breath, concentration, strategy, internal peace, and many of his invisible concepts - basically BJJ for everyone, for your whole life. BJJ for the dentist, doctor, musician, and fighter. Use BJJ as a tool to improve the quality of life for everyone.
His point is really about the stats that 9 in 10 people start BJJ and stop within 6 months (the source hasn't been mentioned but we know that happens).
His life today
He has retired, no longer training like a competitor and his body aches all over. He doesn't miss the competitive aspect of BJJ. Rickson wants to direct his efforts towards this new jiu-jitsu philosophy. Nowadays he doesn't need to use his physical jiu-jitsu but instead, uses the so-called "invisible jiu-jitsu" to deal with real-life problems.
Rickson is not interested in discussing and proving whether new techniques work or not. His body doesn't allow him to "prove" it to young fighters (Kron for example) that technique A or B doesn't work. He put all of this behind.
Rickson seemed super motivated to disseminate this BJJ philosophy. He is currently working on an online training methodology to implement it. He will publish the "breathe" module for free. He considers it the most important skill you could have and since it helps you in any life situation. From a fight to a work meeting.
UFC (Bonus)
There was never any offer from UFC. There were some talks to face Coleman but it didn't go ahead. He would only fight with no time limits because Coleman was very strong. The longer the fight lasted, the better for him against larger opponents. The main MMA event at the time was the Japanese Pride. That's where the best fights were. UFC had Royce Gracie representing the family so he didn't need to join the UFC. Nowadays he is happy about how MMA has evolved as a sport. However, the rule set doesn't align with what the Gracie family considers essential to Jiu-Jitsu. That explains why we have no one representing the Gracie family, apart from his son Kron.
Rickson and many "old" school fighters used to fight for their team and their pride. They represented the BJJ flag against other martial arts. They always represented the Gracie family - never for money.
I can definitely tell you that's 100% true. I lived in Rio most of my life and remember the dark days of BJJ in the late 90's. This is another topic.
Thanks for reading!
Credits and links:
Marcelo Alonso is a professional journalist and has been covering BJJ and MMA when this was all called "vale-tudo" back in the '80s.
All credits to journalist Marcelo Alonso: https://twitter.com/alonsopvt?lang=en Portal Vale-tudo: http://www.portaldovaletudo.com.br
Original Video (Portugues): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O884rWiU8UA
Tweet to @LeonardoBrAu