Your opinions of the Gracie family - love or hate?

Back in the early years of BJJ in America , They (the Gracies ) held techniques back . Like it or not it's true . I don't hate the Gracies , but I thought this was B.S . I've trained with and or met 5 or 6 Gracies . Carlson was the coolest of them all , Ralph the most intense , Ceaser and Renzo the most laid back . I've also met Ryan and couple of the young kids ( I forgot their names it was in 95 and they were already good at BJJ ) . Carlson Sr talked about his family holding stuff back and why he thought it was B.S. as well . I know they don't do it today .
 
I dont think kyra gracie is as hot as everyone says.I think her face looks too manly.Ricksons daughters on the other hand are way better looking.
 
judogido said:
I've noticed opinions about the Gracie family in general are somewhat mixed - both within BJJ and from other MAs.

While most recognise & respect this family as the founders of BJJ, there seems to be either a love 'em or hate 'em attitude from some. The dislike stems from a bunch of things (I'm not claiming anything here) issues about a particular fight, claiming they "invented" things that have been around for generations, being too "money focused"... & more.

What are your thoughts? What's the good & bad about these guys.

(and yes I know - Kyra is HAWT...)
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It's been my experience that the ones who hate the Gracie's are the ones who've fallen easy victims to it. And the ones who love it are current practitioners of it and are good at it or are past legends of the Gracie system.

With that said, I think a lot of the modern day fighters take what works from BJJ and use it, and the rest they throw out. Gone are the days that armbars caught practically everyone. Today, 9 year old skateboarding kids do armbars in their sleep, and slip out of them just as easily.

BJJ as with all other arts, once people learn the defenses to the moves, the art loses some of its luster. Good fighters take the moves, learn ways to avoid the killer moves and either tweak or alter the different moves into another way of executing the same move.

Pat Miletich at a camp I attended with him a few years back said it best: "All moves are designed to fail!" I wholeheartedly agree and that constant training in new strategies is a must especially in a day and age where EVERYONE knows EXACTLY what works and what doesent. There isnt anymore "Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting" crap. It's a modern world and you have to train for modern day fighting.

"The problem with Traditional Martial arts is the unrealism of it. You're not going to remember self defense move #182. You're only gonna remember what is simple. So the key is to use what works and make sure it's simple. Otherwise, as the Gracie's once said, you'll be a black belt with years of experience easily defeated on the street with an undisciplined street fighter!" - Former ISKA champ "The Man"
 
Wow. This thread came back from nowhere....
 
From friends who have rolled and trained with them, I've heard nothing but praise.

I don't like how Helio seems to make excuses for the losses in his family sometimes but that sort of family bias is probably understandable at the end of the day.

I got nothing but respect here.

- J.
 
GracieMMABarra said:
I love the sport...Carlos Jr. and Renzo are awesome people. I respect Rickson for his ability in BJJ (not really his MMA) but he says alot of things that bother me alot and I really dont care for his son kyron. Oh well
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kyron is carlos jr son. and for the records kyron is asolid dude ur in temecula he dosent roll there.
 
im curious as to what rickson says that people dont like. ive never met the guy, but he always seems pretty humble in interviews.
 
how could you hated. the invented the sport we all loose sleep at night thinking about haha. their contributions to bjj are massive. i have never met a gracie, but if there was a school around id definitly train there. id loove to train a rickson's
 
sorry for the terrible spelling on that last post lol
 
I started training a few times a week when I have time at a Royler school, and I have heard a few people mention just how helpful Royler is when he does seminars. I've never met any members of the Gracie family, but it seems like people who train at their schools are pretty satisfied, which says something.
 
I only like a handfull of helios sons, I aint too big on the offbeat gracies who are like the 3rd cousins of helio or something along those lines..sometimes i feel like they only fight because they are a "gracie" to begin with. My favorite gracies are royce and rickson
 
The Jake said:
From friends who have rolled and trained with them, I've heard nothing but praise.

I don't like how Helio seems to make excuses for the losses in his family sometimes but that sort of family bias is probably understandable at the end of the day.

I got nothing but respect here.

- J.
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I never heard helio make too many excuses, but I did see an interview with him where he was half-making fun of rickson..the interviewer asked if he had 400 wins and helio said he has no idea how the hell he got to that number and if hes going to count every sparring session then he(helio) prolly has 10000 wins or something along those lines.
 
Everyone thanks the Gracies for what they've done for the sport and they're good guys and stuff which is very well and pleasant, but I just cant give them that much credit. They created a style that was already invented. They changed or added certain things but their name on it and said this is our style. WTF. I teach and train in the fight sytem of SKBDO and yes it is a hyprid style that incorprates some BJJ and other grappling systems, but no way am I trying to reinvent the wheel. The Gracies did not invent ground fighting they simply made it more popular to the United States. Americans where ignorant of grappling besides wrestling and Gracies gave them another option. Pankration fighting system was during Roman times and was way before GJJ. In fact Pankration was the original MMA event. It had standing strikes, ground grappling, submissions, ground and pound, and all the basis of todays fights. Sambo was developed in Russia around the 1930's and that came from Judo which came from Japan. Orginal JJ is from Japan just like a lot of grappling martial arts. The Gracies are being credited for what? Not creating a style no, but for making it popular yes. I'm not trying to knock the style or the Gracies as a family, but feel people dont know the history of these martial arts and fight systems and try to represent things they really dont know. Now on a positive note GJJ/BJJ is excellent at what it teaches and as a fan of grappling I love it. As I said before SKBDO uses some BJJ but also uses alot of Sambo, wrestling, Aikido, Judo, and Luta-Livre. The Gracies are wonderful and have really made huge contributions to the sport, I love their dedication and passion in what they do but I can only give them credit on marketing not inventing.
 
"They created a style that was already invented." -- A classic internal inconsistency. You give them too little credit, my friend. As Joe Rogan put it, because of Gracie JJ and the UFC (created by Rorian Gracie), martial arts changed more in the last 10 years than in the prior 1000 years.
 
definately love 'em
they showed us what real fighting is about
 
You have to respect the Gracie family for everything they have done. Yes, the early UFC was just to showcase their system, but without it there would be no UFC today.

I do have to say that I havn't been impressed with them on more than one occasion. Usually having to do with sportsmanship issues after losing fights and such.

I still feel that MMA would be nothing today without them.
 
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