ADULTS

BRAZILIAN JIU-JITSU:

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a martial art and combat sport that focuses on grappling and especially ground fighting. It is a derivative of early 20th century Kodokan Judo,[ which was itself then a recently-developed system (founded in 1882), based on multiple schools (or Ryu) of Japanese jujutsu. Like judo, it promotes the principle that smaller, weaker person can successfully defend themselves against a bigger, stronger assailant using leverage and proper technique; applying joint-locksand choke holds to defeat them. BJJ can be trained for self defense, sport grappling tournaments (gi and no-gi) and mixed martial arts (MMA) competition.Sparring (commonly referred to as 'rolling') and live drilling play a major role in training, and a premium is placed on performance, especially in competition.

GRACIE JIU-JITSU/CARLSON GRACIE JIU-JITSU:

The art began with Mitsuyo Maeda (aka Conde Koma, or Count Coma in English), a member of the then-recently-founded Kodokan. Maeda was one of five of Judo's top groundwork experts that Judo's founder Kano Jigoro sent overseas to demonstrate and spread his art to the world. Maeda left Japan in 1904 and visited a number of countries[2] giving “jiu-do” demonstrations and accepting challenges from wrestlers, boxers, savate fighters and various other martial artists before eventually arriving in Brazil on November 14, 1914.

Jiu-jitsu is known as more than just a system of fighting. Since its inception in 1882, its parent art of judo was separated from older systems of Japanese jujutsu by an important difference that was passed on to BJJ: it is not solely a martial art: it is also a sport; a method for promoting physical fitness and building character in young people; and, ultimately, a way (Do) of life.

Maeda had trained first in sumo as a teenager, and after the interest generated by stories about the success of judo at contests between judo and jujutsu that were occurring at the time, he changed from sumo to judo, becoming a student of Kano’s Kodokan judo. He was promoted to 7th dan in Kodokan judo the day before he died in 1941.

Gastão Gracie was a business partner of the American Circus in Belém. In 1916, Italian Argentine circus Queirolo Brothers staged shows there and presented Maeda. In 1917, Carlos Gracie, the eldest son of Gastão Gracie, watched a demonstration by Maeda at the Da Paz Theatre and decided to learn judo. Maeda accepted to teach Carlos. Carlos learned for a few years and eventually passed his knowledge to his brothers.

At age fourteen, Helio Gracie, the youngest of the brothers moved in with his older brothers who lived and taught Jiu-Jitsu in a house in Botafogo, a neighborhood of Rio De Janeiro. Following doctor’s recommendations, Helio would spend the next few years limited to only watching his brothers teach as he was naturally frail.

One day, when Helio Gracie was 16 years old, a student showed up for class when Carlos was not around. Helio, who had memorized all the techniques from watching his brothers teach, offered to start the class. When the class was over, Carlos showed up and apologized for his delay. The student asked for Helio to continue being his instructor, Helio Gracie then gradually developed Gracie Jiu Jitsu as an adaptation from Judo as he was unable to do many Judo moves.

Carlson Gracie would later split from Hélio Gracie’s group. He founded one of top mixed martial arts teams, which spawned many champions. In 2000, following a financial dispute, many of Carlson Gracie’s students would split from him to form another MMA team, the Brazilian Top Team, which would remain respectful to the master.

Carlson fought a total of eighteen vale tudo fights, with only one loss to Euclides Pereira in a fight that was held in Bahia. His first fight was against Capoeira practitioner Luiz “Cirandinha” Aguiar in this March 17, 1953. Carlson won after over an hour of fighting. His second match was a draw against Wilson “Passarito” Oliveira in May 1953. Carlson had a rematch in March 1954 in the longest fight of his career, which he won in the fifth 30 minute round. Most notable are his four matches with Valdemar Santana, who had defeated his uncle Hélio Gracie in a fabled match in May 1955. He beat Santana in the first fight avenging his family. In October 1955 Carlson fought Santana to a draw in a Jiu-Jitsu match. In 1956 and 1957 Carlson won two fights and in 1959 they fought to a draw.

Carlson Gracie trained many top competitors such as Allan Goes, Murilo Bustamante, Mario Sperry, Wallid Ismail, Pablo Popovitch, Kevin Christopher, Andre Pederneiras, Julio Fernandez, Ricardo Liborio, Marcus Soares, Rodrigo Medeiros, Ricardo “Rey” Diogo, Marcelo Alonso and was also responsible for introducing and mastering Vitor Belfort into Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. Carlson Gracie also trained Stephan Bonnar, a finalist in the UFC reality show The Ultimate Fighter 1. He was in Bonnar’s corner during his legendary fight against eventual The Ultimate Fighter winner Forrest Griffin. He is the author of a book on the subject of Jiu Jitsu titled Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: For Experts Only, which includes his student Julio “Foca” Fernandez.

The oldest son of Carlos Gracie, who founded Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Rio De Janeiro during the 1920s, Carlson reigned as world champion for thirty years covering the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. During this time, he was also considered one of the preeminent teachers of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in the world; a reputation he holds to this day.

Carlson catapulted to fame at the age of 23 when he avenged the defeat of his uncle Helio Gracie. A former student of Helio’s, Waldemar Santana, had defeated the much older Helio during a match in 1955. That match lasted four hours and is still the longest in modern history. Carlson’s rematch with Santana in 1956 was a much shorter affair: four rounds of vicious vale-tudo combat came to draw.

Riding on his newly found fame, Carlson became the most sought-after Jiu-Jitsu instructor in Brazil. After teaching at his uncle’s academy for several years, he opened his own, where over the past thirty years many of the greatest names in Jiu-Jitsu and no-holds-barred fighters have trained as members of the famed Carlson Gracie Arrebentacao Team.

Helio Gracie’s academy taught only the most basic positions to outsiders, reserving the advanced positions for the family elite. Carlson opened up Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to the masses, and the masses responded, hungry to learn everything they could. To compete for students, the other academy was forced to offer all their positions as well. This good-natured competition breathed creativity and invention into Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Carlson’s influence on no-holds-barred fighting is extensive as well, for the style of Jiu-Jitsu he taught at his academy was distinct from that being taught by Helio. While Helio’s brand of Jiu-Jitsu emphasized technical proficiency, Carlson favored a ‘warrior style’ of Jiu-Jitsu that encouraged physical prowess and barraging your opponent with a series of attacks.

Carlson Gracie died on February 1, 2006, in Chicago, Illinois, of heart failure, apparently the result of complications of kidney stones (and possibly his pre-existing diabetes), following a hospitalization of several days. At the time of his death he was a ninth degree red belt and was referred to as Grandmaster. Carlson considers his proudest achievement to be the scores of students that he has instilled with his love for the sport that changed his life.

MIXED MARTIAL ARTS (MMA):

MMA is a full contact combat sport that allows a wide variety of fighting techniques, from a mixture of martial arts traditions and non-traditions, to be used in competitions. The rules allow the use of striking and grappling techniques, both while standing and on the ground. Such competitions allow martial artists of different backgrounds to compete. The term may also be used, less correctly, to describe hybrid martial arts styles. Modern mixed martial arts competition emerged in American popular culture in 1993 with the founding of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Initially based on finding the most effective martial arts for real unarmed combat situations, competitors of various arts were pitted against one another with minimal rules for safety. In the following decade, MMA promoters adopted many additional rules aimed at increasing safety for competitors and to promote mainstream acceptance of the sport. The name mixed martial arts was coined by one of the developers of these rules, Jeff Blatnick, a former Greco-Roman wrestler and Olympic gold medalist. Following these changes, the sport has seen increased popularity with pay per view reach rivaling boxing and professional wrestling.

NO-GI/SUBMISSION WRESTLING:

Also known as submission fighting or submission grappling. No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu is a formula of competition and a general term describing the aspect of martial arts and combat sports that focus on clinch and ground fighting with the aim of obtaining a submission using submission holds.The sport of NOGI brings together techniques from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Folk American Wrestling (Catch-as-catch-can), Luta Livre Esportiva, Freestyle Wrestling, Judo and Sambo. Submission fighting as an element of a larger sport setting is very common in mixed martial arts, Pankration, catch wrestling, shoot fighting, shooto and others. Submission Wrestler’s or Grapplers usually wears shorts, skin-sticky clothing, speedos and mixed short clothes so they do not rip off in combat.

COMBAT SUBMISSION WRESTLING (CSW):

Combat Submission Wrestling is a reformulated Shoot wrestling curriculum as taught by Erik Paulson, world light heavyweight champion of Shooto. The curriculum is a three dimensional martial art form involving striking, take downs and submissions. The base of CSW is shoot wrestling/shooto, which was introduced to Paulson by Yorinaga Nakamura, an instructor from Japan. Other arts it has derived its curriculum from are Catch-as-catch-can, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Wrestling, Sambo, and Judo.

SAVATE THAI CROSS TRAINING (STX):

STX stands for Savate-Thai-Cross training. This is the stand-up style that is taught by Erik Paulson (erikpaulson.com) as a result of the training he’s had from his many instructors.
From Savate, STX draws its footwork and evasiveness. Savate is known for being highly mobile and constantly moving which makes you harder to hit and allows you to attack at angles.

STX also capitalizes on Savate’s many fakes and setups so that the opponent is constantly guessing as to which attack is real and what is just a misleading fake. Following the misleading attacks is a system of extremely fluid combinations that help to allow the fighter to land more hits than the opponent while moving in and out of range at good angles. On defense, STX draws from some of the unique defense and counter techniques that help to keep your opponent out of his game and help you to set up your shots more like a chess match. Savate is also a much longer range kicking method.

From Thai boxing, STX obviously draws its powerful kicking and conditioning. It will also utilize the stand your ground attitude of Muay Thai with good, strong defensive techniques and quick, powerful counters. STX also uses the closing and clinching techniques that Muay Thai is known for so that you can control and apply knees, elbows and close range punching.

Although STX is heavily based on Savate and Muay Thai, it also has elements that are modified and used from other arts and disciplines such as Kali, Silat, Greco Roman Wrestling, and Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do concepts.

WRESTLING:

Wrestling is a form of grappling type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and take downs, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. A wrestling bout is a physical competition, between two (occasionally more) competitors or sparring partners, who attempt to gain and maintain a superior position. There are a wide range of styles with varying rules with both traditional historic and modern styles. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into other martial arts as well as military hand-to-hand combat systems.

CATCH-AS-CATCH-CAN WRESTLING:

Catch wrestling is a style of Folk wrestling that was developed and popularized in the late 19th century by the wrestlers of traveling carnivals who incorporated submission holds, or “hooks”, into their wrestling to increase their effectiveness against their opponents. Catch wrestling derives from a number different styles, the English style of Lancashire Catch-as-Catch-Can Wrestling, Irish Collar-and-elbow, Greco Roman Wrestling, styles of the Indian subcontinent such as Pehlwani and Iranian styles such as Varzesh-e Pahlavani. The training of some modern submission wrestlers, professional wrestlers and Mixed martial arts fighters is founded in Catch wrestling.

ALL-IN WRESTLING:

The word “ALL-IN” will mean only the amalgamation of the leading styles of wrestling then in vogue, namely Judo (or Ju-Jitsu), Catch-as-Catch-Can, and Graeco-Roman. The object being to make the new style of wrestling more exciting, and pleasing to the general public. Gone were the days when two giant wrestlers would be locked in combat on the mat for hours.

Wrestling from now on was going to be structured, there would be a wrestling board of control, timed rounds, and victory would be obtained by two falls, two submissions, or a knockout.

JUJUTSU/JUJITSU:

Jujutsu (also known as Ju-Jitsu, Jiu-Jitsu, or Jiujitsu), is a Japanese martial art and a method of close combat for defeating an armed and armored opponent in which one uses no weapon, or only a short weapon.

“Jū” can be translated to mean “gentle, supple, flexible, pliable, or yielding.” “Jutsu” can be translated to mean “art” or “technique” and represents manipulating the opponent’s force against himself rather than confronting it with one’s own force. Jujutsu evolved among the samurai of feudal Japan as a method for defeating an armed and armored opponent in which one uses no weapon, or only a short weapon. Because striking against an armored opponent proved ineffective, practitioners learned that the most efficient methods for neutralizing an enemy took the form of pins, joint locks, and throws. These techniques were developed around the principle of using an attacker’s energy against him, rather than directly opposing it.

There are many variations of the art, which leads to a diversity of approaches. Jujutsu schools (ryū) may utilize all forms of grappling techniques to some degree (i.e. throwing, trapping, joint locks, holds, gouging, biting, disengagements, striking, and kicking). In addition to jujutsu, many schools teach the use of weapons.

Today, jujutsu is practiced in both traditional and modern sport forms. Derived sport forms include the Olympic sport and martial art of judo, which was developed by Kanō Jigorō in the late 19th century from several traditional styles of jujutsu, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, which was in turn derived from earlier (pre–World War II) versions of Kodokan judo.

JUDO:

Judo, meaning “gentle way”, is a modern Japanese martial art (gendai budō) and combat sport that originated in Japan in the late nineteenth century. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is to throw one’s opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue one’s opponent with a grappling manoeuvre, or force an opponent to submit by joint locking the elbow or by executing a choke. Strikes and thrusts (by hands and feet) — as well as weapons defenses — are a part of judo, but only in pre-arranged forms (kata) and are not allowed in judo competition or free practice (randori). Ultimately, the philosophy and subsequent pedagogy developed for judo became the model for almost all modern Japanese martial arts that developed from “traditional” schools (koryū). In addition, the spread of Judo worldwide has led to the development of a number of offshoots such as Sambo and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Practitioners of judo are called jūdōka.

EXTREME SELF PROTECTION (ESP):

ESP is an amalgam of Western disciplines: Western boxing, Western Wrestling, and Western Empiricism.

ESP promotes the idea that the martial arts of the east are not the only repositories of knowledge available on the planet. Western civilization has its own rich history of unarmed combat disciplines that in many ways are superior to the dogma of the Eastern traditions.

ESP does not deny that there is much of value in these other disciplines; it merely suggests that the rich tapestry of Western combat arts has much to offer. Perhaps less so in the aesthetic sense, but this is more than made up in its pragmatic expression.

What Western Arts comprise the ESP system? Pugilism forms the foundation of our striking system. Pugilism is the pre-Marquis de Queensbury form of boxing in which elbows, head-butts, gouging, hip throws, and other such NHB tools were still legal. We’ve taken these tools from the legends of boxing’s beginnings, combined them with positional and entry concepts utilized in Western fencing, added a touch of the illegal punches found in Boombattle, and fire them with the advances made in the Sweet Science over the past 100 years. This combination of the early Pugilist’s brutality, the Fencer’s finesse, and the Boxer’s conditioning and overwhelming scientific attach make for a solid striking base well suited to the ring, the octagon, or the streets.

ESP also uses Western Wrestling disciplines to educate the “shoot” or take down. We utilize the lessons of Greco-Roman wrestling with their incessant upper body attack and the head-to-toe shots of the freestyle wrestler to build a “shooter” whose take down variations number into the hundreds and do not rely on the gi, Sambo jacket, or any other non-body handle.

ESP bases its ground game in the breakdowns, rides, pinning combinations, escapes, stand-ups, and par terre disciplines of freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling. By emphasizing movement and control before submission we allow submissions to occur naturally rather than merely chasing a submission. ESP also uses these solid foundational skills to better set-up the “ground and pound” game.

ESP gathers its extensive submission vocabulary from the Western Wrestlers of yesterday. We learn from all Mediterranean basin wrestling styles, Russian folk wrestling, Sambo, Pankratium, and of course English All-In wrestling and Catch-as-Catch Can.

How does the Doctrine of Western Empiricism fit into the ESP matrix? Advances in Western sciences were made because of an evolved method of testing ideas for their veracity rather than just accepting them at face value. ESP reasons that any and all techniques and strategies should be subjected to this same testing process. It is one thing to say whether something is effective or not; it is quite another to know whether something is effective or not. Western Combat Arts have always adhered to the power of Empiricism. Boxing and Wrestling are ring-tested and trained in realistic feedback scenarios. This sort of training and competition lends itself to separating the wheat from the chaff. The tap out, the KO, the Olympic gold around a competitor’s neck allows us to see for ourselves what has or has not been effective.

ESP does not believe in training for conditioning blindly; we use the empirical approach here as well. We want no wasted effort or needless time consumed. We are also aware of the hazards of cross training. Cross training can give the illusion of completeness where in fact it may very well be divided attention. You must always do a cost-to-benefit analysis before augmenting your training in any way. Really examine the proposed idea and find out if it indeed does serve your goal. Keep the concepts of specificity and integration at the forefront. Integration is embodied by the following dialogue from Confucius’ Analects.

Positioning comes second in the ESP continuum but seemingly last in most combat arts. Before the first punch is thrown, before the first shot is set-up, before the first submission is hooked there comes the strategic positioning of your opponent’s body and your own. Having knowledge of the inherent engineering weaknesses and strengths of any and all positions whether they are horizontal or vertical, static or fluid is integral to truly accessing the power of the final two components of the ESP continuum.

Striking-We have already discussed to some degree the striking perspective ESP propounds (the Pugilist base, et. cetera) but it takes on a whole new ferocity when you have an appreciation of the training modality (functional drills) and positioning concepts. You can literally triple the power of your existing strikes just by adhering to the positioning concepts and significantly reduce skill acquisition time by following the drill paradigm.

Submission-Last in the continuum but certainly not least. ESP strives to place emphasis on strikes over submission (striking on the ground included) but that does not mean that we ignore the vocabulary of the stand-up and ground submission game. Our submission vocabulary is vast and easily inculcated by the student in logical call and response chains that present moves/counter/re-counters pursued to their feasible conclusion. We train this aspect of the game in this manner to better ingrain responses as logical flow rather than just a random series of “tap: choices. Use the boxer’s stratagem of “combinations-combinations-combinations” on the mat as you would in your stand-up game. Always know where you are going by having explored the possibilities previously.

BOXING:

Boxing (sometimes also known as Western boxing or pugilism) is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds. Victory is achieved if the opponent is knocked down and unable to get up before the referee counts to ten seconds (a Knockout, or KO) or if the opponent is deemed too injured to continue (a Technical Knockout, or TKO). If there is no stoppage of the fight before an agreed number of rounds, a winner is determined either by the referee’s decision or by judges’ scorecards.

MUAY THAI:

Muay Thai (Thai: มวยไทย, RTGS: Muai Thai, [muɛ̄j tʰɑ̄j], lit. Thai Boxing) is a form of hard martial art practiced in large parts of the world, including Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries. The art is similar to others in Southeast Asia such as: pradal serey in Cambodia, lethwei in Myanmar, tomoi in Malaysia, and Lao boxing in Laos. Muay Thai has a long history in Thailand and is the country’s national sport. Traditional Muay Thai practiced today varies significantly from the ancient art muay boran and uses kicks and punches in a ring with gloves similar to those used in Western boxing. Muay Thai is referred to as “The Art of Eight Limbs”, as the hands, shins, elbows, and knees are all used extensively in this art. A practitioner of Muay Thai (“nak muay”) thus has the ability to execute strikes using eight “points of contact,” as opposed to “two points” (fists) in Western boxing and “four points” (fists, feet) used in the primarily sport-oriented forms of martial arts.

SAVATE:

Savate, also known as boxe française, French boxing, French kickboxing or French footfighting, is a French martial art which uses the hands and feet as weapons combining elements of western boxing with graceful kicking techniques. Only foot kicks are allowed unlike some systems such as Muay Thai, and Silat hich allow the use of the knees or shins. “Savate” is a French word for “old shoe”. Savate is perhaps the only style of kickboxing in which the fighters habitually wear shoes. A male practitioner of savate is called a savateur while a female is called a savateuse.

KIDS:

BRAZILIAN JIU-JITSU:

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a martial art and combat sport that focuses on grappling and especially ground fighting. It is a derivative of early 20th century Kodokan Judo,[ which was itself then a recently-developed system (founded in 1882), based on multiple schools (or Ryu) of Japanese jujutsu. Like judo, it promotes the principle that smaller, weaker person can successfully defend themselves against a bigger, stronger assailant using leverage and proper technique; applying joint-locksand chokeholds to defeat them. BJJ can be trained for self defense, sport grappling tournaments (gi and no-gi) and mixed martial arts (MMA) competition. Sparring (commonly referred to as ‘rolling’) and live drilling play a major role in training, and a premium is placed on performance, especially in competition.

NO-GI:

Also known as submission fighting, submission grappling. No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu is a formula of competition and a general term describing the aspect of martial arts and combat sports that focus on clinch and ground fighting with the aim of obtaining a submission using submission holds. The sport of NOGI brings together techniques from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Folk American Wrestling (Catch-as-catch-can), Luta Livre Esportiva, Freestyle Wrestling, Judo and Sambo. Submission fighting as an element of a larger sport setting is very common in mixed martial arts, Pankration, catch wrestling, shootfighting, shooto and others. Submission Wrestler’s or Grapplers usually wears shorts, skin-sticky clothing, speedos and mixed short clothes so they do not rip off in combat.

JUDO:

Judo, meaning “gentle way”, is a modern Japanese martial art (gendai budō) and combat sport, that originated in Japan in the late nineteenth century. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is to throw one’s opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue one’s opponent with a grappling manoeuvre, or force an opponent to submit by joint locking the elbow or by executing a choke. Strikes and thrusts (by hands and feet) — as well as weapons defenses — are a part of judo, but only in pre-arranged forms (kata) and are not allowed in judo competition or free practice (randori). Ultimately, the philosophy and subsequent pedagogy developed for judo became the model for almost all modern Japanese martial arts that developed from “traditional” schools (koryū). In addition, the spread of Judo worldwide has led to the development of a number of offshoots such as Sambo and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Practitioners of judo are called jūdōka.