What Is Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, and Why Did One Family Name Change Martial Arts?

By Professor Itay Leibovich | 3rd-degree black belt, Gracie Jiu Jitsu | August 2026

"Hold on — it says Gracie Jiu Jitsu on your wall. Isn't that the same thing as BJJ? Is it a brand? Do you have a franchise?"

That's Omer. 42, a software engineer, who came to a trial class at our academy at 29 Yitzhak Sadeh St in Tel Aviv after his son started training with us in Netanya. He stood in front of the wall with the logo, read the words, and asked the question almost every new student asks. Next to him stood Merav, a longtime student from the women's group. "I asked exactly that question three years ago," she told him. "I'm still waiting for the short answer."

I gave him the answer I always give: "It's a family name. But it's also the story of why you — 42 years old, no martial arts background — can learn to handle someone younger and stronger than you. Sit down, it's a good story."

If you have ever wondered what the difference is between Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, and why there is a family surname sitting in the middle of a martial art's name, this article is for you. And if you are a woman asking the same thing, it is for you exactly as much.

A Family Name That Became a System

Let's start at the beginning, because without the history none of this makes sense.

The early twentieth century. A Japanese master named Mitsuyo Maeda, an expert in jujutsu and judo, emigrates to Brazil. There he meets a local family called Gracie, and according to family tradition teaches the eldest son, Carlos Gracie, the Japanese art. Carlos is captivated, trains, and in 1925 opens the family's first academy in Rio de Janeiro together with his brothers.

Then the youngest brother enters the picture: Helio Gracie. Helio was a thin, relatively frail young man, the kind the doctors of the day told to avoid exertion. He looked at the techniques his brothers were learning and understood something simple: what works for a big, strong man will not necessarily work for him. So he, together with the family, began to adapt. Less strength, more leverage. Less speed, more timing. Less "overpower your opponent", more "let your opponent wear himself out".

Helio is considered one of the central figures in developing the system now known as Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, or by its broader name, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. This was not one man's invention in a single moment. It was the work of an entire family, over decades, taking an ancient Japanese art and adapting it around one clear principle: the small, weak person has to be able to handle the big, strong one.

Helio put it in one sentence that I repeat in almost every beginners' class:

"Always assume that your opponent is going to be bigger, stronger and faster than you, so that you learn to rely on technique, timing and leverage rather than brute strength." (Helio Gracie)

Notice what that sentence does. It does not promise you that you will be strong. It promises you that you will not have to be.

The family did not leave that claim at the level of a slogan. For decades the Gracies put the system to the test against boxers, wrestlers and specialists from other styles, in challenge matches that were part of Brazilian culture at the time. Some they won, some they did not, and every one of those fights came back to the academy as homework: what worked, what did not, what we change.

The story that captures that spirit best is actually a loss. In 1951 Helio, no longer young and weighing barely 63 kilos, faced Masahiko Kimura, Japan's great judo champion, significantly heavier and stronger than him. Kimura controlled the match, caught Helio's arm in a shoulder lock, and Helio refused to submit. The arm was injured, and only the towel thrown in from his corner stopped the fight. (And let us say this straight away and clearly: in our sparring we tap, early and happily. There is a whole article on this site about why tapping in time is the most important tool you have. That was a different era and a historic exhibition bout, not a training model.) To this day, in every jiu-jitsu academy in the world, that technique is called a "Kimura", after the man who won. Which says something rather beautiful about the culture of this sport: you lost? Learn the thing that beat you, and add it to your arsenal.

"Gentle" Does Not Mean Weak: The Principles Behind the System

The Japanese word "ju" means pliable, soft, yielding in order to win. That is where the name comes from, and in English it gets spelled just about every way you can imagine: jiu-jitsu, jiu jitsu, jujitsu, ju-jutsu, jujutsu. They all mean the same thing, and not one of those spellings will help you when somebody is sitting on top of you.

The core principle of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is distance management and control. A real confrontation is chaos: strikes flying, adrenaline, fear. The Gracie family's answer is this: do not stay in the range where your opponent's hardest punch wins. Close the distance, clinch, take the confrontation to a place where raw strength loses its advantage. And a great many confrontations really do end up in the clinch (the close-quarters standing struggle) or on the ground, whether you planned it that way or not.

And there, on the ground, a new set of rules begins: position before everything, leverage instead of muscle, patience instead of panic. You are not trying to "win fast", you are trying to be in the right place, conserve your energy, and let your opponent burn his. And then, when an opening appears, you take it.

And Helio himself described the purpose of the system in a sentence I quote to almost every new student:

"Jiu-jitsu was created for the protection of the individual: the older man, the weak man, the child, the woman. Anyone who does not have the physical attributes to defend themselves. The way I did not." (Helio Gracie)

That is the heart of it. Gracie Jiu-Jitsu was not built for the gifted athlete. It was built for everybody else.

Position Before Everything: What the Principles Look Like in Practice

Let's take the theory and put it on the mat. The language of the ground is built out of positions, and every position is really an answer to one question: who controls whom, and by how much.

There is the Guard, the position where you are on your back with your legs between you and your opponent. To anyone coming from a striking world it looks like losing. In jiu-jitsu it is a full working position: from your legs you defend, you sweep, you threaten submissions (the techniques that end the fight). There is the Mount, sitting on your opponent's chest, and Side Control, control from the side. And there is the Back mount, the position everybody wants and nobody wants to give up.

The logic of the system says: get to a good position first, and only then think about the finish. Position before submission. Someone who tries to finish quickly from a bad position usually finds himself in an even worse one. Someone who builds control step by step discovers that the finish almost arrives on its own, because his opponent, tired and under pressure, starts making mistakes.

And that is also what makes learning it so addictive: every movement you make opens some options and closes others, every session reveals another layer, and your head works no less than your body. Longtime students of mine, including people with a decade on the mat, still walk out of class with something new.

The Moment the World Understood: UFC 1

Until the early nineties this system was mostly a Brazilian affair, known outside Brazil mainly to people who trained with the family members already teaching in California. Then, in November 1993, the family decided to prove its claim in front of the whole world, in a new tournament called The Ultimate Fighting Championship, better known as the UFC, which family members themselves helped to found: fighters from different styles, almost no rules, no weight classes, and the winner is whoever submits or neutralises every opponent.

The family did not send its biggest fighter. It sent Royce Gracie (in Brazilian Portuguese it is pronounced "Hoyce", not "Royce"), Helio's son: a slim man of roughly 80 kilos, in a white gi. He looked like the least threatening person in the building.

He won the entire tournament. Then he won UFC 2 as well, and UFC 4, facing opponents significantly bigger and heavier than him. Without a single dramatic strike. Close the distance, clinch, ground, control, submission. Again and again.

Overnight, the whole martial arts world understood what the Gracie family had been claiming for nearly seventy years: without the ability to handle a fight on the ground, no style is complete. That is why every professional MMA fighter today trains grappling (fighting based on grips and control, without strikes). Modern MMA was born, to a large extent, out of that family experiment.

And since then? The system that belonged to one family has become one of the most popular martial arts in the world, with academies on every continent and a community that only keeps growing, here in Israel too.

At our academy you can see that line alive: students who come for self-defence, and alongside them people training for the sport or combining ground work with striking. The same foundation, different applications.

Gracie Jiu-Jitsu vs Sport BJJ: One Tree, Different Branches

Now to Omer's question. If it all started with one family, what is the difference today between "Gracie Jiu-Jitsu" and "BJJ"?

Think of it as one tree with two main branches, both grown from the same roots.

The sport branch is the competitive BJJ you see in tournaments today: a points system, weight classes, sophisticated techniques evolving at a dizzying pace. It is an impressive branch, with athletes at insane levels. The second branch, the one called Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, puts the emphasis somewhere slightly different: self-defence first. In that kind of training the guiding question is not "what scores points in a tournament", but "what happens when there is no referee, no weight classes, and somebody is genuinely trying to hurt you". So the work includes awareness of strikes, distance management, dealing with a shove or a grab, and only then the fine game on the ground. It is also why we train in the Gi (the traditional uniform, some people call it a kimono): because in the real world people wear clothes, and a piece of clothing is a handle.

I want to be precise about this: these are not "real" versus "fake". They are different emphases, and both are jiu-jitsu in every sense. At the Israeli Academy we teach the fundamentals through the family's lens, because we believe you learn to survive first and to win the game second. A student who goes through that stage with us can take it in any direction they want: competition, MMA, or simply quiet confidence on the street.

If you want to go deeper into the differences between the styles, I wrote about it at length in Hold on, what exactly is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu?

The Lineage: From Helio Gracie to Tel Aviv

In the world of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu there is a concept treated with almost ceremonial seriousness: lineage. Who taught whom. The reason is simple, and it is quality control: a real black belt knows exactly where it came from.

So here is mine, short and direct. Helio Gracie taught his son Royler Gracie (here too, the R at the start of the name is pronounced like an H in Brazilian Portuguese). Royler awarded a black belt to my teacher Moshe, and Moshe awarded mine. Three handshakes between me and Helio Gracie himself. Today I am a 3rd-degree black belt, after more than thirty-six years on the mat and sixteen years teaching, and I built the Israeli Academy of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and MMA so that this lineage would carry on, here in Israel.

And why am I telling you this? Because when you choose where to train, you deserve to know what you are getting. BJJ in Israel has grown remarkably over the past decade, and there are plenty of good places to train today. Our choice is to teach the system the way the family built it: from self-defence outward.

What a Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Class Looks Like With Us

Let's bring this down from theory to the mat. A typical class at our academy, in Tel Aviv or in Netanya, looks like this:

A short warm-up and mobility work, not the kind that leaves you finished before we have even started (we have other plans for you this evening). Then the technique of the day: the instructor demonstrates, and you drill it with a partner, slowly, under control, with corrections. No time pressure, no "just flow already". Anyone who knows me knows I am capable of stopping an entire class over one incorrect grip. Petty? Maybe. But that is the difference between a technique that works against real resistance and a movement that looks good on Instagram.

And at the end, the part that makes jiu-jitsu what it is: sparring, free training against a partner who genuinely resists. And here I want to stop and say something to anyone for whom the word "sparring" triggers a search for the nearest exit: nobody throws a beginner into a roll on day one against their will. You ease into it, when you are ready, and partners are matched by age, size and experience. A 45-year-old beginner will not find themselves across from a 25-year-old with something to prove. The intensity is adjusted, and the most important rule on the mat applies: tap twice, stop, start again. Like any contact sport there is a risk of injury here, and controlled training with responsible partners and tapping in time reduces it significantly. I wrote a whole guide on the blog about injury prevention in jiu-jitsu.

Who turns up to train? A very wide human cross-section: tech people after a day in front of a screen, parents who started because of their children and stayed because of themselves, women who came in through the women's group, young people dreaming of a fighting career, and people in their fifties and beyond discovering their body is capable of far more than they thought. Anyone looking for martial arts in Tel Aviv will find here, on one mat, people who would never have met anywhere else.

A few practical words for anyone already marking a date in the diary. You do not need equipment for your first class: comfortable sportswear, a water bottle, and trimmed nails (your partner will thank you). You will buy a Gi later, once you realise you are staying, and most people realise that faster than they planned (we are happy to point you towards a good uniform without overpaying). Classes run all week long, morning and evening, so even someone juggling a tech schedule, a family and assorted other wonders finds a window. And if your dilemma is between styles, between grappling and striking or MMA, the simplest thing is to come, watch one class of each, and feel what speaks to you. The body usually knows before the head does.

And if you are still at the "not sure this is for me" stage, I wrote something exactly for you about your first class and what really happens in it, and also about why the system they call the gentle art feels anything but gentle at the start (both articles are on the site). And if the simplest thing for you is to see it up close before you decide, message me on WhatsApp and come and watch a class.

More Than Self-Defence: What the System Does to Your Head

There is one more layer we have to talk about, because it is the reason people stay long after they already know how to defend themselves.

Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is a path to staying calm under pressure. In training, somebody is genuinely trying to control you, and you learn, slowly, not to panic. To breathe when it is tight. To think when it is uncomfortable. And anyone who has learned to stay calm while an entire human being is trying to put them on their back discovers that a stressful work meeting suddenly looks a lot less threatening.

It is also a school of humility, without anyone having to lecture you. In one of your first weeks, someone twenty kilos lighter than you will control you completely, politely, with a smile. The best lecture on humility ever given does not come close to that moment. The ego goes down, the curiosity goes up, and at some point you discover you are coming to class for the people no less than for the techniques.

That, by the way, is why I am careful with big promises. I do not promise nirvana and I do not promise a life change within a month. I will put it this way: I have yet to meet anyone who stuck with it for a full year and regretted it. (Yes, obviously, the people who did not stick with it are not around to complain. Still.)

Frequently Asked Questions About Gracie Jiu-Jitsu

Is Gracie Jiu-Jitsu suitable for someone who has never trained in martial arts?

Not only is it suitable, it was built for exactly that. The system was developed from the outset for people without exceptional physical attributes. In our beginners' classes everything is taught from zero, step by step, and nobody expects you to know anything on day one.

What is the difference between Gracie Jiu-Jitsu and Krav Maga?

Krav Maga is an Israeli self-defence system that took shape in the IDF, with an emphasis on neutralising a threat fast, including strikes and weapon scenarios. It is a system with its own clear logic. Gracie Jiu-Jitsu focuses on control: close the distance, remove the attacker's ability to hurt you, and end the confrontation with a submission or a hold, even without throwing a strike. At the academy we teach jiu-jitsu, and anyone weighing up self-defence classes in Tel Aviv is welcome to come and feel how this approach works on the mat.

Do I need to be fit before I start?

No. The fitness comes from the training, not before it. Start at your own pace and your body will catch up within a few weeks. The ego takes a little longer, but it gets there too.

I am a woman. Is there a separate group?

There is an active and strong women's group, and the mixed classes are open to women too. And let's say out loud what most women asking this really mean: yes, this is a close-contact sport. Partners are matched in training, everything is by consent and at your own pace, and you can start in the women's group and decide from there. Many of our students started with exactly that question, and some of them are today among the most experienced and technical people on our mats. It is the largest women's group in Israel, and around 30% of our students are women. If self-defence for women is close to your heart, I wrote a separate guide.

Is it suitable for children?

Very much so, and not only for the physical side. Our approach with children is built around confidence and the ability to stop a confrontation without hurting anyone, which makes it an unusually good tool against bullying. There is an article about it that I recommend to every parent: Fighting Fire with Water. We run children's and youth groups in Hadera, Tirat Carmel and Modi'in.

How long does progress take? When does the blue belt come?

On average, a year and a half to two and a half years of consistent training, depending on frequency and ability. But the more interesting truth is what happens along the way, and there is a separate article on the site about the journey from white belt to blue belt.

I am 45. Is it too late for me?

Helio Gracie trained and taught into very old age, and that is no accident: a system built on leverage and timing is exactly the system you can keep doing for decades. In our morning groups there are people rolling every week who started after 40, and some of them are well past fifty and past their blue belt too. There is also a detailed article, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu after 35, if you want to go deeper.

Where are you located, and how do I start?

We are in Tel Aviv at 29 Yitzhak Sadeh St and in Netanya at 4 HaTzoran St, with BJJ groups in Tivon, Haifa, Hadera, Tirat Carmel and Modi'in as well. Classes are taught in Hebrew, but our instructors speak fluent English and a large part of our members are English speakers. On Saturday nights we run a class taught in English by Philip Paul. You start with a trial class: come in sportswear, bring a water bottle, and zero prior knowledge. Details on programmes and prices come over WhatsApp: a question, a straight answer, no obligation and no sales call.

So What Now?

Back to Omer from the start of this article. He stayed for the trial class. Somewhere around the twentieth minute, when a 68-kilo training partner held him in a position he could not move out of, I saw the moment it landed. Not in his head. In his body.

That is what Gracie Jiu-Jitsu does. It does not ask you to believe anything. It invites you to come, feel it on yourself, and decide on your own. The family name on the wall is not a brand and not a franchise. It is a reminder of who this system was built for in the first place: people like you.

Want to try it? Send me a message on WhatsApp and we will set up a trial class for you. You can also take a look first at the class schedule and pick a time that works for you.

See you on the mat.

Professor Itay Leibovich | 3rd-degree black belt, Gracie Jiu Jitsu | The Israeli Academy of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and MMA

Tel Aviv, 29 Yitzhak Sadeh St | Netanya, 4 HaTzoran St