Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) is a martial art and combat sport that focuses on grappling and especially ground fighting with the goal of gaining a dominant position and using joint-locks and chokeholds to force an opponent to submit. The system developed from a modified version of pre-World War II Judo including some techniques from Japanese Jujutsu and with a focus on ne-waza (ground technique). It promotes the principle that a smaller, weaker person can successfully defend themselves against a bigger, stronger assailant using leverage and proper technique; most notably, by applying joint-locks and chokeholds to defeat them. BJJ can be trained for sport grappling tournaments (gi and no-gi) and mixed martial arts (MMA) competition.[3] 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.

The origins of Brazilian/Gracie Jiu Jitsu can be traced to the early 1900’s, when a Japanese man named Mitsuya Maeda moved to Brazil, and along with the Japanese government attempted to form a colony in Brazil. Meada, also known as Count Koma, befriended Gastao Gracie. Gracie, who was a Brazilian political figure, eventually helped Koma form this colony. The Count, who was forever grateful to Gastao Gracie, offered to teach Gastao’s son Carlos the secret and effective martial art Jiu Jitsu. Carlos Gracie trained with Count Koma from the time he was fifteen until he was in his twenties. After teaching Carlos many secrets of this ancient martial art, Koma returned to Japan, leaving Carlos alone to train and develop Jiu Jitsu in a way that would otherwise be prohibited by the more traditional Japanese martial artists. Carlos, along with his younger brother Helio, removed techniques that they believed ineffective for real life combat, and replaced them with more effective useful and comprehensive moves. Since both Gracie brothers were small in stature, they’re Jiu Jitsu began to rely more on positioning, and leverage than size and strength. The Gracie brothers began to test their martial art on the mean streets of Rio de Janeiro. Realizing and discovering that most real life fighting situations result in the combatants both rolling around on the ground; the Gracies concentrated their Jiu Jitsu on ground fighting. Applying submission holds, joint manipulation, chokes and many other ground fighting techniques, Carlos and Helio Gracie developed the most street effective martial art to date. Carlos and Helio both had many children (Helio nine, Carlos twenty one). All the children were born into a world of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and thus all learned the fighting art, and eventually most would fight competitively, and teach Jiu Jitsu. These factors helped make BJJ the worlds fastest growing self-defense/martial art system to date.