Branches of Jiu Jitsu

Hi everyone,

today's post I would like to dedicate to branches of jiu jitsu. There are many of them but the ones that seem to be highlighted as the most popular are

Gracie Humaita, Gracie Barra, Alliance Jiu-Jitsu, and Carlson Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. All are said to trace back to Hélio Gracie and Mitsuyo Maeda.

There are however others that you keep seeing when you look at medalling competitor backgrounds. They include Brasa, Check Mat, Atos and Nova União among others. Nearly all are connected to their founder (s) and I would like to cover them at least a little bit hear. I don't have all the info, so if anyone has anything to contribute, i am more than happy to post it of course.

-----------------

Gracie Humaita

Gracie Humaita is probably the oldest branch of brazilian jiu jitsu. Founded by Helio Gracie himself, jiu jitsu is taught the way it was taught originally by master Helio. Today, Gracie Humaita is lead by Royler Gracie and Rolker Gracie. This is the old school where many of the famous Gracie's originally trained including Rickson Gracie and Royce Gracie, before they founded their own schools.
The Gracie Humaita team is strongly represented in competition by the Ribeiro brothers (Saulo and Xande), Kron Gracie and remains one of the strongest in the world today.

-----------------

Gracie Barra

The first Gracie Barra School was founded in 1983 by Carlos "Carlinhos" Gracie, Jr. and today has over 400 black belts and 200 academies around the world. This the largest brazilian jiu jitsu association today.

Gracie Barra has one of the strongest jiu jitsu teams including Roger Gracie, Braulio Estima and Romulo Barral. In addition, Gracie Barra has many notable MMA fighters in its ranks including Renzo Gracie and Renato "Babulu" Sobral.

-----------------

Alliance Jiu Jitsu

Alliance Jiu-Jitsu was created in 1991 by two prominent practitioners, Romero "Jacare" Cavalcanti. Some of his first black belts were Fabio Gurgel, Alexandre Paiva and Fernando Gurgel.

Later after Jacare moved to the USA (from Brazil) the team had a split and some of the best guys left founding the Team Master.

Alliance continued with Jacare and Fabio Gurgel and the other 2 original founders after some years the Team is stronger then ever wining 2 World Championshipis back to back in 08 and 09.

Today, many Alliance academies are located in the US and include jiu jitsu stars such as Chris Moriarty, Rubens "Cobrinha" Charles, Sergio Moraes and Marcelo Garcia.

Alliance headquarters are still located in Sao Paulo, Brazil and are run by Fabio Gurgel himself.

Alliance team has won the 2008 and 2009 mundials.

-----------------

Carlsons Gracie Jiu Jitsu

This branch of jiu jitsu was founded by the late Carlson Gracie Sr., the eldest son of Carlos Gracie. After leaving the Gracie academy in the mid-60s, Carlson focused on competitive jiu jitsu which his team was able to dominate for more than 30 years.

Carlson Gracie Jr., the only son of Carlson who trained with his father from the age of 3 and now heads Carlsons.

-----------------

Information is scare but clearly out of the four main branches, Alliance is the youngest. I wish that in the future, we bjj practitioners have the opportunity to learn more about the heritage of jiu jitsu, the main branches and teams, and about the people that created this magnificent art.