- Hélio Gracie
Infobox_martial_artist
name = Hélio Gracie
residence =
other_names =
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birth_name =
birth_date = birth date and age|1913|10|01
birth_place =Belém do Pará ,Brazil
death_date =
death_place =
death_cause =
martial_art =Gracie Jiu-Jitsu
teacher = Carlos Gracie
rank = 10th Degree Red Belt
students =
website =
footnotes =Hélio Gracie (born
October 1 1913 [Gracie.com. [http://www.gracie.com/family/tree.html The Real Gracie Family Tree] ] ) is regarded as the creator of "Gracie Jiu-Jitsu", along with his older brother Carlos Gracie Sr. "Gracie Jiu-Jitsu" is also known asBrazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ). Hélio is the only living 10th degree master of the discipline and is widely considered as one of the first sports heroes in Brazilian history; he was named "Black Belt Magazine "'s Man of the Year in 1997. He is the father of the world-renowned fightersRickson Gracie ,Royler Gracie ,Royce Gracie , Relson Gracie andUltimate Fighting Championship (UFC) founderRorion Gracie . Gracie is also a 6th dan in judo. [According to Masahiko Kimura in his book "My Judo", Helio Gracie was a 6th dan judo at the time of his fight with Kimura in 1951 (see extract at http://www.judoinfo.com/kimura2.htm). Kodokan records have Hélio Gracie recorded as a 3rd dan in judo, but it is not unusual for a foreign judoka's actual grade to be higher than that officially granted and recorded by the Kodokan.]Today, Hélio teaches οccasionally in Brazil and accompanies his sons to fights.
History
Beginnings of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu
When Hélio Gracie was 16 years old, he found the opportunity to teach a Jiu-Jitsu class, and this experience led him to develop Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. The Director of the Bank of Brazil, Dr. Mario arrived for class as scheduled. The instructor Carlos was running late and was not present. Hélio offered to begin the class with the man. When the tardy Carlos arrived offering his apologies, the student assured him it was no problem, and actually requested that he be allowed to continue learning with Hélio instead. Carlos agreed to this and Hélio began as an instructor. Hélio realized however, even though he knew the techniques theoretically, in fact, the moves were much harder to execute. Due to his smaller size, he realized many of the jiu-jitsu moves required brute strength that his diminutive stature did not allow. He began adapting the moves for his particular physical attributes, and through trial and error learned to maximize leverage, thus minimizing the force that needed to be exerted to execute the move. From these experiments, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, formally
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu , was created. Using these new techniques, smaller and weaker opponents gained the capability to defend themselves and even defeat much larger opponents.Arrest
Hélio was involved in an attack on Luta-Livre teacher Manoel Rufino dos Santos in 1932, at the age of 19. In an interview for Playboy Magazine he regretted that act with this statement:
Hélio was prosecuted and sentenced to two and a half years in jail. An appeal was made to the Supreme Court by Hélio's lawyer Romero Neto and the sentence was upheld, as the court said "Today it was with Manoel Rufini dos Santos. Tomorrow it will be us." A couple of hours after that decision Brazilian President
Getúlio Vargas pardoned Hélio. According to Hélio, one of his students had a brother who was an ambassador and was very close to Getúlio, and he intervened in favor of Hélio. Hélio and Getúlio subsequently met many times and Hélio eventually taught Getúlio's son Maneco. [ [http://www.geocities.com/global_training_report/helio2.htm Interview with Hélio Gracie] - from "Playboy magazine (Brazilian issue) " February 2001. Translated by Roberto Pedreira of "Global Training Report"]Fight career
Hélio stated in an interview that he had around 15 fights. He began his fight career when he submitted professional boxer
Antonio Portugal in 30 seconds in 1932. Also in 1932 he fought Americanprofessional wrestler Fred Ebert for fourteen 10 minute rounds. The event was stopped before the end of the fourteen rounds. Hèlio was stopped to fight by the doctor then due to the high fever caused by a swelling. Hélio underwent an urgent operation the next day.In 1934 Hélio fought
professional wrestler Wladek Zbyszko , who was being billed as a "world champion", for three 10 minute rounds. That match was declared a draw. Hélio did win againstTaro Miyake , a Japaneseprofessional wrestler who worked for Ed "Strangler" Lewis in the U.S.Hélio also fought several Japanese
judoka under submission rules. In 1932 he fought Japanese judoka Namiki. The fight ended in a draw, but according to the Gracies the bell rang just seconds before Namiki would have tapped out. Hélio had two fights with Japanesejudoka Yasuichi Ono after Ono choked out Hélio's brother George Gracie in a match. Both fights ended in a draw. Hélio fought another Japanesejudoka Kato twice. The first time was atMaracanã stadium and they went to a draw. Afterwards, Hélio asked for a rematch. The rematch was held at Ibirapuera Stadium inSão Paulo and Hélio won by front choke from the guard.Kimura vs. Hélio Gracie
In 1955, Kimura, at 38 years old, participated in a match in which he defeated
Hélio Gracie of the famousGracie Jiu Jitsu family in a submission judo match held inBrazil . During the fight, Kimura threw Gracie repeatedly withIppon Seoinage (one arm shoulder throw),Osoto Gari (major outer reap) *Kimura's signature throw. He threw Helio 3 times with Osoto Gari.*,Ouchi Gari (major inner reap),Uchimata (inner thigh throw), andHarai Goshi (sweeping hip throw). Kimura reportedly threw Gracie repeatedly in an effort to knock him unconscious. However, the floor of the fighting area was apparently too soft to allow this to happen. Kimura also inflicted painful, suffocating grappling techniques on Gracie such as kuzure-kamishiho-gatame (modified upper four corner hold), kesa-gatame (scarf hold), and sankaku-jime (triangle choke ). Finally, thirteen minutes into the bout, Kimura positioned himself to apply a reverse ude-garami (arm entanglement, ashoulderlock ). Gracie refused to submit, even after his arm broke, forcing Kimura to continue the lock on Gracie's broken arm. At this point, Carlos Gracie, Helio's older brother, threw in the towel to end the match to protect his brother's health. In 1994, Helio admitted in an interview that he had in fact been choked unconscious earlier in the match, but had revived when Kimura released the choke.As a tribute to Kimura's victory, the reverse ude-garami technique has since been commonly referred to as the "Kimura lock", or simply the "Kimura", in
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and, more recently,mixed martial arts circles.Kimura describes the event as follows:
"20,000 people came to see the bout including President of Brazil. Helio was 180cm and 80 kg. When I entered the stadium, I found a coffin. I asked what it was. I was told, "This is for Kimura. Helio brought this in." It was so funny that I almost burst into laughter. As I approached the ring, raw eggs were thrown at me. The gong rang. Helio grabbed me in both lapels, and attacked me with O-soto-gari and Kouchi-gari. But they did not move me at all. Now it's my turn. I blew him away up in the air by O-uchi-gari, Harai-goshi, Uchimata, Ippon-seoi. At about 10 minute mark, I threw him by O-soto-gari. I intended to cause a concussion. But since the mat was so soft that it did not have much impact on him. While continuing to throw him, I was thinking of a finishing method. I threw him by O-soto-gari again. As soon as Helio fell, I pinned him by Kuzure-kami-shiho-gatame. I held still for 2 or 3 minutes, and then tried to smother him by belly. Helio shook his head trying to breathe. He could not take it any longer, and tried to push up my body extending his left arm. That moment, I grabbed his left wrist with my right hand, and twisted up his arm. I applied Udegarami. I thought he would surrender immediately. But Helio would not tap the mat. I had no choice but keep on twisting the arm. The stadium became quiet. The bone of his arm was coming close to the breaking point. Finally, the sound of bone breaking echoed throughout the stadium. Helio still did not surrender. His left arm was already powerless. Under this rule, I had no choice but twist the arm again. There was plenty of time left. I twisted the left arm again. Another bone was broken. Helio still did not tap. When I tried to twist the arm once more, a white towel was thrown in. I won by TKO. My hand was raised high. Japanese Brazilians rushed into the ring and tossed me up in the air. On the other hand, Helio let his left arm hang and looked very sad withstanding the pain."
In May 1955 at the
YMCA inRio de Janeiro , Hélio participated in a 3 hour 40 minute fight against his former studentValdemar Santana , with Hélio losing by technical knockout due to exhaustion. It is often claimed that that fight is the longest fight in history; however, that distinction belongs to a wrestling match at 1912 Olympics that lasted 11 hours and 40 minutes.Helio Gracie Black Belt Teachers
*
Rorion Gracie
*Rolls Gracie
*Relson Gracie
*Rickson Gracie
*Rolker Gracie
*Royler Gracie
*Royce Gracie
*Robin Gracie
*Pedro Valente
*Gui Valente
*Francisco Mansor
*Joao Alberto Barreto
*Helio Vigio
*Pedro Hemeterio
*Armando Wriedt
*Flavio Behring
*Ryron Gracie
*Rener Gracie
*Joaquim ValenteExternal links
* [http://www.gracieacademy.com/helio_gracie.html The Gracie Academy]
* [http://www.graciemiami.com/history.htm Valente Gracie Miami School]Career highlights
*1932: Submitted Antonio Portugal by
armlock
*1932: Draw with Takashi Namiki
*1932: Draw withFred Ebert
*1934: Draw withWladek Zbyszko
*1934: SubmittedTaro Miyake bychoke
*1935: Draw with Yassuiti Ono
*1936: Draw with Takeo Yano
*1936: Submitted Massagoichi byarmlock
*1936: Draw with Yassuiti Ono
*1937: Submitted Erwin Klausner byarmlock
*1937: Submitted Espingarda
*1950: Submitted Landulfo Caribe bychoke
*1950: Submitted Azevedo Maia bychoke
*1951: Draw with Kato
*1951: Submitted Kato bychoke
*1951: Defeated byMasahiko Kimura by armlock
*1955: Defeated byValdemar Santana by KO (fight duration 3h 45min)
*1967: Submitted Valdomiro dos Santos Ferreira by chokeReferences
ources
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-266490598921567133 Gastão and Hélio Gracie talk about Gracie Jiu-Jitsu] - interviewed in 1997 for "Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Videos"
* [http://geocities.com/global_training_report/helio.htm Hélio Gracie recalls the famous challenge match against Kimura] - interviewed in 1994 by Nishi Yoshinori from "Kakutou Striking Spirit"
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