Opening Closed-Guard: The Origins of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil: The Story Behind the Film

by Robert Drysdale

What are the origins of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu? Is it merely a by-product—a rebel offspring—of Judo? What was the nature and content of the art that Mitsuyo Maeda, a.k.a. “Count Koma”, and other Japanese were teaching in the Amazon? Was it Judo? Jiu-Jitsu? His own personal fight-tested style, built on a foundation of Judo and informed by his dozens and dozens of matches around the world? What was the bridge between the art he learned at the Kodokan and the Brazilian style that claims him as its godfather: a style now practiced by millions worldwide (and growing bigger every day)? Should Maeda even be at the center of this story? And what role did Carlos and Hélio Gracie play in all of this? Did they "invent" BJJ? Would BJJ exist without them? And, if so, what—if anything—did they create? And why does this history matter to the average BJJ practitioner today?

Any history possesses its official narrative with its own favorite characters and events. But true history is seldom simple, and more oft than not the real story is far richer than the popular version that is widely repeated and handed down. The history of BJJ and MMA in Brazil doesn’t escape this paradigm. The recent renaissance in research in regards to the history of martial arts in Brazil led to the author’s curiosity, which in turn led to the documentary Closed-Guard: The Origins of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil, which in turn led to this book.

This manuscript started as an account of the author’s recollections of the film's production, and quickly grew into much more. Opening Closed Guard: The Story Behind the Film contains conclusions, analysis, and historical interpretations, as well as the story behind the documentary itself and the many challenges it faced along the way. It contains interviews, research articles pertaining to the history of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil, as well as the author's own take on the current state of BJJ and MMA. Finally, it is the story of the author rediscovering his love for Jiu-Jitsu in a completely new and unexpected way.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born in the US from a Brazilian mother and American father, and having spent his life between these two countries, Robert Drysdale remains the only American competitor to have ever won both the IBJJF and ADCC World Championships, the two most prestigious tournaments in all of Jiu-Jitsu. Furthermore, he has also cultivated a career in MMA, both as a fighter and as a coach. The author also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in History, as well as a long-held passion for this discipline. He lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he teaches Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and MMA. He is also the co-founder of the international team Zenith Jiu-Jitsu, and is the father of two girls.

Genres: Martial Arts, History, Nonfiction

416 pages, Paperback

Published September 26, 2020

Reviews

[Talal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this to every jujitsu practitioner out there. A thrilling book to say the least.

[Augusto Bernardi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. I can deeply relate to the author's love of history and Jiu Jitsu so this book was a goldmine of both of those. I actually knew who Robert Drysdale was before reading this book and deeply admire his accomplishments in the BJJ world. He phrased it in the book as if he is just some other dude that is a black belt. Agree to disagree. I didn't know though that he is part Brazilian. Throughout the book Drysdale would sprinkle in his opinion on the Brazilian culture especially in comparison to western culture of even Japanese culture and that was wonderfully refreshing and great to hear. I myself have longed to hear someone have the same onion as my parents had since I am Brazilian but never lived in Brazil.
I can honestly say I've never jumped on the metaphorical bandwagon of anything too early until I read this book. It's a book about a the making of a documentary that isn't even out at the time of me writing this review. God damnit! A chunk of the context of this book isn't even available to the reader which is a bit annoying as it makes it seems I'm not qualified to even read this book at times. In regards to the Drysdale actually talking about the making of the movie, I did get a understanding on how difficult it is to make one from start to finish. Especially if you are the captain of the ship. There seemed to be an endless amount of problems with logistics, finances, language barriers, post production choices and worst of all, rude or difficult interviewees. There are some great drama gems in regards to Rorion and Relia Gracie that made me laugh out loud.
But in regards to the content and substance of the book and documentary...mind blowing. I actually think that Drysdale tried to give the Gracies as much of a platform as possible to give their perspective but it's hard to tip toe around the undeniable tsunami of facts that the classic Gracie narrative of the creation of BJJ is not as simple as originally thought and to an extend not as truthful either. And that's basically what the book is mostly about. Carlos and Helio certainly are important figures in the grand picture of BJJ but they certainly aren't alone. And boy, were they some characters. Sure, great businessmen and marketing savviness but I've always thought the cultish gushing of them was so annoying as if they were either fighters (but at the same time promoting an image of being physically weak despite being in the rowing team), dietitians or even worse, philosophers. Of the many thing's they've said or done, there are two brilliant examples that stand out. Helio Gracie saying that Judo is for "viados" and that "I have never read a book in my life". Even writing this makes me chuckle. The hypocrisy and lack of self awareness is ridiculous. The Kyra Gracie interview is also great insight of the clear sexism within the family. It's all not bad though, Helio certainly took a lot of real fights (emphasis on the real as fixed fights are a major part of the early history of BJJ), due to his ego isolated the art thereby giving it room to grow independently as its own style and lastly there was a touching story of him sticking up for a student that was being bullied at school. That's inspirational.
Since the book isn't really driving a narrative besides trying to discover what is the history of BJJ, it often happened that interviewees would either repeat information, repeat false regurgitated information and luckily sometimes bring a new gem of honestly that tied in or deepened the story. History is a complex puzzle and I imagine that most of the time, we don't have all the pieces and often actually have the pieces of the wrong puzzle.
In regards to the Gracies, I was far more fascinated on the relevance and importance of Royce Gracie in the UFC as being a turning point in all martial arts and also the influence of Carlos Gracie Jr on BJJ and the IBJJF. That was undeniably my favourite interview of the entire book. For years I have always seen the IBJJF in a negative light that I guess dulled BJJ with all these strict rules. Having said that, it's precisely this that BJJ needed to become an international sport as opposed to a niche hobby. It's precisely the B in BJJ or to be more specific, the relaxed "jeitinho Brasileiro" that have held the sport back. Those are the best sort of reading experiences that totally change my mind in a 180 degrees.
Most of the interviewees were old school black belts in Brazil but there were some historians in the mix that were really fascinating. Great one was Jose Tufy that talked about the failing Gracie aristocrats that and also their relationship with both the dictatorships of Brazil. One went well and the other didn't. These things are all too common in Brazil so it might seem like a dig but it is just a simple, rather unknown part of reality. The exception to this I thought was Drysdale asking SEVERAL interviewees about the online grading system from Rener and Ryron Gracie. Although hilarious, it did seem like an easy layup for the interviewee to slam dunk out of nowhere.
There are a multitude of characters from around that time that almost get lost in history that in reality had key roles that are equally if not even more important then those of Carlos. Off the top of my head there is Donato Pires Dos Reis, Jacyntho Ferro, Oswaldo Fadda (a separate lineage that mainly focused on poor or disabled students) and even a lost Gracie brother, George Gracie.
Unquestionably the most mysterious and interesting figure is of that of Mitsuyo Maeda. Definitely not the Jedi master that BJJ culture portrays him to be. Ambassador, judo/jiu jitsu teacher, catch wresting, fixed fights and maybe even ...spy. A man that would take a wide turn around a corner in case there was someone waiting for him. Now the matter of how much time he actually spent teaching, let alone teaching Carlos Gracie, deeply debatable with very little evidence. Perhaps his greatest contribution to Jiu Jitsu as Drysdale explains in several interviews is that Carlos PICKED him to be his credible "master" so thereby he survived in history. Not for his deeds per say but rather for the deeds of another. This brings up a very eye opening and realistic concept that the lineage system in Jiu jitsu is completely overly simplistic.
The latter half of the book delves in deep into the intertwined history of Judo and jiu jitsu. It often seems like there is no beginning nor an end to the separation of the two. Drysdale even goes to Japan which was not expected and very impressive. The history nerd in me was having the time of his life learning about Kano Jigoro (another strict bastard) creating Kokodan Judo towards the beginning of the Meiji period to maintain tradition and educate everyone of the "way", the rubber boom in Brazil with the huge influx of Japanese immigrants to the Amazon seeking a new life. Maeda wasn't alone being Japanese or being a Judo teacher either. Originally actually taught in the police or army by Sada Miyako. Even the terms of Judo and Jiu Jitsu (Ju Jutsu) are thrown around so easily both in Japan and Brazil. On the technical side of both art forms there are a multitude of reasons why they EVENTUALLY grew apart. Everything from Kano wanted to specialize in throwing rather than "ne waza" (ground fighting), small gyms spaces in brazil, Gracies wanting shorter sleeves and even Capoeira influences such as the technical get up. Drysdale speaks very passionately about the main difference being actually the cultural difference. From a romantic perspective, there is the bowing and sweeping or tidy respectful and dedicated students that the Japanese/Judo culture has that BJJ gyms lack. The friendliness, the freedom and creativity that this "surf culture" that BJJ picked up from it's time in Rio de Janeiro, is also a fundamental part of what makes the art popular.

In conclusion, I highly recommend this book. It has a lot to offer and will certainly open your eyes to new perspectives, new cultures and a new understanding of the complexity of history. Would gladly read more books of Drysdale interviewing other people on other topics in the world of Combat Sports.

[John Poulain · Rating 4 out of 5]

The more I hear about Carlos Gracie's boarding house / family home with his brother/son and nephews/ children from multiple women it seems like pure chance that he happened to be teaching something that worked out (especially with the diet etc. not being the best) rather than a cult.

Covering the creation of BJJ through the interviews of Grandmasters, which can be repetative, espcially given the key quotes from the interviewee are mentioned multiple times in the chapters. Whilst this looks at the history it's in a balanced way; the Fadda / Gracie match for example has been played up as a gotcha moment that the Gracies tried to hide and banned leglocks from that day on, however I didn't know that they got along so well Fadda named his son Helio after the Gracie. Whilst this can be seen as anti Gracie - as they claim that they created everything - its more nuanced than that.

The general timeline seems to run that before Maeda there were a lot of other Japanese immigrants, roughly of whom 10% seems to have martial arts experience; this mean there was a big Judo population before Maeda. The book says there's no evidence that Carlos trained with Maeda (AKA Count Komo) but that's overlooking the stories from Carlos / Helio; I'd have a hard time demonstrating that I'd learnt from any of my instructors if it wasn't for instagram. Maeda stated that he'd never promoted anyone to Blackbelt, and only four students are listed as instructed to first level, none of whom were the Gracies. The Gotcha moment from the trailer is "who promoted the Gracies to Black Belt" but I'm not sure that matters too much.

The book tries to figure out the difference between Judo and BJJ from that point, and trying to call the difference between studying newaza (at one point pronounced Neige Waza, which is odd); saying that Kosen Judo is differnet because it has Ippon and BJJ has points seems odd as there are a lot of sub-only BJJ tournaments. The simpler explaination seems to be that BJJ had prizefighting and Judo (espeically the kodokan) has rules against fighting.

The creation of the Triangle choke is something that is asked of a few people, but never discussed what the controversy is. One grandmaster says that he "Never saw Triangle Choke in Gracie School but did something similar [...] Sankaku Jime" which is triange choke in Japanese, and this would be something I'd like explored, did they mean that Judo was doing inverted triangles but not from Guard?

They discuss the rewriting of history, e.g. Carlos Gracie Junior claiming: The Kimura fight was a victory because Helio lasted more than 2 minutes and that's how long Kimura said it would take to win. Also Helio was 62kgs and kimura 91kgs. After the fight the Japanese were forbidden from fighting the Gracies because they were too good. 

A De La Riva student louis ledner argues in book "back on the ground" that guard was important to the Japanese when fighting bigger wrestlers abroad, specifically Maeda in prize fights. 
 Who promoted Carlos and Helio to Black Belt? There was only a blue belt for teachers in the early days. And the author mentions that DLR guard was already present in Kosen Judo before BJJ developed it which lends creedence to the author's argument that it was the IBJJF that lead to the development of guards. "It is undeniable that the ibbjf has lead to bjjs growth". He speaks about trying to get Guard pulling removed but is countered by the argument that 'people like to pullguard'.

The final conclusion seems to be that BJJ is missing some of the spiritual side of what Judo has, some of the old grandmasters keep saying: Armando Ristarni - I don't want people to get titles but to become a better person through sport - sounds a lot like mutual welfare and understanding.

There also seems to be only one uncontroversial point in the interviews that no one is on the otherside of: "Stop selling blue belts online you dickbags"

Choice notes:
 "Kyra is the best Gracie fighter, except for Royler and Roger". Rickson gets no love 
"The martial arts claim of the weakest defeating the strongest through technqoue dates back to 1904 claim from Judo in New York. 
 Rorion Gracie wanted 20k for an interview - which isn't too surprising given his current testimony bullshit.
 Interview technique, don't talk about the subject but frame the environment and hope you want them to speak 

[Xle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robert foi recomendado por um amigo que temos em comum: Rodrigo Vasconcelos, mestre judoca da Germanos e lutador de jiu jitsu por Roberto Tozi. Por ser uma recomendação de alguém que segue os valores do Judô à risca, já suspeitava que Robert se aproximaria da história do Jiu de forma apropriadamente crítica, fundamentada e com um repertório que me deixaria ainda mais ansioso por ver essa arte verdadeiramente global se (re)aproximando dos valores de Kano, buscando formar seres humanos mais do que atletas. Não posso deixar de concordar com Drysdale quando julga que o Jiu está órfão, e que precisa recuperar algo (muito!) em sua matriz. É uma arte que tem tudo para trazer-nos o Jita Kyoei, o Shushin e o Seryoku Zenio - só falta vontade! Por isso, não há como não recomendar Robert, que com certeza irá inspirar milhares de pessoas a buscar mais profundidade de valores em leituras sobre o projeto do Kodokan. A verdade histórica que o livro resgata também é de ser apreciada, mostrando que o Jiu guarda elementos não apenas brasileiros e nipônicos, mas também africanos (ginga, alegria e descontração), europeu (pensamento de Hebert spencer) e americanos (a mentalidade relaxada californiana). Temos agora é que resgatar o projeto de Kano para que se torne uma arte realmente completa.

[Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating tour through the history of BJJ. Despite being ignorant of the disputed Gracie claims of having "invented" Jiu Jitsu and not having seen the film referenced, I was thoroughly enthralled by the history.

Although the transcripts were repetitive and followed no discernable order, the author does a good job of providing contextual commentary, in addition to his own thoughts on what was said.

Still, I think there would have been value putting the transcript of the interview with Bolelli first, as his concise and clear explanation of the individuals and historical facts involved would have made everything else easier to understand.

[Robert Lei · Rating 5 out of 5]

This work is a compendium to a soon to be released documentary on the history of brazilian jiu jitsu, seeking to answer beyond hyperbole, what was BJJ's lineage and why it matters.
Follow the author as he shares the experiences and struggles between the interviews made for the documentary.
A must read if you are excited for the upcoming documentary opening the closed guard. This book filled in gaps of historical knowledge and introduced me to some great characters in BJJ's history for whom I may have never know.
For that alone, it was a well enjoyed read.

[Shawn Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of information poured into a couple hundred pages. The amount of time, effort, and man power (taken on by seemingly few men) that went into a work like this is a bit inspiring. The overall theme sometimes comes across as against the Bjj narrative and slightly aggressive at times but once you complete the journey it all wraps up very well. The interviews were many and at times hard to keep track of who, what, when, and where, but coupled with the film (when it’s released) I think it will be a tremendous physical appendix of sorts. Very solid historical read.

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A more in depth telling of the development of what is now called Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) than the common tale of the Gracie family developing their own martial art.

The book is mostly interview transcripts for a documentary and the retelling of the author's journey as he traveled the globe to meet and interview the master's of BJJ and many other offshoots of judo/jujutsu.

[George Custodio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Practitioners of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) come in many forms, but for those who see themselves as lifelong martial artists, Opening Closed Guard: The Origins of Jiu-Jitsu in Brazil is a must-read. Like any history lesson, the story often reflects the perspective of the victors—in this case, the Gracie family. While their branding has shaped the dominant narrative of BJJ’s origins, this book challenges that perspective by offering an unbiased and refreshing take on the art’s true history.

Admittedly, if you’re not deeply invested in the sport, some parts may feel like a series of anecdotes or scattered notes. But for those passionate about uncovering the full story, the effort to read and reflect is absolutely worth it.

Bottom line: This book rewards you with a deeper understanding of BJJ’s roots, perfect for anyone pursuing the truth behind the art.

[Christopher Round · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the history of Brazilian jiu-jitsu as a martial art and cultural phenomenon. I will also note it is fairly niche reading. Some passages are a bit of a slog. That said it’s quality.

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting insight to the Gracie legacy. Based on all the interviews I've heard and books I've read, seems to be pretty spot on with the history in this book.

[Abdullah Al-Enzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is written mainly in interview form along with the valueble commentary of the author that I really enjoyed. The main negative aspect of the book is the worthless details (in my opinion) regarding the technical aspects of their film production, which is expected since it's about the story of their filmmaking process. Other than that the book is simply structured and is somewhat of a light read.

As a jiu jitsu practitioner I enjoyed how this book attempts to not only give a short historical overview regarding the development of the sport, but also how it shines light on some of the key figures and their contributions to the sport, and dispelles the myths and the alleged contributions of others, which i is very valuable and is helping me in my technical journey of mastering jiu jitsu.

The author interviews a colourful cast characters and personalties of academics, world champions, and most importantly people in their twilight years. These men are by no means saintly figures they're more than that. They are flawed, but who isn't. There's a lot to learn from them their mistakes, experiences, accomplishments, and how they've come to view life at their old age.

Clash of egos... immigration... cultural differences and cultural exchange, are some of the themes and elements of this very valuable and entertaining book.

[Eddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book full of interviews.
Goo insight and opens the door to thoughts on the origins if they are even as important as people think.