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The Gracie Way: An Illustrated History of the World's Greatest Martial Arts Family
The faces and stories of the sprawling Gracie family, who transformed Brazilian jiu-jitsu from an unknown street technique into the dominant form of martial arts today, are captured here. Introduced are Grandmaster Helio Gracie, who as a frail boy in Brazil in the 1930s developed the art, creating leverage techniques that allowed him to overcome other martial artists, regardless of size or strength; Rickson Gracie, the mystical family champion who has never been defeated in combat; and Royce Gracie, the most famous active martial artist in the United States, who put Brazilian jiu-jitsu on the map by winning the first three Ultimate Fighting Championships before the largest pay-per-view audiences in history. In addition to stunning action shots of the Gracies in all the legendary matches and their unique perspectives on what really went on during those fights, this book includes archival photos of the family, from their beginnings in Brazil in the 1930 to the present day and the new generation of champions. Fans will learn of Renzo's transformation from Rio street brawler to New York celebrity and revered teacher; of Royce and Royler's exploits as mischievous kids; and of Rickson's battle against one of Rio's toughest drug gangs.
228 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 16, 2011
Surprisingly well written and entertaining.
In a lot of ways the Gracie family are responsible for MMA (mixed martial arts) being the way it is fought currently. They created what is known as bjj (Brazilian jiu-jitsu) by taking the basics of traditional jiu-jitsu and originally adapting it to street-fighting and self-defense in a way that allowed smaller opponents to successfully larger and stronger opponents. Love or hate the Gracies (I personally usually want whomever is fighting against them to win) it's impossible not to see their influence in just about every MMA fight, unless the fight involves two strikers committed to just standing and trading punches with each other the need for some knowledge of bjj is necessary if a fighter doesn't want to get beat up and submitted once a fight goes to the ground. After reading these ten short biographies of the most famous of the Gracie family I have to admit that I feel a bit more respect for their accomplishments but still think I would like them more if there just weren't so many of them. They are a huge family, all of whom seem to be involved in fighting and while I keep learning to appreciate the intricacies of the ground game as time goes on, I still feel a bit of a groan inside whenever there is a submission specialist in a fight. I don't know why though because watching a good ground fight is usually more interesting than watching most highly technical striking fights. Is it really that much fun watching Lyota Machido or Anderson Silva dance around outside of striking range for most of the round before moving in to strike with some insanely well placed kicks and punches? Or for that matter was watching GSP's recent neutralizing of Jake Shields submission game by being overly cautious and technical on his feet really that good of a fight to watch? I'm sure most of my booknerd friends here have their own opinions about the merits of these fighters and a lively discussion will inevitably follow in the comment section.
Actually no one I know on goodreads will probably care about this book, but if you want a kind of fawning history of bjj and the Gracies this isn't painful at all to read.
In a lot of ways the Gracie family are responsible for MMA (mixed martial arts) being the way it is fought currently. They created what is known as bjj (Brazilian jiu-jitsu) by taking the basics of traditional jiu-jitsu and originally adapting it to street-fighting and self-defense in a way that allowed smaller opponents to successfully larger and stronger opponents. Love or hate the Gracies (I personally usually want whomever is fighting against them to win) it's impossible not to see their influence in just about every MMA fight, unless the fight involves two strikers committed to just standing and trading punches with each other the need for some knowledge of bjj is necessary if a fighter doesn't want to get beat up and submitted once a fight goes to the ground. After reading these ten short biographies of the most famous of the Gracie family I have to admit that I feel a bit more respect for their accomplishments but still think I would like them more if there just weren't so many of them. They are a huge family, all of whom seem to be involved in fighting and while I keep learning to appreciate the intricacies of the ground game as time goes on, I still feel a bit of a groan inside whenever there is a submission specialist in a fight. I don't know why though because watching a good ground fight is usually more interesting than watching most highly technical striking fights. Is it really that much fun watching Lyota Machido or Anderson Silva dance around outside of striking range for most of the round before moving in to strike with some insanely well placed kicks and punches? Or for that matter was watching GSP's recent neutralizing of Jake Shields submission game by being overly cautious and technical on his feet really that good of a fight to watch? I'm sure most of my booknerd friends here have their own opinions about the merits of these fighters and a lively discussion will inevitably follow in the comment section.
Actually no one I know on goodreads will probably care about this book, but if you want a kind of fawning history of bjj and the Gracies this isn't painful at all to read.
July 11, 2012
The history of the Gracie family. Created Brazilian jiu-jitsu and paved the way for modern MMA and the UFC.
October 16, 2022
Some interesting stories but basically a fluff piece for the Gracie family
March 16, 2009
This was a great book for anyone who is a fan of MMA and jiu-jitsu. The Gracie's have had immeasurable impact on the these sports. Jiu-jitsu was fundamentally changed by Carlos and Helio Gracie. The changes to the sport were great enough that their new brand of jiu-jitsu became known as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) because of its need to be distiguished from the classical art. MMA was born (although Vale Tudo in Brazil was like MMA) when Rorion Gracie came up with the idea of having fighters of different styles compete against each other so that the dominance of jiu-jitsu could be demonstrated.
I really liked this look at jiu-jitsu and MMA through the generations in the Gracie family.
I really liked this look at jiu-jitsu and MMA through the generations in the Gracie family.
October 1, 2008
Was just ok until about halfway through.. Then it picked up and got a lot better
October 27, 2011
this is a really good book i learned a lot about martial arts and life in general stuff like that
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews