RFO BRAZILIAN JIU JITSU ACADEMY

Latest News! Muay Thai Kickboxing Classes to start In December, 2009, RFO will start offering Muay Thai Kickboxing classes. Instructor Guy Getchius will join RFO Academy to teach Muay Thai Kickboxing classes. For more information please visit our "Fees and Schedule" section of our website. Welcome to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu 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. BJJ promotes the principle that a smaller, weaker person using leverage and proper technique can successfully defend themselves against a bigger, stronger assailant. BJJ can be trained for self defense, sport grappling tournaments (gi and no-gi) and mixed martial arts (MMA) competition. Sparring (commonly referred to as 'rolling') and live drilling play a major role in training, and a premium is placed on performance. A Brief History Jiu-Jitsu, the oldest form of martial art, originated in India more than 2,000 years before Christ. Developed by Buddhist monks, it spread through China and eventually settled in Japan. Over the years, since the Meiji restoration in the last century, Jiu-Jitsu became practically extinct in Japan surviving only as a very restricted sportive form of Judo. In 1914, Japanese Jiu-Jitsu champions Esai Maeda and Inomata arrived in Brazil to help establish a Japanese immigration colony in that developing country. He was aided by Gastao Gracie, a Brazilian scholar and politician of Scottish decent. To show his gratitude, the Jiu-Jitsu master taught the basic secrets of that ancient fighting style to Gastao's son, Carlos Gracie. Carlos and his brothers, particularly Helio, changed the original art, adding new techniques and discarding older, less efficient ones. At that point, Jiu-Jitsu became Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Jiu-jitsu, originally a sport for the elite, became increasingly popular and now has a large following. Rio is currently the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu capital of the world with the most number of schools and practitioners.