Rorion Gracie is not just the oldest son of the legendary Helio Gracie, but he is also one of the most influential people in the world of Jiu-Jitsu himself.
For example, not a lot of people know that he was the person who coined the term “Gracie Jiu-Jitsu”!
But… Rorion got into a legal dispute over the use of the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu name, but won the battle in court.
Today, he has made it possible to use the term in any Jiu-Jitsu academy in the world.
However, if someone’d like to put the name on a brand of clothing or similar, the Jiu-Jitsu red belt kept the decision making power.
Here’s what he had to say in an episode of the “Intelligence Ltda” podcast [translated from Portuguese]:
The original idea, when I created the term Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, was because I wanted to do Jiu-Jitsu with quality and control.
Initially this worked, it was just me doing it and the people I trained.Then, people started using the term Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and they weren’t as careful as I was.
Rorion continued:
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu can be a bit of a “thing”, so there are both terms.
The original idea was for the Gracie to follow the family line created by Hélio Gracie, while the Brazilian was a more flexible section.
With the release of the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu term, everyone can use either one or the other.
