“little” Tony Pacenski (http://www.soulfight.net/) attended the Rickson Gracie “Invisible Jiu-Jitsu’ seminar at the Gracie academy in Los Angeles and wrote this seminar report on sherdog and the BJJ underground forum:
As I was driving to the Gracie Academy in Torrance, I was thinking how thankful I was to be given the opportunity to attend this seminar. All the people that are supporting me such as covering my jiu-jitsu classes, sending their praise to train with Rickson and everyone that played their part in getting me a spot at the sold out event. I drove thinking about how blessed I was to be living in Redondo Beach, California and how everything was two miles down the road. For years, I wanted to attend a seminar hosted by Rickson; however, topics such as not being part of his association, team politics and other circumstances played their part in me not attending. I was always so open to it.
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When I started training Jiu-Jitsu in 1995, I was always told that Rickson Gracie’s personal expression of the art was the best in the truest form. The stories that were told about how generations of the very best black belts in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu were submitted at Rickson’s academy or during his last visit to Rio were told year after year during my journey to black belt. Rickson to me would always be the best. During the short drive to the academy, I also thought that tonight he would not really show new techniques and really get to the heart of how a jiu-jitsu technique was really applied in application. Thoughts of my times with Helio Gracie, Rodrigo Mederios, Rorion Gracie, Royce Gracie, Relson Gracie and Saulo Riberio came to my mind in how a professor made me really see the easiest and most effective way to do something on the mat. Well the time was getting closer. Were this new generation of Jiu-Jitsu students, even the Mixed Martial Arts students or No-Gi grapplers really getting this excited about a seminar as I was now that Rickson lives in Brazil again? I can only hope that this generation and the next continue to understand how importance Rickson Gracie is to Jiu-Jisu.
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I arrived one hour early to the seminar because I always feel a little part of home there due to my time in the instructor’s training program during 98 and 99. Ryron Gracie was the first to greet me at the door and told me the seminar was in another hour. I smiled and he told me to help out with the kids’ class. Off I went to go play with the little ones. Rener Gracie was had the full group in a circle as I bowed into the mat area. There were 30 different parents and family members being entertained by the class of 25 five to eight year olds from Kindergarten to third grade. I walked over to Rener and greeted him saying I was here to help. I took my place on the circle and noticed that one of the little ones looked familiar. It was my friend son from 98 in the instructor’s program. Teaching my friend’s son from the old instructor’s certification program felt like things went full circle as it sometimes does in Jiu-Jitsu. Rener taught an amazing class, and finally students started pouring in for the Rickson Gracie seminar.
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After checking back in for the seminar, I walked back into the green room training area. At the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy in Torrance, this mat area is the size of two and half basketball courts. The last seminar I attended there was with Royce Gracie and he filled up half of the room which was a lot of people. After I shook everyone’s hand and took my place against the wall, Rickson filled up the whole room wall to wall shoulder to shoulder. Everyone wore white kimono uniforms on a side note observation. As we stood there, the room got very quiet. Ryron made the joke if anyone wanted to teach a move for the opening act. No one made a comment. Rorion Gracie and Rickson Gracie walked onto the mat. I really can’t remember if anyone clapped; I don’t think anyone did. Rorion wore a Red Belt and Rickson wore the Red & Black Belt; some call it the coral belt. Oldest son of Grand Master Helio Gracie, Master Rorion Gracie welcomed everyone to the academy and joked about how fast the seminar with Rickson sold out. Rorion went on to say it has been a very long time since the two had shared a mat together and that he was one of Rickson’s favorite fans. As a jiu-jitsu student for over 16 years, I knew I was watching a very important moment in the Gracie Family.
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Rickson started the seminar with basic hip movements and went on to say how important the hips were in jiu-jitsu. “A man can fight with stiff arms and legs, but with stiff hips; not really,” Rickson joked a little. And from there we were off to the learning process. Rickson taught the seminar in what I would call an introduction style format where he greeted students and asked them what they would do from such and such a position. I spent over two years at the old Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy on Saturday mornings teaching this way. It was the classic intro style approach. Rickson wanted to see what we were thinking and how we were behaving. Instead of hitting the mats and working on ground techniques, Rickson demonstrated basic Gracie Jiu-Jitsu self-defense techniques. He told us that he was not going to teach new techniques just focus on the real basics. Like this was going to be easy; I knew I was going to really learn tonight.
The first two techniques that were explored in the Rickson Gracie seminar were finding the balance/base of the side headlock and rear choke attacks. He didn’t teach the large group how to escape the positions; however, simply asked different students from a mixture of academies and skill levels how they performed the basic escapes. From each idea from the student attendees, Rickson would find a flaw or a disconnect in the counter/position. Rickson in these two example techniques would showcase his guiding principle of finding the real connection in jiu-jitsu positions.
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The real connection is often said to be the invisible jiu-jitsu that you don’t see, but only can feel. It is the difference between practicing a technique and having the teacher say, “Do you understand verses did you feel that,” to the student. The student that understands may not have the better experience compared to the student that felt the connection. Rickson used the self-defense techniques to challenge our understandings of where and how to find the connection between oneself and the opponent. The relationship in grappling is a real connection of give & take. If the connection is being felt, a student will find the leverage points in the position and be able to work more effectively with technique verses using strength and useless force. During these two techniques, I enjoyed looking around at all the different black belts practices jiu-jitsu 101 techniques with a different set of eyes now that Rickson was teaching. Master Rorion Gracie when I looked back behind me grabbed Ryron and was practices these techniques. My observation was that they and the rest of us were looking to practice the connection and play with the leverage points.
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The next two techniques that were challenged were the basic lapel grab and bearhug clinch. Rickson asked a black belt to counter this lapel grab. He pulled the student off balance left and right. Maybe the student was nervous or didn’t understand what was been asked, yet regardless of what was happening in the short discussions between Rickson and this black belt, we all were listening with a new set of ears. Rickson went on to showcased how to find better base with this simply lapel grab. In short, he improved our basic understanding of the skills sets found in Judo. One quote said by Rickson that stood out to me during this technique was, “It is more than just the grip…I’m talking about the connection that is invisible!”
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The clinch bearhug was next to counter. What a basic self-defense technique to counter? Rickson asked for any experienced students to escape his bearhug. Two black belts stepped forward and did the basic Gracie Jiu-Jitsu self-defense variations to escape the under the arms bearhug hold: both counters were very close. Rickson found the flaws. We all saw that both students didn’t escape either. Gracie would go on to find the connection and help us feel where the real leverage points were located compared to only using base and leverage tricks! It was at this point in the seminar where many of us were starting to catch on. Younger nephews of Rickson would start asking questions about distance changes within the position while Gracies questioned the importance of using disconnection; Rickson answered with complete truth and with a certain speed in his responses. A disconnection in the context favored striking arts; staying connected was jiu-jitsu.
Rickson continued his instruction standing and hit the mat with us after a period of time. We were all warm from practicing the techniques and strategies. I was not sweating too much during the seminar. Rickson, however, was pouring sweat the whole time. He was modeling excellence in his teaching approach. Nonetheless, without giving too much away in explaining the mat techniques Rickson explored with us, I would like to rely that he continued to showcase that even the high level black belts were missing the real connection when escaping the cross side position and performing the basic armlock from the guard.
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Back in 2000, I was purple belt under Relson Gracie and drove from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Ohio to take a seminar with Saulo Riberio. Saulo put us in the same position and said, “Here is my arm, how do you do the armlock?” He found the technical mistakes in how we were doing the armlock. Rickson on the other hand used black belts to show that we were not understanding how to control the middle position from our guard. One student after the other performed some sweet and fast armlocks on Rickson, and each time he would show that there were ways for him to control the hips and/or stack the position to counter. Javi, an experienced black belt, MMA Fighter and No-Gi Grappler, put on a fast armlock on Rickson, but there was a moment where the position could be countered. By the time, Rickson asked me to put an armlock on him, I was thinking armlock…what’s an armlock…? I was thinking about what Saulo did years before and what simple armlock variation was left to do. I put Rickson in the armlock and off balanced him first; Rickson recovered and stacked me: With his head nod and a smile, I didn’t showcase what he was looking for. Although it felt cool to off balance him even if it was a demo ;-)!
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Rickson asked Javi to go into his guard. Rickson performed the armlock and controlled the middle position. Javi said clearly that his arm was trapped and already straight: Rickson said, “Aha!” Javi couldn’t stack to counter or pull his arm out of the position. Rickson pulled the black belts that helped with the demo a side to perform the armlock on him. This was my only chance during the seminar to have any golden time with Rickson. He helped me perform the armlock from the guard. And after a couple of tries, Rickson asked me if I felt the difference between what I was doing compared to this strategy. I said yes with a smile. He then said to me, “Enjoy it and control the middle!” Rickson told the group that it was very important to practice the armlock this way to put the smaller person in position to win again the larger one: One attempt and one submission to end the fight. The words echoed of Japanese Karate, and that was a saying I heard in 1993.
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The seminar ran 3 hours in length. Rickson had his own teaching personality naturally, but I saw many moments of this brothers’ style of teaching and personality too. Maybe it came from Grand Master Helio Gracie. We were all lined up as Rorion asked the important question to his brother, “When are you coming back!” Rickson joked about his new lifestyle now of surfing in Brazil, healthy living and TEACHING JIU-JITSU. He let us know that his goal is to come back because tonight was only 3% of his jiu-jitsu, yet he hoped it was 3% that made an impact in everything we
practiced. Rickson said he would come back to teach 10%, 50% and 100% of his jiu-jitsu. And it was at that moment, he got choked up. I understood why it was emotional at that moment for him. I was so happy for him to be there.
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Rickson expressed that he was very proud of Rorion and the boys for what they had done with the business and the Gracie Academy, and how coming to the academy was like coming home! He concluded with the path he took of challenging himself to fight anyone throughout the years in open divisions, fighting in the ring and finding the energy/connection/ during the struggle. In all competitions and efforts, it led back to a better understanding of self defense and jiu-jitsu. And now his goal was to teach what he has learned.
