A Message from Rickson Gracie

Master Rickson Gracie with the first class of certified RGU instructors.

To my friends, students, and the Jiu-Jitsu community around the world:

My father developed his expression of Jiu-Jitsu as a tool to give the weak a chance against the strong, and to give ordinary people the confidence to meet life'schallenges. For him, fighting in the ring was never about proving himself, but about showing people that—armed with this knowledge—even someone small and unassuming like him could face down and overcome giants.

In the decades since my father's time, Jiu-Jitsu has grown far beyond what he could have imagined. The sportive aspect of our art has become a worldwide phenomenon, and I celebrate its success. But with that growth, I have also seen the art shift from its original purpose. The Jiu-Jitsu I see being taught and practiced today is no longer designed to build up the weak and the timid: now it is a tool for athletes to express their prowess in competition against other athletes. Within this context, practitioners and instructors often develop tremendous knowledge of the competitive aspect of the art, but little to no knowledge of its core principles, techniques, and philosophy. Accordingly, they lose the ability to serve its original mission, and the substantial population of individuals who are not interested in competitions, but who would still like to learn how to defend themselves and overcome the "giants" they face in their own lives.

The need, as I see it, is even greater today than it was in my father's time. Nowadays, it is possible and even easy for the timid and the weak to retreat into devices and screens, and reduce their lived experience down to a steady stream of online exchanges, impersonal transactions, and perpetual distractions. Within this, their ability to experience their full humanness is being flattened and lost. And the issue is not just a theoretical one, as the skyrocketing rates of depression, anxiety, and feelings of social isolation among the youth reflect. In my view, Jiu-Jitsu is a powerful tool to combat this rising tide, and the modern expression of its original mission mustbe to help those suffering within this digital dehumanization crisis.    

When I launched the Jiu-Jitsu Global Federation in 2012, it was with all of this in mind. Through the JJGF, my intention was to offer a series of educational programs and certifications designed to preserve the core aspects of the art—its techniques and its mission—that I felt were both vital to the moment and being lost within the sport's ascendancy. At the same time, I wanted to create a place of unification for the Jiu-Jitsu community: a place where practitioners from every affiliation and lineage could gather under one banner.

In the years since the JJGF's launch, however, it has become clear to me that this dual purpose created an unintended conflict: that a Federation designed as a place of unification for Jiu-Jitsu practitioners cannot also declare an official, preferred expression of the art. While I still believe strongly in the JJGF's mission of unification, I now feel that this other, more personal mission—the preservation and dissemination of the core art, and service to its mission in the modern world—requires my full energy and focus. Accordingly, I now intend to focus my efforts on building an affiliate program to help me pursue this more personal goal.

Rickson Gracie United will not be a federation or a competition team, but rather a worldwide network of certified instructors and affiliate clubs, schools, and academies dedicated to preserving and transmitting the core art of Jiu-Jitsu to students of every level and every need. It will also serve as a source for online instructional content and educational resources, Zoom addresses, "Ask Me Anything" sessions, and other programming which I will make available through the expanded online platform we are building at www.Rickson.Academy. These educational resources will be available to everyone, regardless of their rank, affiliation, or association with Rickson Gracie United.

For those who love the sport of Jiu-Jitsu, the knowledge I intend to offer through RGU will make you a better competitor. For those who are not competitors, it will help you understand Jiu-Jitsu as a path for self-defense and personal development, and as a means for reconnecting with your full humanness in an increasingly digital world. For instructors, the educational resources, certifications, and framework for teaching I intend to offer will help you better serve all of your students: not just those interested in competition, but anyone seeking to learn the art as a tool for life.

All my life, I have dedicated myself to developing and sharing the art that I learned from my father. Through Rickson Gracie United, I hope to pass on this expression andunderstanding to the next generation of instructors and students so that the art we love continues to serve and evolve, without losing its soul.

I invite all who share this passion to join me in this mission. Together, we can keep the art alive.

To learn more about becoming an affiliate, please visit www.RicksonGracieUnited.com.

With respect and gratitude,

Rickson Gracie

Self-Mastery: a guide to achieve personal transformation

Learn how to master your mind, body and breathing from Rickson Gracie.

In this unit, Master Rickson Gracie will bring you his secrets to develop the mindset of a warrior and be ready to face any challenge. 

Learn in 24 lessons how to explore your inner self and identify some patterns of behavior that make you vulnerable.

How to change your mindset for better results:

The first step to master your emotions is to understand that the only thing you can control is inside of you, not outside.

When you don't control your thoughts, you tend to make decisions by impulse, which leads to negative reactions and results. 

Rickson combines this concept with the example of a huge storm, when the big hard trees don't have the flexibility to remain in a strong wind and fall, while the flexible trees can bend, so they're not going to be destroyed: "jiu-jitsu is something that always gave me the sense of I don't have to be too strong, but I have to be flexible, I don't have to be too fast, but I have to be technical… So those elements of techniques suppress speed, leverage suppresses strength, and flexibility adapt you and will make you feel like you're unbreakable because you can bend." 

Once you're on the path to master yourself with Brazilian jiu-jitsu (bjj), you will learn much more than self-defense:

Commit to yourself;

• Earn adaptability;

• Let your mind “flow with the go”;

• Transform your breathing;

• Control your thoughts and acts;

• Be more confident.

Live your life in flow and become unbreakable

Improve yourself and develop new skills for the different situations in your life with these 24 online jiu-jitsu training videos.

Flow with the go

Flow with the go

I keep in mind that jiu-jitsu is not a hard martial art, in which you have to impose your power. It’s something which combined more with the sense of in a huge wind storm, the big trees have more chance to fall, because they’re hard and tough, and the wind comes hard and knocks them down. The flexible trees can bend and still, like, forever, so they’re not going to be destroyed.

So, jiu-jitsu is always something that gives me that sense of: “I don't have to be too strong, but I have to be flexible, I don't have to be too fast, but I have to be technical.” So, those elements of technique suppresses speed, leverage suppresses strength and flexibility adapt you and make you feel like you don’t break, you’re unbreakable because you can bend. 

Those concepts make me feel like, when I'm engaged, I'm not there to break the tree; I'm there to just find myself comfortable in the mobility, in the sense of moving positions and being comfortable all the time. I have to flow with the energy, with the heal, with the real storm, which is in front of me.

And I'm not fighting, I'm just trying to educate myself to flow, to become sensitive enough to be in the best position for me and capitalize. So we have to flow not only in jiu-jitsu, but in life.

Flow with the goe

Boost your confidence with self-defense

Be ready to handle any situation in your life with Rickson Gracie’s Self.Defense.Unit.

TL;DR: When it comes to life, you have to think long-term, because you can never know what tomorrow might bring you. Whether you want to be healthy, be safe or set a business goal, self-defense training is the best tool to achieve whatever you want.

Once you start learning how to practice self-defense, you'll start to gain advantage through every aspect in your life. According to Master Rickson Gracie, "The beauty of self-defense is as you start to practice, you start to be connected with very powerful elements within, like leverage, empowerment by connections and technical situations which give you a much greater ability to handle not only your opponent, but life in general."

When you use martial arts, such as brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) for self-defense, you learn to be ahead of any risk and to defend against attacks beyond the mats, from knife attacks to chokes or armlocks.

Main advantages of self-defense:

In the Self.Defense.Unit, Master Rickson Gracie will teach you to:

• Become more focused and centered in terms of controlling emotions in order to deal with your boss, problems in the family, house or business;

• Improve physical and mental capabilities;

• Be able to strategize better;

• Boost your self-confidence, gain the ability to face any challenge easily.

Boost your confidence right now with the Self-Defense Unit!

Rickson Gracie teaches the most important self-defense techniques in the best online training program. The classes are often geared towards the very visible aspects of jiu-jitsu, which translates into one kind of very unique invisible power, helping you to become stronger forever.

5 breathing lessons from Rickson Gracie to achieve your best performance

Learn how to evolve with your breathing system and become a champion with Master Rickson Gracie's techniques.

TL;DR: Breathing is an unconscious process. We inhale and exhale without noticing how those simple acts may influence our body, health, effectiveness and state of mind.

As Rickson Gracie says: "oxygen is life. You can spend seven days without food and not die. You can spend two or three days without water and not die. But five minutes without the air and you're dead." 

That is why mindful breathing may bring a great number of benefits for your life in the most different ways. When you are conscious about your breathing, you earn a better physical condition, as well as the ability to organize your feelings, focus and reach your goals.

3 benefits of breathing exercises:

• Reduce anxiety: learn how to read your body and identify your feelings through your breathing. Use Master Rickson's breathing exercise to reduce anxiety and feel the difference.

• Keep yourself organized to be at your best: Master Rickson explains that "breathing can bring you, in an invisible way, a very powerful strength, calmness, focus and so on."

• Refill your energies: Rickson says that "anything has a rhythm and this rhythm has to be adapted to your lungs and then sent to your brain and heart for you physically be strong, for you mentally be sharp," so the impact of breathing exercises for stress may also help you to relax whenever you need.

How to do Breathing exercises

The difference between the normal breathing and the diaphragmatic is the huge air capacity you earn.

With the diaphragmatic relation, in every breath of your life, you could be much better to relax, to go under the water, to go for a wave, to jump for a ball, to become under pressure, to read a good email… Whatever you need, oxygen is fuel and we have some kind of fuel injection in our lungs. The more we’re capable of sending good air to the body, to the blood, the sharper your brain is, the more effective your muscles are using the return from lactic acid and getting stronger, you can relax yourself, you can hyperventilate to recoup… Everything comes easier when you know how to use the diaphragmatic breathing on your system.

The next important thing now for the class is to learn how to use the diaphragm: let's work on the understanding in the first motions of the diaphragmatic breathing. 

Let's start the action to the first understanding of the diaphragmatic movement:

1. You have to relax, bend your legs, relax your head;

2. Put one hand on your stomach on top of your belly button;

3. The other hand on your chest;

4. Start to breathe. 

It’s very normal for you to breathe using your chest more than the diaphragm. This is a common mistake, but as you start to perceive the diaphragmatic movement, you have to understand that instead of using the hand on your chest, you’re going to keep it low and you use just the hand on your belly.

There is no air coming through your belly. The belly moves because when the air comes in, the diaphragmatic muscle, which is in the horizontal, pushes the belly down and it feels like there is something in it but there is not. In reality, I pushed the diaphragmatic muscle down to bring the air to the lower part of my lungs, so I'm able to move my ribs by using the diaphragmatic motion. The idea is to connect the inhale and use the top of the lung, don't bring the air to the chest; just relax, try to move your diaphragm, not over-inflated or deflated, never too much or too low, just regular.

That's a very important beginning because you have to feel comfortable and start to understand how to move the diaphragm. You’re just moving your diaphragm if you see your belly move up and down.

You can spend a lot of time practicing this. Once you start to become a little more comfortable you can also sit down and start using the same movement.

Are you ready to achieve your best performance?

We selected the best breathing techniques so you can improve your ways of living, working and accomplishing your goals.

Learn how to breathe like a champion with Rickson Gracie's breathing techniques program.