Being COMFORTABLE With the UNCOMFORTABLE
When I look back on the way we did things when I was a white belt, I can say that now we’ve improved the whole foundation of jiu-jitsu so that my white belts are much better than we were. Athletes today are better in every sport, so jiu-jitsu is no different. But there have been quite a few upgrades in the mechanics and the teaching structure that make things easier and make students sharper. Students from when I started in the late 1960s wouldn’t last minutes with students of the same rank today. Today, they’re more conditioned, they cross-train in judo, they cross-train in wrestling.
“But I will say the core elements, the fundamentals — those have stayed the same.”
Carlos Machado, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu master who spoke those words, understands those core elements as well as anyone. His aunt was married to Carlos Gracie, eldest of the brothers who helped lay the foundation for BJJ. Through this family connection, Machado — and later his brothers Roger, Rigan, Jean Jacques and John — began training with the best jiu-jitsu people of the era. Among those they learned from were Helio Gracie, Carlson
