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About BJJ and Submission Fighting

In the early 1990's, Rorion Gracie moved from Brazil to Los Angeles. He wished to show the world how well the Gracie art of jiu-jitsu worked. In Brazil, no-rules Mixed Martial Art (MMA) contests (known as "vale tudo") had been popular since Carlos Gracie first opened his academy in 1925, but in the world at large most martial arts competition was internal to a single style, using the specialized rules of that style's practice.

Rorion and Art Davie conceived of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. This was a series of pay-per-view television events in the United States that began in 1993. They pitted experts of different martial arts styles against each other in an environment with very few rules, in an attempt to see what techniques "really worked" when put under pressure. Rorion also entered his brother Royce Gracie, an expert in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, as one of the contestants.

Royce dominated the first years of the UFC against all comers, amassing eleven victories with no fighting losses. At one event he defeated four different fighters in one night. This, from a fighter that was smaller than most of the others (at 170 lbs, in an event with no weight classes), looked thin and scrawny, but was using sophisticated techniques that most observers, even experienced martial artists, didn't understand.

Besides the immediate impact of an explosion of interest in BJJ across the world (particularly in North America and Japan), the lasting impact of Royce's early UFC dominance is that almost every successful Mixed Martial Arts fighter now includes BJJ as a significant portion of their training.

(Article courtesy of www.bjj.org)

About BJJ Positions:

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is primarily a ground-fighting art. Most techniques involve both fighters on the mat. There is a heavy emphasis on positional strategy, which is about which fighter is on top, and where each person's legs are. Positions are stable situations, from which a large variety of techniques are available to both fighters. The primary positions include:

The Guard: The person applying the guard is on the bottom with his back on the ground; his legs are controlling his opponent's hips. The guard allows the fighter on the ground to attack his opponent using his arms and legs.
The Cross Side Control: In that position the fighters face each other Chest-on-chest but without the legs being entangled. A very strong position allowing the fighter on the top to control his opponent with his whole body while attacking him.
The Mount: The fighter is sitting of top of his opponent's chest, with one leg on either side of his torso. Here the attacker pins his opponent to the ground allowing him to dominate and submit his opponent on the bottom.
The Back Mount: The attacker is positioned behind his opponent, with his feet hooked around his opponent hips and upper thighs, leaving him in a very difficult to defend position.