People… please realize that there is a difference between Jujutsu, Jiu-Jitsu and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Yes they are all different (Except Gracie Jiu-Jitsu and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, are for the most part, the same). Jujustu was the original form, the way of the samuri. Jujustu is basically the combination of Karate and Judo. As time went on most people either studied the striking aspect of Jujutsu or the throws and ground work. As even more time went on Jujutsu basically just split in to two parts: Karate and Judo. One practisioner of Judo, Count Maeda, refined the Newaza (ground grappling techniques) of Judo. He called his own refined studies, of Newaza, Jiu-Jitsu. Count Maeda became very skilled in his own style of Jiu-Jitsu. He emigrated to Brazil and needed the help of a politician to do so. In return for the politcians help he agreed to teach his son, Carlos Gracie Sr., his style Jiu-Jitsu. Carlos then taught all of his brothers Jiu-Jitsu. One of his brothers, Helio, was very small and not athletic at all. Helio further refined the techniques to make better use of leverage to help overtake the strength difference he usually encountered. This was when Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was born. The adoption of the name Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or Gracie Jiu-Jitsu didn’t happen until non-brazilians started training. To this day, in Brazil, Brazilians still call it just Jiu-Jitsu. Here in the U.S. today, the only difference between Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is who teaches the class. There was a legal issue between one half of the family and the other half. So one half of the family teaches Gracie Jiu-Jitsu and the other half teaches Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Same technique, different teachers. For more information see the following site: http://www.bjj.org/rma-faq.html

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