BRAZILIAN JIU JITSU AT HANGAR 4

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a martial art based on submission grappling, particularly on the ground. It teaches that a smaller, weaker person can successfully defend against a bigger, stronger assailant by using leverage and proper technique. The goal is to control your opponent to the ground, on the ground, and apply submissions forcing them to 'tap out' (give up). Taught in a syllabus based format with emphasis on grappling in every class, Hangar 4 offers you, the student, the opportunity to learn and apply BJJ techniques in a safe and friendly environment.

There are four main levels within the BJJ system; blue belt, purple belt, brown belt and, finally, black belt. Sometimes years are spent on each belt, so even within the system itself, things progress slowly but surely. Many schools outside of Brazil are run by blue and purple belts, and fewer again by browns and blacks.

Australia’s first BJJ instructor, John Will, bagan his training under Champion Rigan Machado in 1988 in Brazil. Rigan (left, with Peter Backman), an 8th degree black belt, began training at the age of 5 with his cousins, the Gracies, when his mother's sister married Carlos Gracie. Regan began competing at the world championship level at the age of 14, and went on to achieve a legendary stature at the world championship level by amassing a record the likes of which have never been seen again. From the age of 14 through 21, Regan won the World Championships every year and every belt division. He amassed a record of 365 wins and just two losses, and created a record by having 19 matches in one day and finishing all of them by submission. Today, Regan and his brother Carlos are regarded as part of the inner circle of the authentic BJJ tradition.

John Will received his black belt under Rigan in 1998 and became Australia’s first official Machado representative. BJJ Australia, the original Brazilian Jiu Jitsu network in this country, was founded by John and is the official arm of Machado Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Australasia. John Will travels the globe each week to train with the best of the best in BJJ and no-gi grappling. Hangar 4's head coach, Peter Backman (photo on right - Peter with John Will), does weekly private lessons with John, and brings the latest BJJ techniques - both gi and no-gi - straight onto the Hangar mat.

BJJ gradings at Hangar 4 draw their credibility from this lineage. The Hangar is one of the oldest Will-Machado clubs in Australia and takes its name from its original location at Essendon airport, where it first opened its doors in 1999.

 

 

HISTORY OF BJJ

The art began with Mitsuyo Maeda (aka Conde Koma, or Count Coma in English), an expert in Japanese Judoka and a member of the then-recently-founded Kodokan. Maeda was one of five of Judo's top groundwork experts that Judo's founder, Kano Jigoro, sent overseas to demonstrate and spread his art to the world. Maeda left Japan in 1904 to travel the globe, giving 'Jiu-do' demonstrations and accepting challenges from wrestlers, boxers and fighters from various other disciplines. Maeda eventually arriving in Brazil in 1914.

In the northern state of Para, Brazil, Maeda befriended Gastão Gracie, an influential businessman, who helped Maeda get established. To show his gratitude, Maeda offered to teach traditional Japanese Jiu-Jitsu to Gastão's oldest son, Carlos Gracie. Carlos then passed his knowledge on to his brothers, who then went on to teach Jiu Jitsu in a house in Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro.

At age fourteen, Helio, the youngest of the Gracie brothers, moved in with his older siblings yet, under advice from his doctor, Helio would spend the next few years limited to only watching his brothers teach as he was naturally frail.

One day, when Helio Gracie was 16 years old, a student showed up for class when Carlos was not around. Helio, who had memorized all the techniques from watching his brothers teach, offered to start the class. When the class was over, Carlos showed up and apologized for his delay, but the student asked for Helio to continue being his instructor. Helio had modified the techniques he had learned to better suit his small frame, showing that a smaller, weaker person can successfully defend against a bigger, stronger assailant by using leverage and proper technique. This was how Helio gradually developed Gracie Jiu Jitsu.

During the decades that followed, Carlos’s brothers, sons, grandsons and cousins (the Machado brothers) became the driving force that further developed and refined the art into the form we see today. Rio de Janeiro, with its penchant for reality-based combative sport, became a proving-ground for no-rules fighting strategy and technique. BJJ schools blossomed everywhere, a sporting aspect was developed and the art grew tremendously in popularity. Its effectiveness was never in question as almost all fights, when there were limited or no rules, ended up on the ground, which was where the BJJ stylists were the undisputed champions. This, in turn, forced the art to undergo a phase of technical development which then thrust it to the forefront of the ground-based fight arena.

All of this was taking place away from eyes of the world until the '80s, when some of Brazil’s top BJJ instructors made their way to the United States. Gradually, the martial arts community began to hear more and more about the reality-based style and several renowned and well respected martial artists took up the art themselves. As word spread about the Brazilian style, the inevitable happened and mixed-style match-ups paved the way for the beginning of a frenzy of interest in submissionary grappling. By the middle of the '90s, televised inter-style limited-rules fights were being watched by the fight loving public and the world-wide martial arts community. BJJ then gained world-wide credibility it has today via the Gracie family and their success in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).