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Joao Crus BJJ School:

(512) 644-4560
joaocrus@gmail.com

DRIPPING SPRINGS:
Joao Crus Jiu-Jitsu
120 Frog Pond Lane
Dripping Springs, TX
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WIMBERLEY:
13501 Ranch Road 12
Suite #109
Wimberley, TX
78676
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Carlson Gracie: The Ultimate Gladiator of Modern Times

Carlson Gracie, the oldest son of Carlos Gracie's 21 children, was born on August 13th, 1935. His birth was during the height of the Gracie clan struggle to establish the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Style as the most effective marital art in the world.

Carlos Gracie, mastermind and guru of the Gracie Family, founded the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Style in Brazil in 1925. With a background in professional boxing and after completing a Jiu-Jitsu course with the great Japanese black belt master Mitsui Maeda Koma, Carlos dedicated two years of his professional life, exclusively to teach his four younger brothers Oswaldo, Jorge, Gastao and Helio how to fight. Together, they created the Gracie Clan.

In the early twenties the most popular Brazilian style of fighting was "Capoeira," a mixture of African Folklore dance enhanced by tricky foot and hand movement designed to distract the opponents and take him off balance. Capoeira, a mild version of Karate was very popular among the muscular Marines of the Brazilian Navy and Carlos saw fit to challenge them with his frail build. Whenever the Gracies Jiu-Jitsu proved victorious over the Brazilian Capoeira, the public turned wild against them.

The press would publish challenges and insults from the Capoeira fighters against the Gracies, who would fight in the ring and sometimes in the streets to prove the superiority of the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu over Capoeira. It was a very tumultuous time for the Gracie Clan, but gradually, the public began to appreciate their resolve, and as a result they flocked to the first Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Since then, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu took the country by storm and Helio Gracie, the main star, bravely defended his black-belt title against many Japanese world champions. When Helio was near retirement from the ring, he accepted a public challenge to fight Waldemar Santana, a former student at the Gracie Academy. After a "Vale Tudo" (no rules)match that took four hours without interruption, Helio lost the fight out of sheer exhaustion.

Carlson Gracie: 20 Years of Defending the Gracie Honor

It was up to Carlson Gracie, the seventeen year old son of Carlos, to reinstate the family "honor". He immediately challenged Waldemar Santana to a "Vale Tudo" at the Maracana, the largest stadium in the world at the time and savagely beat him in front an audience of 60,000 spectators.

Carlson started his career as a Vale Tudo fighter while still a teenager. Carlson was 167 pounds of lean muscle. He fought the heavyweight "Cirandinha," known as the "King of Capoeira" and in five minutes, the referee stopped the fight due to Cirandinha's heavy bleeding and his obvious inability to defend himself against Carlson.

Carlson Gracie: Personal Characteristics and His Mission

Carlson Gracie, whose birth sign was Leo, inherited the fearless high-risk competitive spirit of his father, combined with an amazing level of dedication, trust and respect for human kind. He believed in fair competition, although during his professional career in the ring he confronted 16 adversaries much heavier and more experienced than him in different styles of fighting.

Carlson, a world champion for over 20 years, retired undefeated from the ring! Since then his mission had been to pass along his experiences as an accomplished Black Belt Master of the Ring to the new generation of Brazilians. He is best known in Rio de Janeiro as the "Garotao" or "Big Boy" due to his eternal happy, young fellow personality, who always treated everyone as a pal.

Carlson, was an outstanding coach and expert in physical combat strategy, expected total commitment from members of his team. He would tell his disciples; "If you are serious about being a champion, you must follow my advice one hundred percent, or face defeat." He was the founder of the Carlson Gracie Team Academies in Rio de Janeiro, Los Angeles and Chicago, which he called "THE CHAMPION FACTORY" and "THE WORLD'S NUMBER ONE ADDRESS OF THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER!!!"

Carlson Gracie passed away on February 1st, 2006 in Chicago of heart failure. He was 71 years old.

The First Weekend of December in Dripping Springs, Texas has been officially decreed "Carlson Gracie Open-Texas." Read about it in Gracie Magazine.

View a Carlson Gracie tribute video...
View a Carlson Gracie seminar hosted in Dripping Springs, Texas...

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