BJJ in the nineties in Brazil and Ryan Gracie Team

Hi, My name is Renato Migliaccio. Im a 3 degree black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu rd under Ryan Gracie and 3 degree black belt in judo as well. The reason you are reading this is because you showed some interest in get to know how was BJJ training in Sao Paulo Brazil back in the late nineties with my Professor Ryan Gracie. This is a very interesting E-book with some stories on how I came up with my teammates and my Professor. So, here we go: I started judo when I was 8 years-old in a town called Ribeirao Preto, which is actually a pretty big town with 400,000 people. There was no jiu-jitsu right there, no jiujitsu at all, so my dad put me in Judo when I was 8 years-old.
I think the first time I heard of jiu-jitsu was in 1993 when they started releasing the VHS (back then) of Royce Gracie when he won the UFC the first time. So, I thought it was a cool thing, very similar to judo. The places I have been training Judo in Brazil had a very strong ground culture; they liked a lot the ground fighting (ne-waza). And I think that up to this day still, some Judo schools in Brazil do more ground fighting than others. So, that was a big plus when I made the switch to jiu-jitsu.
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I was a black belt in judo when I was 16. So, I moved to an Olympic training center called Projeto Futuro in Brazil (Ibirapuera, right where the UFC on FX took place in Sao Paulo - Brazil). This is a place where, young kids around 15 16 or 17 go to live and train Judo to fulfill their dream to become an Olympian. So, I moved to that place, where actually my ground fighting got even better, because a lot of ground fighting were held there. So, I trained there for a year. Training 2-3 times a day plus school. A lot of the kids who trained there there ended up becoming Olympians. I did not, I decided to go back to my town but after training in this center full of people who are considered the best, you are bound to be one of the best too. But I decided to leave and go back to my town which made me depressed until I met Roberto Gordo Correa, my first Professor. It took me a long time to find him. I found him almost 4 years after Royce Gracie win the first UFC.

So, we all know that UFC helped to popularize BJJ in the USA but also in Brazil because back then you could find good Jiu Jitsu only in Rio and Manaus. For example in a city with seventeen million people like Sao Paulo back then only a few Black Belts were teaching there. Yes, a little more than a hand full!! Ryan Gracie, Roberto Godoy, Otavio de Almeida, Flavio Behring, Fernado Yamasaki, Roberto Lage, I am sorry if I forgot someone, But that was pretty much it! So I can say that me and my generation from all the schools in Sao Paulo, we were the second generation of BJJ black Belts in Sao Paulo. So, Back to Gordo not in Sao Paulo But Ribeirao Preto (Sao Paulo state though) I started to find myself back on track but still with that thought at the back of my mind that I should have never left Sao Paulo and the Olympic training Center, which I did a couple of months later because there was hardcore training and back in the town wasnt good at all. But I was already infected with BJJ virus. Going back to my life, I understand that leaving Sao Paulo and then going back again was a little mistake. So, that couple of months or maybe a year that I stopped the Judo Hardcore training broke the momentum a little bit, but the only good thing was that I got to know Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Got to know Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Robert Gordo introduced me to Ryan Gracie. So, the first time I went to Ryans school, that was in 1997. He was just starting his academy. He did not have many purple belt fighters. I think one or two at the most, and lots of white belts, and a couple of blue. Blue belts were good. And the thing is, because of my background, I was able to handle all the white belts, and some of the blue belts. The blue belts, they were good. With Ryan's Blue belts, I could tell the difference of the two sports ( BJJ- Judo). I mean, because a lot of times youre a judo guy or wrestling guy and you depends on the level of the white belt or Blue belt guy, you can handle them pretty easy, you got some experience in wrestling or experience in judo, 10 years in judo or wrestling, and then you go and end up with a white or Blue belt, you can just manhandle the guy.

But dont be mistaken that jiu-jitsu is inferior because a lot of people do, unfortunately. I can say for myself I have done this mistake. For some time I still put more emphasis in the Judo Training more than the BJJ just because of the mistake of thinking that Judo was better.
But the trickiest part was that all these white belts that I was beating, started getting better quick and soon my knowledge of ground fighting in judo wasnt helping anymore. So, this pushed me to get back and consistently train hard.

I remember how I got my blue belt. I still had a dream to become a Judo Olympian and, you know, win in the Olympic Games in judo. So, I was mainly training judo at night and jiu-jitsu at noon time. Luckily, the noon training at Ryans was always the best one, the toughest guys. The competition was training at noon. So, I was training at noon. I was very lucky that I could do that. Conciliate Judo and BJJ and training twice a day, sometimes of course three times a day with the conditioning training. I started doing jiu-jitsu to help my ground fighting in judo, but its completely different. You know, the way you train the ground fighting for judo, suppose to be different. For judo, you have to get the guy in the submission hold on the way down to the floor because you have got only 10, 15 seconds to work your skills once the fight hits the ground. In jiu-jitsu, once it hits the ground it is just the start and people can take their time doing guard, trying the attacks, sweeps and all the good stuff because the fight on the ground is allowed. So, moving onhow I got to get my blue belt. Well back then there was a state championship and I had missed the trials inside the school because only two guys could represent the school per weight class and we could easily fill up all the weight classes.
Yes, Ryan used to have a lot of students back then, truly, I dont want to sound like Im lying, but it was like 100 people on the mat. It was crazy, you know, crazy, so much people and nowadays people complain with 20 people on the mat. So, to get to compete, you had to make it to the team by passing the trials. The day after the trial I showed up for training and Ryan goes to me: Where have you been?

Youre supposed to be here for the trials, so I go:Oh, I was training but judo. And he goes, Man, you really need to pick one and do it right do not thin k that you can do both forever, and soon, one will bother the other. Quit Judo Well I did not hear him at first but later I found out that he was right. Pick one do it right and do not look behind. Every time you have a backup plan, that backup plan will not help you to succeed. A long while ago, a great warrior faced a situation which made it necessary for him to take a decision which insured his success in the battlefield. He was about to send his armies to a powerful foe, whose men outnumbered his own. He loaded his soldiers into boats, sailed to the enemy's country, unloaded soldiers and equipment, and gave them order to burn the ships that had carried them. Addressing his men before the first battle, he said, You see the boats going up in smoke. That means we cannot leave this shores alive unless we win! We now have no choice. We win or we perish! After a huge speech he asked me if I want to compete but as a blue belt. I had to say yes otherwise I would look bad again and knowing that he was an intense guy that value people's attitude, my choice was yes or yes. I went to the tournament as a white belt but in the blue belt level, had to borrow a belt and after seven times in sixminutes matches, I won in the featherweight division f. I got out in so many triangles and arm bars just with my conditioning and heart. Those blue belts, they were good, lots of them better than me I was just moreI would say more conditioned than these guys and my desire to win was bigger.
Well, one guy specifically was very good, Teco was his nickname, I ended up fighting him 6 or seven more times and I have lost just once but he was way better than me I just never let him know that. One day, more then 10 years later I told him man you were way better than me, you just did not believed he was shocked. He made great Champions as a coach including Rodrigo Cavaca.

I was happy and hooked! I was a State Champion! So back to the training on the following Monday he calls me up and say: what are you doing?

I said: well came to train, he goes OK, but with the white belt? so I say: I thought I was still a white belt because you never officially gave it to me
Well, he calls everyone pulls the corridor where people hit you with their belts, everyone had to take me down then he said: you are now Officially a Blue belt!

One Day I have got to roll with him for the first time. He used to put everyone against the wall and roll with everyone starting from the biggest and most decorated. I remember, I was one of the last guys and he was tired, after rolling with at least 20 other guys. In my mind I was thinking I will do my best to take as long as possible to tap. Well wrong mentality because if you enter a fight thinking that way, that means you have already lost. It took longer than the others, I do not know how long to be precise but my intentions were only defending (again this do not lead to victories) and it makes harder for your opponent, until when he grabs his belt and choke me with his belt. I was shocked, was it legal? Here is another lesson, do not be so conditioned by the rules (and I was because of so many years in Judo) see all this fighting as a way of self defense. See the bigger picture of BJJ, and I was getting hooked with this, see BJJ as a real fight and not as a sport only. . Use everything that you can to make the guy tap. That was the sense of jiujitsu, making people tap and not just fighting by the rules. He showed me the true significance of tapping out or making others tap, something to cover in another E-book.
I miss that time I share the mat with Ryan Gracie, Carlos, Russo, Nino Schembri, Daniel Gracie, Marcio Pe de Pano, Fabio Leopoldo, Gabriel Vella, Guillherme Arashiro, Rodrigo Favalli, Eduardo Landim and brothers, Claudio Cury, Renato Magalhaes and so many other guys that I am probably being unfair to leave behind. I would not exchange that experience for anything.

Ryan died in December 2007. I miss him and the time we spent together. I am grateful for the new world that he and Gordo introduced to me. It would be great to have him around at this time, but it is impossible as I wish other people would be around me here like my father, brother and son. As right now, for me, I just have to teach my students with the principles that he used to put in class. Again, some people might laugh of this because he was known as a crazy guy. He got involved in some fights, but he had good principles, and a good heart.

Valeu Ryan!

For more Info go to: sampavideos.com (free webinars) or Sampabjj.com (My school website) or email: rmigliaccio@sampabjj.com