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rails,” but each time I fell a little less far. Other people started to point out to me the mileage I was adding to my journey. I remember last fall, one of my colleagues tentatively said, “Stowell, you seem different.” I replied, “Yeah, I feel like I can think clearly for the first time in a long time.” My doctor (who did not know me pre-grief) said, “You have a joie de vivre I have never seen in you.” I felt healthier, stronger, and more confident, and I said, “It’s the Jiu-Jitsu.”

8
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu 101
    W hen you think of “martial arts,” what comes to mind? Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee fending off entire gangs of miscreants? Samurai with their topknot hairdos and mighty swords? A park lawn dotted with senior citizens peacefully executing the katas of tai chi? A guy in a white uniform breaking boards with his bare hand? Or perhaps turtles cloaked in black, hurling throwing stars and swinging nunchuks?
    Many cultures have a martial arts tradition. The oldest martial arts are believed to have originated as long ago as 3,000 BC in Korea and China. Many styles that are practiced today have not changed significantly since their inception. Each style differs in its external movements, but all of the martial arts embrace the axiom of a spiritual endeavor.
    Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ), being rather young, has a distinct and traceable path. It is believed by some that Japanese old-style Jujutsu, an unarmed form of combat used by samurai, is the parent martial art of BJJ. In 1915, Japanese immigrant Esai Maeda taught the skills of Japanese Jujutsu to Carlos Gracie in Brazil. Carlos continued to teach the Japanese art and established the first Gracie Jiu-Jitsu academy in Rio de Janeiro in 1925. Helio, Carlos’s younger brother, was fascinated by the sport, but was restricted from practicing the techniques due to his small size and fragile frame.
    Determined to participate, Helio refined and adapted the Japanese-style art he spent years observing. His goals were to make Jiu-Jitsu more suitable to his lack of strength and smaller size by developing techniques that employed leverage, timing, and coordinated body movements. In 1928, together with his brother Carlos, they took an existing martial art and advanced it into what we now refer to as BJJ.
    BJJ can be practiced by just about anyone; Helio Gracie is the original example of this. You will see a variety of body types in a BJJ class: tall, petite, robust, lean, sturdy, buffed, and scrawny. You will see participants of all ages: kids as young as four years old, teens, adults, and masters. Helio Gracie was still competing in his fifties.
    Most of BJJ happens after a match or altercation is taken to the ground. This is what makes BJJ distinguishable from other martial arts. The main focus is often referred to as the “ground game.” The techniques of BJJ focus on the principles of leverage, balance, and timing, allowing those of smaller stature or limited athletic ability to defend themselves against larger and stronger opponents. The art of BJJ is comprised of many sweeps, reversals, chokes, arm locks, and leg locks.
    A typical training session at a BJJ gym has three phases and begins with the students lining up by rank to face and bow to the instructor, who is often a black belt in the art. First, the students are led through a warmup beginning with jogging and some general conditioning exercises, such as push-ups, squats, burpees, and core work. Next, the students practice movements that are foundational to many BJJ techniques: shrimping, technical stand-ups, shoulder rolls, and bridging. By this point, the average person’s heart rate will have risen and the sweating would have started, just in time to start learning a new technique.
    During the second phase, a new technique, or two, is taught to the students. A skillful instructor will demonstrate the technique step by step and explain just enough nuances