Gracie Jiu Jitsu Comes to Gastonia

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu gets it origins from Japan. In 1914 a Japanese martial artist named Esai Maeda settled in Brazil after traveling and fighting throughout the world. Maeda was an accomplished Judo master. After arriving in Brazil, Maeda befriended a man named Gastao Gracie who helped Maeda get established in his new country. In return Maeda taught Gracie’s oldest son Carlos Japanese Jiu Jitsu and Carlos in turn taught the art to his brothers.

Carlos and Helio, the youngest brother, modified the teaching of Maeda and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was born. Because of this the term Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is synonymous in most cases with the term Gracie Jiu Jitsu.

Professor Shawn McGinnis met Carlson Gracie Jr., Carlos Gracie's grandson, several years ago and the two have established a friendship. We have been honored for the past several years to have Carlson come to McGinnis Academy of Martial Arts and host seminars, and we are planning on having him back at our Academy on June 23, 2018.

Not only that, we were honored to have Clark Gracie, Carlson Gracie Jr’s cousin, at our Academy in January to host a seminar. It was a great night of training and a pleasure to have Clark at our Academy. We are trying to setup another seminar with Clark this summer.

So if you are training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu or are interested in starting and you’d like to train with the legendary family that created the art make sure you sign up for our email newsletter and/or follow us on Facebook. We’d love for you to join us!