have you done a survey?
I'd bet that incidence of everything from heart disease, longitudinal intestinal growth, thru to high morning blood sugar are all measurably higher in you drug users.
Hey Pellius, on another note, tell us some more stories about the Gracies and BJJ in general, they are always kewl.
So this guy (or I guess we say fella now) walks into the Gracie Academy in Torrance, CA. It just opened up so this was back in 1991. At the time the instructors were Rorion, Rickson, Royler and Royce. This guy was around 6'2" and maybe around 200 lbs. Pretty lean and in good shape. Rorion, as was his manner at the time, always rose from his desk and greeted the visitor with a warm handshake and a "Welcome, my friend." He, as the rest of them all did, was wearing a white gi which at the time was the only color you could get in that style.
The fella says he was referred by a friend and asked where the punching bags were. Rorion explained that Jiu-Jitsu is a grappling art. From the stand up position they go into a clinch and go to the ground. Once on the ground they use a variety of submission holds and chokes. The fella seems unconvinced. "How are you going to clinch anybody when I can just punch you in the face?" Rorion explains that it through the use of timing, set ups and distance that a Gracie practitioner is able to avoids getting striked and they have been doing it for over 60 years in Brasil in noholds bar fighting. Known as Vale Tudo -- anything goes.
The debate goes back and forth as Royce and Royler look on.
Martial arts at the time was different back then. It had almost a mystical quality to it. You never really fought all out because it was deemed too dangerous and someone could get crippled or killed. There was a lot of ceremony involved -- a lot of bowing in TMA (Tradional Martial Arts). There was no bowing involved with the Gracie's, just a lot of shaking hands and light hugs and always "My friend." That must have been the stock phrase taught in Brasilian English classes. Also, the Gracie's actually fought no rules fights something that no martial art did in America. Even no holds bar sparring was rare. One can debate the various merits about different fighting styles and many of it's physical, mental and even spiritual benefits, but the Gracies believed that the bottom line is how effective it is in a real fight. After all a martial art is not really a martial art unless it teaches you how to fight.
So words are just words and it only goes so far. Proof is in the pudding. So Rorion says, "You want to try?"
The fella says, "What fight? Seriously?"
"Sure, you can do anything you want," Rorion says in a calm and matter of fact tone. As if he's done this hundreds of times. Which, unbeknownst to the fella, he in fact has.
"Who? You? These guys?" looking over at the very unimpressive tall skinny guy and the maybe 5'6" 145 lbs tops smiling guy.
Rorion turns and says something in Portuguese to Royce and Royler. Royler then smiles and turns to the fella and shakes his hand.
"Really? OK?" says the obviously pleased and excited fella.
So they walk out in the mat area. Royler again smiles and shakes hands and then steps back toward one end of the mat and looks at Rorion. Rorion looks at fella and says, "Ready?"
"Sure," says fella and then looks at little Royler no longer smiling and bouncing around on his toes.
With hands up they slowly approach each other at the center. Fella immediately starts throwing quick sharp jabs striking with his knuckles Royler's forearms. They clinch and both go to the ground. Royler is on his back has his legs wrapped around fellas' waist while fella is holding the neck with one arm and trying to strike with the other arm which is being tied up and nullified. It looks to the untrained eye that Royler is failing away wildly with his legs. Wrapping it around fellas back and neck. Fella seems please as in America, due to American wrestling background, whoever is on his back is losing.
"AHH!" says fella grabbing his extended arm in pain. "What the hell was that?"
Rorion, who was already on his way rushing in to break it up says, he got your arm. You didn't tap.
"What's tap?" says fella.
"When he gets you in a hold you tap to let him know to let go."
Fella then remembers his days as a child during Aikido class when they would toss you to the ground they would twist your wrist and then you tapped. But as fella remembers it in Aikido no one really resisted and he just thought you tapped because it just was the tradition when they took you to the ground and pinned you. He was only 10 years old at the time and just did what everybody else did.
Fella holding his arm which was not completely dislocated but just "popped" with some minor swelling. Looks over at the concerned Royler and ask, "How did you do that?" Royler, who at the time spoke almost no English looks over at Royce and Royce replies in Portuguese to Royler.
Royler smiles and has Royce come over to show him what he did. Fella wants to feel it on his other arm as things happen so fast in the fight that he didn't know what was going on. Royler shows him again. Royler shows him some others things from what was called the guard position as Royce and Rorion explain. Fella is fascinated. "You guys can even fight when someone gets you on your back?"
They all smile and shake hands and go back into the lobby area where they show fella tapes of some fights from Brasil. Some in the ring. Some on the beach. Some in a parking lot.
Fella says, "I've never seen anything like this. I want join. I want to learn this."
It is explained to the fella that when he's recovered he will get a free introductory lesson and they recommend taking at least 20 private lessons before joining the group class. It is important, they explain, that you have some idea of the basics before mixing it up in the group class. At $20 a lesson, fella signs up for two lessons a week. One with Royce and one with Royler.
Again they all smile and shake hands. Fella has big smile on his face and seems very excited and says, "I can't wait to start! I've never seen anything like this! This is amazing!
That fella was me.
