Famous Rio Sports: Learn about Jiu Jitsu

Born in the North of Brazil, but living ever since in Rio, the family spread their technical knowledge through the whole country, and the world. Their biggest discovery and teachings was that a "weak" fighter can defeat a stronger opponent using their techniques in the form of bottlenecks, levers, immobilization and twists.  Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is growing quickly, with strong communities in countries like the US, Pakistan, Abu Dhabi and India. 

As we know well, Cariocas follow the best healthy trends - turning them into an authentic life style, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is no different, capturing all generations and genders in Rio. Relaxing after a stressful day at work is one of our main goals in working out, therefore, joining the gym for fight training sounds perfect. However, it does require discipline, dedication, concentration and technique even If you are not a professional fighter. 

The sport brings all these positives points yet allows you to learn daily with the most experienced coaches and also make good friends - just as I did. I've tried a few martial arts including Brazilian Jiu Jitsu which provided me the opportunity to meet a professional - and now a good friend of mine - owner of the gym Central Fight Team, which I recommend for all ages.

Unfortunately, you won't see Brazilian Jiu-jitsu in the Olympics this year.  While it was recently added to the Asian Games, the second largest multi-sport event in the world, the IOC still considers it to be a derivative sport (from judo) that is dominated by a single country.  But with the incredible popularity of this sport, and a growing international audience of practitioners and fans, I wouldn't be surprised to see it soon!