Carlos was a very small boy for his age, but extremely energetic and with a very strong personality. It was this hyperactivity that made his father take him to a gentleman by the stage name of Count Coma. Count Coma (real name: Misuyio Esai Maeda) was a Jiu Jitsu/Judo representative sent to Brazil by Japan to divulge Jiu Jitsu to the world, Gastao took his son to him in the hope that he could learn Jiu Jitsu and release a bit of the extra energy he was prone to have.

Maeda was quite fond of the 15-year-old Carlos Gracie and accepted the challenge of educating this skinny boy in the art of Jiu Jitsu. The teachings of Maeda lasted for the better part of 3 years with interruptions “here and there” when Maeda needed to travel for his duties. In 1921 the Gracie Family was bankrupt and needed to move from Belem do Para to Rio de Janeiro and that was the last time Carlos Gracie saw his master.

He separated from his father and started working on his own in small meaningless jobs until a friend from back in Belem do Para met him in Rio. He had also trained with Maeda for a short while and knew Carlos was one of Maeda’s best students, so he invited him to train alongside him in the Special Police, a Core his friend belonged to. Inside Police walls is where Carlos started truly testing his Jiu Jitsu skills in no-holds-barred fights performed in closed quarters.

Soon he managed to save enough money to launch his dream: his own Jiu Jitsu academy. This very modest place was set in “Rua Marques de Abrantes” number 106 in the year of 1925. For this amazing challenge ahead, he asked brothers George and Helio to join him. In his first ad at a local newspaper, he wrote: “Se Você quer a sua face esmurrada e arrebentada, seu traseiro chutado e os seus bracos quebrados, entre em contacto com Carlos Gracie neste endereço…” – If you want your face punched and bruised, your butt kicked and your arms broken, talk to Carlos Gracie at the following address…”

Born on October 1st 1913, Helio was the youngest son of Gastao Gracie, a third-generation Scotsman. There were 9 brothers and sisters, and Helio stood out since the beginning due to his body type; tall and lanky he was the complete opposite of his brothers who were shorter, and stockier. As Carlos Gracie taught the other Gracie Brothers, Helio wasn’t allowed to be a part of the actual fighting as he was too fragile, instead he would stand aside and try to understand the mechanics of the Jiu Jitsu game.

A few years after the Gracies moved to Rio de Janeiro, in 1925, Carlos Gracie – the eldest, managed to fulfill his dream of creating the first Jiu Jitsu Academy in Rio. To help him in this new challenge he invited his brothers Oswaldo, Gastao, Helio, and George, to come and join him. Helio started sparring with his brothers Oswaldo, Gastao, and George, hiding the fact from Carlos who was overprotective of his younger brother and feared for his health. When he found out Helio was already advanced in his techniques and was a good spar for his brothers, Carlos allowed his training to continue and accepted him in their normal classes. Helio soon became Carlos’s star pupil, so much so that in 1932 Carlos gave him his first vale tudo/no-holds-barred. Helio was 18 years old. the fight was against a boxer by the name of Antonio Portugal, the bout lasted less than a minute as Helio choked his opponent out.

Throughout his life, Helio remained committed to promoting the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He continued to teach and train fighters well into his eighties, and his influence can be seen in the success of modern MMA fighters who use Jiu-Jitsu techniques in their fights. Helio’s legacy is also evident in the popularity of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as a sport and a way of life.

Helio Gracie passed away on January 29, 2009, at the age of 95. His contributions to the world of martial arts are immeasurable, and he will always be remembered as a pioneer and a legend in the field. Helio’s philosophy of using intelligence and technique over brute strength continues to inspire martial artists all over the world, and his legacy lives on through his many students and disciples.

Professor Dave Ruiz holds the rank of 5th degree Black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under Rigan Machado. However, Dave started his training at the Gracie Academy in Torrance, CA under Royce Gracie. Dave trained with the original source of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Grand Master Helio Gracie. Helio visited and taught at the Academy often and Dave got to benefit from his legendary teachings. Not just in the ways jiu jitsu is applied but how it is lived, breathed, and thought about on a daily basis.

David currently instructs at Gracie Jiu-Jitsu in Carlsbad, California.

Professor Wunderlich began his BJJ career at Colorado Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in October of 2004 under the tutelage of Professor Dave Ruiz. Professor Ruiz was one to the first Americans to be included in the instructors program at the Gracie Academy in Torrance, California in the early 1990s. The Gracie Family, the founders of BJJ, took Professor Ruiz under their wing and passed on information vital to teaching BJJ properly.

Professor Wunderlich trained as much as he could for several years (up to 13 times per week) until he found out he was accepted to Graduate School at the University of Wyoming. He would begin Graduate School in the fall of 2006 in Laramie, Wyoming. Being that he had fallen in love with BJJ, he felt that he needed to continue his journey somehow, so he asked Professor Ruiz if he could teach BJJ in Wyoming.

Professor Ruiz obliged and Professor Wunderlich was inducted into an intense and complete instructors programs focused on the teaching aspect of BJJ. Professor Wunderlich began to teach BJJ through the Community Enrichment Program at the University of Wyoming in the fall of 2006. His modest beginnings included only 6 students the first semester, eventually growing to over 45 students by his fourth semester at the University of Wyoming. Professor Wunderlich returned to Denver after the completion of his coursework and taught under the watchful eye of Professor Ruiz at Colorado Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Visit our Academy at the leading-edge facility of Western Plains BJJ to see a beautiful visual lineage and learn hands-on “the gentle art” of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.