精力善用 - Seiryoku-Zenyo, "Best use of one's energies / maximum efficiency, minimum effort"
柔術 - Jiu-Jitsu, "Gentle art"
柔道 - Judo, "Gentle way" 

"Seiryoku-Zenyo (maximum efficient use of energy) applies to all types of endeavours, and it is to fully utilise one's spiritual and physical energies to realise an intended purpose.

Seiryoku-Zenyo is the most effective use of the power of the mind and body. In the case of Judo, this is the principle upon which attack and defence are based, and what guides the process of teaching as well. Simply, the most effective use of mind and body may be described as the maximum efficient utilisation of energy. In summary, this can be described as "maximum efficiency".

This idea of the best use of energy is one of the central tenets in Judo, but it is also important for achieving various aims in one's life.

This concept of the best use of energy is the fundamental teaching of Judo. In other words, it is most effectively using one's energy for a good purpose. So, what is 'good'? Assisting in the continued development of one's community can be classified as good, but counteracting such advancement is bad... Ongoing advancement of community and society is achieved through the concepts of 'Sojo-Sojo' (help one another; yield to one another) or 'Jita-Kyoei' (mutual benefit). In this sense, Sojo-Sojo and Jita-Kyoei are also part of the greater good. This is the fundamental wisdom of Judo.

Kata and Randori are possible when this fundamental wisdom is applied to techniques of attack and defence. If directed at improving the body, it becomes a form of physical education; if applied to gaining knowledge, it will become a method of self-improvement; and, if applied to many things in society such as the necessities of life, social interaction, one's duties, and administration, it becomes a way of life...

In this way, Judo today is not simply the practice of fighting in a dojo, but rather it is appropriately recognised as a guiding principle in the myriad facets of human society. The practice of Kata and Randori in the dojo, is no more than the application of Judo principles to combat and physical training... From the study of traditional Jujutsu Kata and Randori, I came to the realisation of this greater meaning. Accordingly, the process of teaching also follows the same path. Furthermore, I recognised the value of teaching Kata and Randori to many people as a fighting art and as a form of physical training. This not only serves the aims of the individual, but by mastery of the fundamental wisdom of Judo, and in turn applying it to many pursuits in life, all people will be able to live their lives in a judicious manner.

This is how one should undertake the study of Judo that I founded. However, in actuality there are many people throughout the world living their lives on the basis of Judo principles without knowing that this is the real essence of Judo. If the Judo that I espouse is propagated to society at large, the actions people undertake will become Judo without even thinking about it. I believe that if more people gain an understanding of the guiding principles of Judo, this philosophy will also help guide their lives. Thus, I implore you all to make great efforts, and initiate this trend in society."

- Master Jigoro Kano, from The Best Use of One's Energy (1922) and JuJutsu and Judo, Recognising the Distinction of Judo (1936)

Know the philosophy. Live the principle. ​Get the teeshirt here. 

From BJJHeroes.com:

...One of luta livre’s golden boys, Marco Ruas started being mentioned as a candidate to fight jiu jitsu’s champion, Rickson Gracie in the near future. Rickson had decided at this point that he was moving to the United States, and he did not want to leave Rio de Janeiro with this shadow on his back. He decided to go to the gym were Ruas trained to make the challenge official, and possibly fight there and then.

Rickson arrived at the gym while a packed night class was taking place, accompanied by his father, Helio Gracie, and his friends Sergio ‘Malibu’ and Marcelo Behring. There he met with Ruas and his coaches challenging the up and coming fighter to a closed door bout, something very common during those days. Ruas stepped back and asked for a 4 month period to prepare for the fight, Rickson did not accept, he wanted to fight sooner than that as he had plans to move out of Brazil. The discussion got heated up and at a certain point Helio said “Maybe we should make a list of people who want to fight Rickson”, Hugo Duarte, who was one of the main luta livre competitors heard the jiu jitsu master’s comment and said “you can put my name on that list”.

The gracie convoy left without the fight they wanted, but Hugo Duarte’s challenge made it to the streets. The street gossip urged Rickson Gracie to take a stand, much like he had done when the same happened with Ruas, previously. This time Rickson wouldn’t make the same mistake as before and give the challenger a chance to pull out. Duarte was a regular visitor of the Praia do Pepê (Pepe Beach), so Rickson planned to confront the luta livre man in public so there would be no back pedaling. A couple of weeks later, Hugo was met and challenged at the beach, on a Saturday morning. People gathered around in a circle while the two fighters scrapped.  A camera was brought in to film the fight and handed to the late Ryan Gracie. Ryan was 12 years old at the time and could not cut through the crowd of grown ups to film the fight, thus the poor quality of the video (below) and the cussing of the young Gracie all throughout the footage. After a few minutes of fighting Hugo Duarte gave up due to strikes from the mount.

Afterwards, as the two fighters went to the water to clean up their wounds, Hugo told Rickson he was not happy with the result, this feeling would lead to the events that followed...

Read the full account of the long-standing rivalry at BJJHeroes.com!

Know your roots! Rep the history! Get the teeshirt here. 

Do you remember the game "Telephone"? You and the other kids would sit in a circle, one kid would whisper a phrase into another kid's ear, the phrase would pass around the circle from kid to kid until it got back to its source, and you and the other kids would laugh at the mangled nonsense that the original phrases had become in transit.

Martial arts is like that. A teacher teachers based on his or her understanding, and a student learns based on theirs. In this way, even a simple technique can get garbled. And when it comes to Jiu-Jitsu - in which the difference between the version of a technique that works against someone my size or smaller and the version that works against someone much bigger than me can  be very subtle - the problem is even more pronounced. Add in outside pressures jockeying for attention - the need to win within the limited rulesets of modern competition, the need to create an "exciting" style to appeal to MMA spectators - and the mutation of the original technique is almost assured.

These are strange times for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. The proliferation of the sport means a veritable army of blue and while belts crowding the scene, but the relatively thin distribution of qualified instructors means that many of these are left to fend for themselves, learning from videos and seminars and otherwise figuring  out on their own (I, admittedly, was one of these). This, combined with the "put up or shut up" attitude of wrestling and MMA that has permeated some segments of the culture, has produced a potentially toxic skepticism. White and blue belts I've met think nothing of openly questioning the validity of the techniques shown to them at seminars, or when visiting another's gym.

I in no way endorse the kind of wholesale "follower" mindset that created and defined the culture of martial arts before MMA. Skepticism can be good and healthy, and no instructor should think of himself as being above the questions that such skepticism produces. To do so invariably leads to self-delusion. But this humility must not mean an inversion of the dynamic, in which the teacher answers to the student more than the student answers to the teacher! The dojo culture is healthiest when the student carries the attitude of the student, and the baseline assumption that the teacher knows more and better than him or her about the subject at hand. If he or she does not, he or she should not be in class, because why would you go to a school that has nothing to teach you? 

Today I look online and I see white and blue belt openly expressing dissatisfaction with a given technique or position shown by Master Rickson or Master Helio. Nowhere in their attitude is the assumption that any concern they have about the technique is the result of their own imperfect understanding. Everywhere I read comments from people eager to talk about what they know, give their own answers, express their own style, have their own highlight reel on YouTube, have their own name above a school door.

A master who wants you to call him master for his sake is not your master; a master who is a master because of his knowledge is. You have limited time on this earth, and the more of it that you spend listening to yourself talk the less time you spend learning from those who really know something.

Stick close to the source, and try to understand.  

Commit to the journey. Represent the art. Get the teeshirt here. 

Mitsuyo Maede learned Judo from Tsunejiro Tomita, one of the "Four Kings" of Kodokan Judo. In the early part of the 20th Century he travelled throughout the Americas presenting Kodokan Judo in public demonstrations, sporting contests, and no-holds-barred challenge matches. In 1917 he moved to Belem do Para, Brazil, where he began teaching a style of Judo informed by his years as a fighter and competitor. Among his students was the young Carlos Gracie. When the Gracie family moved from Belem do Para to Rio de Janeiro Carlos continued his training by teaching his brothers, notably his youngest brother Helio. The style that they developed, informed by Maeda's teachings and their own experience as competitors and fighters, became the style we now know as Gracie or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

From Wikipedia:
"[10th dan Judoka Kyzuo] Mifune also states that Maeda was one of the most vigorous promoters of judo, although not by teaching the art, instead generating recognition of judo through his many combats with contenders from other disciplines. Maeda treated experienced and inexperienced students alike, throwing them as if in real combat. He reasoned that this behavior was a measure of respect towards his students, but it was often misunderstood and frightened many youngsters, who would abandon him in favor of other professors."

Conde Koma - literally Count Combat - a nickname bought and paid for with blood and sweat in the ring. The undisputed godfather of BJJ. 

Know the history. Respect the pioneers. Get the teeshirt here. 

That ain't no typo! According to John Danaher in his introduction to MASTERING JUJITSU, jiu-jitsu, jiujitsu, jujitsu, and ju-jutsu were all widely-used and accepted anglicizations of the Japanese term at the time when Jigoro Kano incorporated his art. And, as the common practice at the time was for a martial arts instructor to name his school and NOT the style of martial art taught there (all martial arts schools at the time were "jiujitsu" schools, i.e. Goju Ryu jujitsu, Nanba Ippo-ryū jujutsu, etc.), many people simply disregarded the term "Judo" and instead referred to the style taught at the Kodokan as Kano jujitsu. 

It is interesting to note that it was this same phenomenon at work when Carlos Gracie Sr., endeavoring to open a school teaching the style he had been taught by Mitsuyo Maeda, opened the original Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy (Jiu-Jitsu being the common anglicization of the term in Brazil at that time), meaning a Jiu-Jitsu Academy run by the Gracies, and NOT an academy teaching a style known as Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. It was only later, through the influence of many pioneers including Helio Gracie, and the constant refinement demanded by Vale Tudo contests and endless randori, that a style began to emerge from Maeda's teachings that was specific to the Gracie Clan.

A tree was planted in Tokyo in 1882, and today we Jiujiteiros lie in its shade, swing from its branches, eat its fruit. It is with profound gratitude to Master Jigoro Kano that we offer this design.

Know the history. Respect the pioneers. Get the teeshirt here. 

From Wikipedia:

Yamashita Yoshiaki (February 16, 1865 – October 26, 1935) was a Japanese judoka. He was the first person to have been awarded 10th degree red belt (jūdan) rank in Kodokan Judo, although posthumously. He was one of the Four Guardians of the Kodokan, and a pioneer of judo in the United States.

Yamashita was born in Kanazawa, then the capital of the powerful Kaga Domain. His father was of the samurai class. As a boy, Yamashita trained in the traditional (koryū) Japanese martial arts schools of Yōshin-ryū and Tenjin Shin'yō-ryū jujutsu. In August 1884, he joined the Kodokan judo dojo of his childhood friend Kano Jigoro as its nineteenth member. He advanced to first degree black belt (shodan) rank in three months, fourth degree (yondan) ranking in two years, and sixth degree (rokudan) in fourteen years. He was prone to discuss the philosophy of Judo with Kano, as Yamashita initially believed power should be applied before technique.

He was a member of the Kodokan team that competed with Tokyo Metropolitan Police jujutsu teams during the mid-1880s, and during the 1890s, his jobs included teaching judo at the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy and Tokyo Imperial University (modern University of Tokyo). 

A notoriously violent man, Yamashita was known for his many street fights. In the most famous instance, he got involved in a brawl with no less than 17 laborers in Tokyo due to a dispute in a restaurant. Despite their vast numeric advantage, added to the fact that some of them wielded knives, Yamashita and a fellow judoka disposed of all the men, purposely breaking the arms of three of them in the process. Shortly after, Yoshiaki would get into another quarrel with another cadre of laborers, this time him against 15 of them, but it ended up the same way: Yamashita maimed his attackers with chokes and throws, and even killed some of them by breaking their necks. He was arrested, but was easily acquitted after proving the uneven nature of the brawls. However, he was still suspended by the Kodokan for excessive use of violence. When confronted by Kano himself, Yamashita protested and went to the extent of challenging his master to a fight, but Kano convinced to stop his violent ways by making him realize that some day he might be harmed the same way he liked to harm people.

In February 1902, Seattle-based railroad executive Samuel Hill decided that his 9-year-old son, James Nathan, should learn judo, which he had apparently seen or heard about while on a business trip to Japan. In Hill's words, the idea was for the boy to learn "the ideals of the Samurai class, for that class of men is a noble, high-minded class. They look beyond the modern commercial spirit." Hill spoke to a Japanese American business associate, Masajiro Furuya, for advice. Furuya referred Hill to Kazuyoshi Shibata, who was a student at Yale University. Shibata told Hill about Yamashita, and on July 21, 1903, Hill wrote a letter to Yamashita, asking him to come to Seattle at Hill's expense. On August 26, 1903, Yamashita replied, writing that he, his wife, and one of his students (Saburo Kawaguchi) would leave for Seattle on September 22, 1903.

The ship carrying the Yamashita party docked in Seattle on October 8, 1903. A week later, on October 17, 1903, Yamashita and Kawaguchi gave a Judo exhibition at a Seattle theater that Hill had rented for the evening. Attendance was by invitation only, and guests included Sam Hill's mother-in-law, Mary Hill (wife of railroader J.J. Hill), Senator Russell Alger, and assorted Sportswriters. Afterwards, Hill took the Yamashita party east to Washington, D.C., where Mrs. Hill and young James Nathan were then living. Meanwhile, the favorable publicity surrounding the event caused Japanese Americans living in Seattle to start their own Judo club, known as the Seattle Dojo.

Soon after arriving in the District of Columbia, Yamashita visited the Japanese Legation, and in March 1904, the Japanese naval attaché, Commander Takeshita Isamu, took Yamashita to the White House to meet President Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt practiced wrestling and boxing while in the White House, and he had received jujutsu jackets from William Sturgis Bigelow and jujutsu lessons from J. J. O'Brien, a Philadelphia police officer who had studied jujutsu while living in Nagasaki. Roosevelt was impressed with Yamashita's skill, and during March and April 1904, Yamashita gave judo lessons to the President and interested family and staff in a room at the White House. Subsequently, at other locations, Yamashita and his wife Fude gave lessons to prominent American women, to include Martha Blow Wadsworth (sister of Kindergarten pioneer Susan Blow), Hallie Elkins (wife of Senator Stephen Benton Elkins), and Grace Davis Lee (Hallie Elkins' sister), and their children. 

In January 1905, Yamashita got a job teaching judo at the U.S. Naval Academy. There were about 25 students in his class, including a future admiral, Robert L. Ghormley. The position ended at the end of the school term, and Yamashita was not rehired for the following year. When President Roosevelt heard of this, he spoke to the Secretary of the Navy, who in turn told the Superintendent of the Naval Academy to rehire Yamashita. Consequently, Yamashita's judo was taught at the Naval Academy throughout the first six months of 1906.

Know the history. Rep the legacy. Get the teeshirt here. 

The second installment of this legendary fight trilogy took place on April 7, 1995. Despite the overtime round, this nearly 40-minute match finally ended in a draw. But the story doesn't end there! More than twenty years later the two again squared off in the Bellator cage, with Royce quickly taking down and submitting the much larger Shamrock. 

UFC 1 opened the world's eyes to the effectiveness of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, but it was Royce's fight against Ken Shamrock that defined the paradigm shift. Ken Shamrock looks like a badass: he big, he's mean-looking, he's jacked. By comparison Royce is lanky and skinny. Based on look alone, Shamrock is an easy favorite. But then, just a few minutes into the exchange, Shamrock taps the mat. Even the commentators don't understand. Was it a choke? An arm lock? What's going on? 

To me, the importance of this matchup cannot be overstated. More than any other match or event, Gracie vs Shamrock, defines the trajectory MMA and BJJ followed in their explosive growth in the years since. Accordingly we, the modern-day practitioners, are living in the house that matchup built. 

This design is a celebration of both of these warriors: an expression of our gratitude. 

Respect to the pioneers. Respect to the history. Get the teeshirt here.

What can we say that the man himself hasn't already said?

Maybe only this, and only because the scope of Master Rickson's comments - in this particular instance - was limited to the mat: 

America has always been a land of bold mavericks and pioneers. Indeed: it is no small thing to depart from familiar shores and head off into the unknown, and that is true whether you're a pilgrim bound for Plymouth Rock of an Iraqi refugee landing on American soil in 2018. Accordingly, we have always lauded ambition, lionizing the self-made man and denigrating the "layabout" who "lacks direction, grit, drive," etc. 

And yet the path from dream to reality is not so clear or readily managed, and often refuses to be negotiated by will and grit alone. Ask any honest success and they'll tell you: Sure I worked hard, but I also got very lucky. I came along at the right moment. I met the right person at the right time. Things worked out for me. Etc., etc.
 
In my role as head instructor at a BJJ school I see all kinds of students. Some struggle with a lack conviction, and allow opportunities to come and go. Others seem to lack all sense of proportion, insisting on moves that have no yet quite presented themselves. Both are frustrated, both feel their failures on the mat as a mark against them. To both of them I say:

Every technique is a plant. For a strong and healthy technique to grow, you need a good seed. The seed is your technique. The elements must be right. A poor seed will never grow into a strong plant. But this is not enough. The best seed planted in poor soil will grow into nothing. You have your seed. Now your task is to become an expert at finding the best soil - the best moment- to plant it in. If you do these things then your technique will be strong. 

I like this analogy a lot, mostly because it asks us to consider every technique not as a battle but as a partnership - a cooperation between one party's actions and my own. It calls me to realize the true nature of the thing: that whatever outcome occurs will be bigger than my singular will. That for me to succeed I must participate in this thing we are both doing, rather than insist on my own vision of the future. 

As on the mat, so in life: We go out into the world, knowing what we want. The world sees us and tells us what it wants. To become recalcitrant is to make an argument from what could be a conversation. It is to mistake stubbornness for dedication. It is to miss the truth: that the future will always be bigger than you; that you do not exist in a vacuum; that success comes once you learn to flow with the go. 

Get the teeshirt here.

As you can see, this design is based on the poster art for the classic film SEVEN SAMURAI by Akira Kurosawa. 

The Samurai has always been a central archetype in BJJ culture. Perhaps this is no surprise: Jigoro Kano devised his art as a means to preserve and cultivate those virtues he saw as best in Japanese culture - namely those contained in Bushido, the code of the Samurai - in the face of the deteriorating effect of Western influence. One can therefore assume that the spirit of these virtues would have been central to the art taught by Mitsuyo Maeda to a young Carlos Gracie. 

Now, as then, the lesser elements of Western culture work to undermine the long-standing martial virtues. Easy promotion entices and flashy marketing distracts. Gaudy showmanship overshadows quiet discipline. 

The Seven Samurai stood against an army of bandits: bandits who used the weapons and the skills of the samurai for their own selfish and violent ends, preying on the weak. Their story is the story of true samurai spirit standing against its own corrupted and fallen mirror image. 

Nowadays the fight continues, only now the bandits are less obvious. Nowadays those who corrupt the samurai spirit for their own selfish ends hide in plain sight. But just look around and you'll see them. There's a McDojo on every street corner, promising a black belt in two years if you just sign on the dotted line. There's a slick salesman in a kimono making empty promises. He tells you he's the real deal. He lets you believe in his character. He doesn't take your money: you hand it over.

​Five belts against an army of imitators. Five belts that can't be bought, that must be earned. The spirit of the seven lives on in Jiu-Jitsu from Brazil.

​Get the teeshirt here. 

I can remember being a new white belt and thinking, Man, if I can just get a blue belt I'll be happy. A blue belt is good. A blue belt is solid. I can feel proud of a blue belt.

Of course, no sooner had I gotten my blue belt than I started to think, Man, if I can just get a purple belt...

And so it goes. Just like with everything else. You start off with a goal, thinking if you can just get there then you'll be happy and satisfied. But achieve the mountaintop and you discover the truth: it's only from the mountaintop that you can see the other mountains, the other peaks that you have yet to climb. And all of a sudden the peak you're on - the one you've been pursuing for years, maybe - seems way less interesting than what's out there, awaiting your discovery.

The journey never ends. We recommit ourselves perpetually and passionately to the next thing, never becoming satisfied or complacent. The journey doesn't end at black belt: it ends when we stop striving, stop searching for the mountains beyond. 

Commit to the journey. Get the teeshirt here.