Classes

At Gracie Sports Team Macarra BJJ Simrell Muay Thai Scranton, we offer Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai classes for everyone. Call us and schedule your free trial class.  (570) 905-8810

Muay Thai

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Brief History and Background of Muay Thai

Muay Thai originates from Thailand and is known as “the art of 8 limbs” by using fists, elbows, knees and feet. At one time it was 9 weapons when the use of the head butt was allowed.

It is believed it was developed from older martial arts, such as Muay Boran and Krabi krabong which allowed warriors to protect themselves when unarmed, although it’s complete history has been lost due to wars that Thailand was involved in.

It was later picked up by ordinary people to defend their land and became a popular sport encouraged by various Thai kings and is used in many traditional celebrations. It’s popularity has grown considerably since the 19th century and was encouraged as a means of exercise as well as self defence. Today it is an art popular with MMA fighters.

Muay Thai training camps have been around for a long time and were setup for fighters to live together as one family and to be taught by masters of the art, who train them to fight in tournaments against other camps.

Many traditional competitive matches are started with a dance (Wai Khru Ram Muay). The Dance is to show respect to others and to demonstrate a fighter’s control and style.

In the early 20th century, rules, referees, the use of a boxing ring and boxing gloves were introduced.

Brief History and Background of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu came about when Jiu-Jitsu was brought to Brazil by Mitsuyo Maeda (Conde Koma) in 1914, a Judoka with experience in other martial arts. In 1917 a young Carlos Gracie watched a demonstration by Maeda and became his student, who then passed this knowledge onto his brothers, of which Helio Gracie was one. Helio adapted some of the moves into what is now the familiar BJJ of the Gracie family. Incidentally the Gracie family started one of the largest BJJ organisations, the ‘International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation’.

Another well known lineage involved from the early days of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was Luis Franca also a student of Maeda. Luis Franca and Maeda also taught Oswaldo Fadda, who’s family continue to teach through ‘Academia Fadda’ and are well respected.

There are of course other branches of BJJ which mostly stem from Maeda or Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. Some concentrate on self defence others lean more towards a sport style of BJJ.

Today Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is very much popular with mixed martial arts fighters, largely brought about by the near unstoppable wins of Royce Gracie.

The idea behind the system is to allow a smaller and weaker person to overcome a larger stronger opponent. The system concentrates mostly on ground fighting using grappling.