Breathe: A Life in Flow

by Rickson Gracie

figured I would go. I stood up and walked over. I wouldn’t make the mistake of my previous teammate, who rushed in. I would take my time, be smarter, more measured in my approach. The master chief did not seem concerned. After some grappling, I tried to grab his leg, and as soon as I did, he wrapped me up, twisted me around, isolated my arm, and straightened it out to the breaking point, at which time I tapped immediately. This went on for almost an hour. Victim after victim, the master chief forced us to submit over and over again. Finally, when we were sweating, breathing hard, and too tired to keep trying, he looked at us and said, “Welcome to Gracie Jiu Jitsu.” The master chief, a SEAL by the name of Steve Bailey, had been training with the Gracie family in their garage in Torrance, California, for a little over a year. “And I’m just a white belt,” he had said. I didn’t know much about martial arts, but I knew that a white belt was just a beginner—and he had mopped the floor with us. I couldn’t fathom what a black belt would be able to do. I also knew something else: I needed to learn this thing called Jiu Jitsu.

my occupation. He also gave me an assessment of my Jiu Jitsu: “You do a good job staying calm in bad positions. That is an important thing.”

You are going to get put in bad positions. The enemy might get the upper hand. You might be outnumbered or outgunned. Panic will destroy you. You have to stay calm.

You have stay calm when you are in bad situations. You need to cover and conceal your intent with other maneuvers. You need to utilize the simplest and most efficient methods. You need to prioritize your focus of effort. You need to train until you trust yourself to move intuitively, without having to think. You need to move at the right time. You have to defend critical areas. You should not attack your enemy’s strongpoints. You must utilize leverage. You cannot let your emotions drive your decisions. You have to establish a good base foundation to build upon. You cannot be overly aggressive, but you can’t just allow things to happen. When you make a move, you have to believe in what you are doing. You have to be mentally strong. You have to keep an open mind. You have to continuously learn new techniques while always reinforcing the fundamentals. You have to adapt your plan if circumstances change. The list goes on and on and on. When I deployed to Iraq as a SEAL combat leader, I continuously operated with these fundamental principles in my head,

of Jiu Jitsu. I continue to utilize these principles now in the civilian world as well—as a businessman, a teacher, a father, and a coach. Jiu Jitsu gives me confidence but also humility, strength but also compassion, a disciplined code but also a free and open mind. As Rickson says, Jiu Jitsu is not just a sport; Jiu Jitsu is a philosophy, and it is at the root of everything we do. Jiu Jitsu is a bond that connects people, and I am honored to be connected with Rickson and with many other superb Jiu Jitsu practitioners around the world. It is an honor for me to be asked to write the foreword to this book, not only because of what Rickson taught me about Jiu Jitsu, but also because of what Rickson and Jiu Jitsu taught me about life. This book furthers those lessons and reminds us of their staying power. Overcoming fear. Dealing with loss. Courage. Meaning. Strength. Honor. Pride. Forgiveness. The warrior way. Enjoy this book. Learn from it. And go train Jiu Jitsu. But most of all: Thank you, Rickson, for what you have done for Jiu Jitsu, for the world, and for me. I will do my best to continue to represent this warrior tradition with honor.

COME FROM A LONG LINE OF PROUD AND PUGNACIOUS PEOPLE that I can trace back to Scotland, home of one of the world’s great warrior cultures. The Romans invaded Scotland (Caledonia) several times in the first three centuries AD, but the fiercely independent clans fought back with a fury that impressed even the mighty legions. When there were no Romans or British left to fight, the clans fought each other. Their leaders were willing to lead from the front and die in the face of overwhelming odds and certain defeat.

child, a doctor told him not to exercise because of his vertigo. My dad used to say, “I was born weak, I’ll die weak. I pass for strong because of Jiu Jitsu.” Because Hélio did not have the option of using power, he had to rely on leverage, sensitivity, and timing to compensate for his lack of strength.

Gracie was to Jiu Jitsu what Albert Einstein was to physics. He greatly improved

do the same for others. He used to say that he used Jiu Jitsu to turn chickens into stallions.

He almost always wore white linen, walked around barefoot, and claimed that he had a direct, personal relationship with a benevolent spirit who gave him extrasensory perception (ESP). He often rose before dawn to meditate under the sun’s first rays, and he sunbathed naked because he believed doing so would help him sire strong children. My uncle talked about biorhythms, nutrition, digestion, food combining, but rarely traditional religion. He believed that the letters R, K, and C were powerful ones, which is why so many

My dad believed that if your mind and will are not strong, you’ll spend your entire life getting carried away by your desires and weaknesses.

You’ll spend your whole life paying for things you don’t want.

sometimes it’s not about escaping but about finding whatever comfort you can in hell. Something

The sea has always been a great normalizer for me. If I’m tense and I go into the ocean, I come out relaxed. If I’m lazy and tired and I go in, I come away energized. The ocean either gives me the extra energy that I need or takes away the excess energy that I don’t. Rivers and waterfalls do similar things for me. When I was a kid, I liked to stay in the ocean until I was freezing cold, then go on the beach and roll in the hot sand to warm up. First I rode inflatable surf mats, then Styrofoam boards, and eventually moved up to real surfboards.

The lack of pressure, ironically, made me feel more grounded.

Surfers liked marijuana and hallucinogens like magic mushrooms. We used to go to the cow pastures to pick the golden mushrooms that grew in the cow shit. We would eat the foul-tasting fungus with lime and then go to the beach, paddle out into the surf, and wait for the trip to start. I remember one day when the waves were small but perfect. As the mushrooms came on, I felt like I could see the atoms in the water. Then I felt like an amphibious creature who could stay underwater for as long as I wanted. After I got out of the sea, I walked to a rocky area and my feet felt like part of the rock. I stayed planted there for hours. This experience forced me to look outside of myself and to marvel at the beauty of the natural world.

pauper’s

If I were to be the greatest Gracie, I had to take risks. Even though I experimented with different drugs and potentially dangerous lifestyles, I valued my freedom above all. I never wanted to be controlled by anything, especially a drug. I also realized that I had a God-given talent for Jiu Jitsu, and with this came the honor and responsibility to represent my family. This always brought me back to a place of equilibrium. It was always fun to leave reality for a night, but no matter what, I was back in the academy training the next day. I never knew who might walk through the door and challenge me, and becoming the greatest Gracie was more important to me than anything else.

Curiosity coupled with courage allows you to go beyond your limits, venture into the unknown, and establish new limits that you never thought were possible. My curiosity always overpowered my fear, but

fear was also a good friend to me. People who say they are not afraid of anything are either crazy or stupid. Fear is a normal emotion that protects you, but sometimes you don’t need protection. There are times when you have to place fear on the shelf and take action without a moment’s hesitation. One such time occurred one...

I was proud of myself because I had used my brain and my endurance to save my own life. Winning fights, riding wild horses, or taming vicious dogs—none of it compared to this. That swim was by far the most terrifying

experience of my life, because nature was working against me. Luck did not get me back to shore: I faced down primal fear and prevailed. The next day, I made myself go back to Saquarema, paddle out, and catch a few waves.

I eventually learned that the capacity to accept anything, especially death, was the key to my physical, mental, and spiritual growth. All three of these elements must be balanced, because sometimes you don’t break physically but emotionally. Sometimes you have the...

connection to both life and death, you can’t reach the next level of performance. Soon I would realize that if I were to dance on the razor’s edge, I might fall off it and die. That was the price of admission. By the time I was a brown belt, my matches with my brother Rolls were getting closer. I was beginning to understand the li...

by ego and anger, and I was working against myself because my emotions were negating all of my precision and my martial artistry.

“No! He’s in much worse shape than you, you’re going to kick his ass!” We started arguing and then Rolls dumped a bucket full of ice and water on my head. That shocked me back to my senses, and as I was gasping for breath, the bell rang.

This fight exposed me to the most primal kind of fear that comes from within. My insecure state of mind came from the fear of losing. If you fear something that has not even happened, then quitting becomes a form of self-protection. Fear is not the enemy; it’s simply a self-protection mechanism that must be managed.

At one point, I almost felt that I could fly. All of my movements, whether standing, climbing, or on the ground, were flowing, and my transitions were seamless. I was completely unconscious. When I came back to my senses, I was on the highest rung on the ladder, dripping with sweat. I looked around and saw Orlando Cani in the corner crying. I asked my teacher what was going on. He said, “I have nothing left to teach you.” I asked him how he could say that, and he said, “I’ve been watching you for the last hour and ten minutes. I called to you a few times, and you didn’t hear me; you kept moving. You were in a total meditative state; your brain and consciousness were completely turned off.” It was an emotional moment for both of us.

Whenever I entered this empty-mind state, I could neither hear nor talk and was not conscious of my movements. Not only did my mind go blank, but afterward I felt as if my brain had been cleaned and reset. This gave me the ability to retreat from my own consciousness and come back stronger. I noticed the effects immediately. I was able to focus with absolute clarity and my senses grew sharper, as did my awareness of my body and surroundings. By far the most important thing that Orlando Cani taught me was how to control my breathing.

You can go weeks without food and days without water, but five minutes without air and you’re dead. Think about that for a minute. These breathing techniques would become especially important in the coming years, because they made it much easier for me to gauge and control fear, adrenaline, panic, and claustrophobia. For example, if I want to control my adrenaline ...

Orlando Cani taught me how to empty my mind and use intuition instead of my brain. After training with him, my perception improved to the point where I could shake someone’s hand and instantly determine if he was friend or foe, relaxed or tense, happy or sad, confident or insecure. This gave me a huge advantage in the ring. When I fought, I was neither emotional nor intellectual. I never thought about strategy; I just allowed myself to connect with my opponent on a profound level.

Second, I learned the importance of unquestioning obedience. The number-two man never questions the number-one man, no matter how wrong he is. To me, following someone who you knew was wrong was beyond reason or honor; it was just blind obedience. This also made me reevaluate my view of the samurai. According

Just like our Scottish ancestors, Gracie clan leaders were beginning to feud.

Sometimes a small, soft-looking guy was the true warrior because he was resilient and brave in both victory and defeat. The coward was fine when he was kicking ass, but as soon as he got in a bad position, he would be the first to exclaim, “Stop! I’m hurt! Stop! I’m tired! Stop! I’m old!” It was easy to read the mind of a coward, even if they are naturally aggressive.

it. As Gracies, we were taught that there was no shame in being nervous or afraid; what mattered was what you did in the face of fear. The more I knew about my students’ strengths and weaknesses, the more I could teach them. It was better to learn these hard and sometimes humbling lessons behind closed doors, among friends, than out on the street.

I told him that winning was OK, losing was OK, and dying was OK.

Without them, fighters would break their hands hitting someone in the head over and over, thus mitigating the potential for repeat blows.

but I got to a point where I was ready to surrender and die. If you can control your breathing, you can get past this point to where the cold disappears and the pain turns to pleasure.

I bowed to the crowd on the four sides of the ring but did not smile. The samurai did not celebrate victories, and neither would I. Why celebrate a victory? Your next fight might be your last. Battles are not parties. Win or lose, fights are sacred to me. When the ring announcer thrust the microphone into my face, I made sure to thank him first in Japanese, and then I told the crowd that I was honored to win in Japan, the home of the samurai and the place where Jiu Jitsu originated. The Japanese understood my attitude and code of honor perfectly. Not only had a martial art, taught to my family by one of Japan’s greatest fighters, come home, but I had also showed them that the Bushido code had not been lost on the Gracie family.

After I learned to empty my mind, I had the confidence to be humble, and humility played a big role in my progress.

washoku,

MMA is a game; vale tudo is a war.

was afraid that something bad was going to happen to him because his lack of concern for his physical safety had only gotten worse. During a Calvin Klein modeling job, he jumped from the roof of the house where they were shooting into the swimming pool and nearly killed himself. Another time, he wanted to get into a party that he was not invited to, so he took off his shirt, walked up to the giant bouncer,

With kids, you have to accept the fact that you are not in control of their outcomes. You plant the seeds and nurture them as best you can, but at a certain point, you have to let go. No matter how much knowledge, love, money, or advice you give them, they will fly once their own wings are strong enough. Then they will chart their own courses through

A father must accept his children for who they are, not who he would like them to be.

ichi-go ichi-e, which roughly translates to “once in a lifetime.” It could refer to a gathering of friends, a special meal, an epic day of surf, but the idea is to savor that occasion, because it will never come again. I share this view and believe that if you see every moment in life as a unique opportunity, you live with much more intensity and precision because you are using 100 percent of your energy, your voice, and your senses. It is always important to remember that. For example, if I were driving to the airport to fly to Japan and my daughter Kauan called and said, “Dad! I need to talk to you!” the old Rickson would have said, “Honey, I’ll call you once I land in Japan.” Today, I would pull over, park the car, and give her as much time as she needed. What if I miss the plane? Fuck the plane! There is always another flight, but I don’t want to ever regret not taking my daughter’s call.