Back in the 1970s, not many people knew about the martial art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu outside of its native Brazil. In fact, even within Brazil, BJJ was still pretty obscure outside of the Gracie family. With this in mind, the year 1978 is very significant in the history and development of BJJ. This is because it marks the year when Rorion Gracie founded the infamous Gracie Garage. This was technically the first-ever BJJ gym in the USA and has now gone on to gain cult status. So, what happened?
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Rorion Gracie moves to the USA and opens a garage gym
Rorion Gracie wanted to spread BJJ to the USA and during the late 70s, he moved to California. However, at this time, most martial arts gyms in the USA were based on striking and had traditional values. As a result, Rorion couldn’t find any dojos or gyms to teach BJJ from.
As a result, he decided to teach out of his rented home for the short term, which led to the birth of the Gracie Garage. Under his property was a two car garage, which could barely hold more than five people. This would go on to become the Gracie Garage, which was literally a garage with a few padded mats on the ground. Back then, people would train wearing the gi and Rorion enticed customers by offering them one free private lesson.
By the 80s Rorions brother Royce joined him in California and taught alongside him at his garage. At this point, Rorion had over 100 members, and needing more space, he went on to build his own gym which had a lot more space. As they say, the rest is history. After this, the Gracie Garage was left behind to history and aside from a few photographs circulating the internet and the odd story, it has been forgotten by many of the newer BJJ practitioners.
The Gracie Garage concept lives on
Having said this, the concept of the Gracie Garage lives on and is still alive today. For instance, one of the original US black belts, Chris Haueter teaches out of his own garage which effectively acts as a gym. Not only this but during the 2020 pandemic lockdown, many practitioners around the world resorted to training in bubbles of friends in garages, and similar small locations that were local to their houses. This shows that you don’t need a fancy gym to train BJJ and that the concept of the Gracie Garage lives on!
Interestingly, there are other Gracie Garages that are still active and dotted around the US. These often operate by teaching part of the Gracie University curriculum which often involves fundamental, old-school moves, as well as an emphasis on self-defense over sports BJJ.
Therefore, if you drop into one, you can expect a certain taste of BJJ which may be different from modern gyms. Regardless, even if you only train at a garage as a one-off, the experience will be pretty unusual and unique for sure. Still, due to the small physical nature of garages, you shouldn’t expect a gym that is filled with dozens of people and often these garages involve a handful of friends and aren’t very formal either.
Conclusion
These days, training BJJ in a garage isn’t very common and for most people, it’s a difficult thing to organize. Nonetheless, if you’re desperate enough then it can be made into a possibility. Perhaps more importantly, the original 1978 Gracie Garage also acts as a reminder of how far BJJ has come. Even though it had humble beginnings, it has definitely developed into a multi million dollar industry and shows what you can achieve if you’re willing to work hard at your dreams.
