SYR: What have you been up to Rener?

RG: Nothing man just doing it. Just making it happen here at the academy with my brothers. Things are moving. We are getting ready to plan our 3rd annual IGAFF ultimate championship that is coming up in August 13th and 14th. So I been working on that and trying to make it bigger then ever.

SYR: In the third annual any updates?

RG: It’s still early and we have a lot of time. We are going to go to the next big upcoming tournaments and see what kind of guys we want to bring in and right now we have some good sponsors so we are working on getting more sponsors. We are still in the formation stages but we plan on having some good guys for sure.

SYR: How is the academy doing anything new?

RG: The academy is doing fine, things are growing, we just recently about a year or two ago we had the inauguration of the museum we have here we showcase the whole family. It shows illustrator clippings and old artifacts of my Grandfather (Helio Gracie) from way back in the 1930’s of his original fights and how the whole revolution took place. So it’s pretty nice for a lot of the people who have been involved in it and practice it now, some don’t know where it really all came from and it give a chance for people to see what its really all about. Also my grandfather will be here in May 14th -15th my grandfather is giving a seminar here at the academy and its open for everybody so if you want to get a spot in there you should reserve a spot. Call the academy here. But he is having a seminar here on the 14th which is a 6hr seminar and on the 15th he has the book release party for his Gracie Jiu-Jitsu master tech book which is his first and only instructional book he is putting out so he is going to be signing copies of that for everybody as well.

SYR: How much will the seminar cost?

RG: The seminar cost $90 for a 3 hr session or the whole six hours for only $150 bucks and the book is great too and will be available the next following day. The book is sick to its Hardbound, Full-Colored Photos, History of the Gracie Family the whole story, All the techniques of course, and a whole section dedicated to the Gracie diet that explains the food combinations and principles that we followed for so long.

SYR: Do you know if your dad will be promoting any other black belts or will you and Ryron be doing all the promotions from now on?

RG: Ryron and I will be doing the promoting but of course my dad will have the final say because he knows all the students here. But pretty much everyday Ryron and I roll with the students often so we know what they are made of and if anybody gets promoted it will be me or Ryron’s recommendation, then my dad will have the final approval

SYR: Is it true that you had a scholarship to Stanford? Why didn’t you accept?

RG: No, I didn’t have a scholarship but I was wrestling in high school and I did alright. I placed in southern California and I was ranked #4 in the state for quite a while. In terms of wrestling I didn’t even wrestle I just did jiu-jitsu you know and it was funny because I was using my jiu-jitsu techniques for wrestling in a wrestling match and it happened to work out just fine and confused a lot of guys who wrestled me and it got a lot of attention because I beat a lot of good guys and it grabbed the attention from some scouts. I was in contact with Stanford for a while but they never really gave me a scholarship but because I had really good grades in high school they reached out to me. But I decided it would be better for me to be around the academy and to stay here in southern California especially with the academy and the kind of operation we have over here. Being that it’s such a family run business my time was better invested here. Where if I went to school it would be good to get a degree or what not but that good for someone who want to get a career but my career is pretty much carved out it was not completely necessary for me to do that.

SYR: Do you consider Gracie Jiu-Jitsu any different then Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or do they both mean the same thing to you?

RG: No, they are the same thing. Brazilian jiu-jitsu is what the Brazilians call it that don’t want to give credit to the Gracies. Of course my grandfather developed the whole thing from scratch it was all the Gracies then they thought their people and it branched out little by little. All Brazilian jiu-jitsu traces back to the Gracies. So all the people who call it Brazilian jiu-jitsu are the ones who study it that are not Gracies that don’t want to give credit to the Gracies. So they call it Brazilian jiu-jitsu since they are all Brazilians anyways. But it’s all the same thing!

SYR: Who is your favorite Gracie Fighter these days?

RG: I think they are all good bro I mean everybody has so many different paces. A lot guys are so different. I mean some guys are more defensive fighters, some guys have more attack, many different style. For example Ryan Gracie is just an animal where is you have somebody like Royce or Royler are more defensive and just take the opportunity when they can. Depending on who’s fighting and who they are fighting. There is no favorite they are all great. My grandfather also who should be the one who deserves the most credit and I appreciate the most. He is the one who had the biggest challenge because he didn’t have it handed down to him he just learned it developed it from scratch basically and made it what it is today. So everybody else had the easy way of just learning it and changing it to their own little styles and challenging and fighting the rest of the world but basically my grandfather is the one who deserves all the credit.

SYR: Do you plan on fighting in MMA?

RG: Ya that the plan. Ryron is getting ready and pride is coming at him pretty heavily to fight over their in Japan so they are in negotiations for Ryron’s first fight in Japan. I guess we want to think about him potentially fighting here in the UFC also so I’m not to sure what we are going to do 100%

SYR: Under any specific rules?

RG: We might do that. If we were going to fight in one of those organizations, the guys who will be fighting, we don’t want to give them the opportunity, and we want to make sure when the fight ends by someone winning and someone not losing if you know what I mean. We want to make sure that this victory is determined by somebody actually winning rather then somebody being able to not lose the fight. What we mean by that is a lot of guys that are going to fight us knowing what our game is and knowing how were are going to want to fight will fight instead of trying to win the fight will try and fight to let the time run out, decision, victory, draw or a lot of times they can call that a victory. So we want to make sure when we go in there we are not doing it for the sport or money. We are doing it to actually show whose better, the rules are going to limit really who the better fighter is that everybody will decide. So we want to make sure that we modify the rules so the better fighter always wins weather its somebody else or us.

SYR: If you fight MMA will your use your Kimono in the ring?

RG: It depends on who you fight. If you fight another guy who does strictly jiu-jitsu it might not be a good idea because he can use the Gi. But if you fight a guy that is a striker the Gi is not a bad idea because they tend to hold on to it. There are pro’s and con’s it depends who you are fighting though.

SYR: Does the Gi help your Nogi game?

RG: I think wearing the Gi definitely helps me with my Nogi for sure because there are a lot of the things you can do better with the Gi on of course but there is more things you have to worry about. So when you take the Gi off I feel like unbeatable, I feel unbeatable with the Gi but without the Gi it’s like impossible catching me.

SYR: Do you know if there will ever be a Gracie Academy MMA Team?

RG: We have some students now who are fighting and some guys who are coming up and training with us heavily and getting ready to fight for sure.

SYR: Do you train strictly Gracie jiu-jitsu or do you cross train wrestling and kickboxing/boxing?

RG: No we train Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai, Boxing, we do everything.

SYR: A lot of famous people have trained at Gracie Academy Torrance. Can you name a few stars that enjoy jiu-jitsu every now and then?

RG: Ed O’Neil (Purple Belt close to Brown Belt), Michael Clack Duncan (Blue Belt), Rakka from Dilated Pupils, Actor Simon Rex, Tommy Lee, and more.

SYR: Does he plan on splitting off from his dad and starting his own academy, possibly a partnership with you and your two brothers Ryron/Ralek?

RG: We don’t plan on ever splitting up, but we will open are going to open a school in the Beverly Hills area. It will be a smaller place but it will a lot easier for people in that area to get there.

SYR: In the past many doubted the style of Jiu-Jitsu that was being taught at old Gracie Academy? Ryron, Ralek, and You started to compete and silenced a lot of the haters. What do you think peoples biggest mistakes while training jiu-jitsu?

RG: What we have more then anybody is we have more of a solid foundation. When I see a lot of guys out there that are really good that win a lot, do good, crazy, have a lot of wild techniques but they get caught in the bacis moves. Basically I think the difference between us is that we are a little more conservative when we fight but by doing that our game is a lot more consistent. When we fight its pretty much the same result which is we either win by submission or if the fight goes to time the person we are fighting may win by a point or two but I never ever been close to being caught in a submission by anybody. When I win I have only won by points like one or twice in my life and the rest has been by submission. The reason for that is because my basics are so solid even when I fight a lot of black belts even world champions who foundations are really not that solid although they have good sweeps, half-guard, or competition jiu-jitsu when they fight somebody like me who is more focused on the submission aspect of the whole game.

SYR: Have you ever trained with your Uncle Rickson? If so how that is and what do you think about training with Rickson?

RG: I never rolled with Rickson. I would like to roll with him if I get a chance though.

SYR: Do you train specifically at the Torrance academy or do you float around and train w/ other family schools in the U.S. or Brazil (Rickson, Ralph, Cesar, Carlos Jr., Carlson, etc.)?

RG: If I’m in the area I’ll check out the other schools but no we have a big operation that take up a lot of our attention here so we don’t really have time to go every where else. But I’m more then open then when I’m in town to train with the other schools.

SYR: When in Brazil where do you train?

RG: I train with Royler (Gracie Humaita), Carlos Gracie Jr. (Gracie Barra), and my grandfather Helio Gracie. I train a lot with my grandfather at his ranch. He still trains me a lot. Whenever I can, train all over the place.

SYR: Where do you see Jiu-Jitsu in the U.S in the next 10 years?

RG: I think its growing tremendously and it’s going to be more mainstream with the popularity of the UFC and the popularity of NHB style fighting and people know the root of NHB fighting is jiu-jitsu.

SYR: How is your back after surgery? What type of surgery did you have on your back? How serious a problem was it? How long was he out of the game and how does it feel now? How long will you be back 100%?

RG: About a year ago exactly. No it was serious when it happen but know I feel perfect and better then I was before so now a good to go. I’m 100%

SYR: Do you ever plan on competing in ADCC?

RG: We could do that. This year since I’m coming of the injury I have only been training for the last 4 or 5 months ago so I have not been training as much as I should be but yah I’m getting back in the mix. But sure I would not be against it. One of these days I would like to be in there.

SYR: Would Rener be interested in fighting Marc Laimon to avenge his brother’s loss?

RG: I can fight him but he has to promise he’s going to fight and not run. I don’t want to go there and do a track meet with him running from me the whole time

SYR: Anybody out there that you would love to match up against on the mat?

RG: No. There are so many guys that are good and any guys that are good I would like to roll with them just to see what it’s like and feel different guys rolling. I fought a lot of guys that I though were good and I rolled with them and they really were as good as I thought they were and they were just hyped up to be more then what they are because I roll with them and I see their foundation and their technique is pretty much one dimensional and their whole game is not very complete. A lot of guys are limited potential because they train so specifically for competition and when it comes down to it and they come here to the academy and they roll in a no competition environment that really can’t close a lot of deals. I don’t know bro I just like to roll with guys who like to fight and go for the kill, Guys that want to win the fight instead of get a couple points and stalling.

SYR: What are some of the common pro’s and con’s being raised with the Gracie last name?

RG: Good Question. There is so many and they are all good. You make friends and you have the opportunity to teach so many people in your life its ridiculous and the best is being able to help so many people. So many people come to you, respect, learn, and appreciate you so much handing them something that was just giving to you. I was like 13 years old teaching class 45 year old doctors and lawyers and stuff and they are loving me thinking I’m amazing and I’m just teaching them the stuff that was handed down to me my family and my grandfather, father, and my Uncles. It’s just to be good to be taught something at such an early age and be so perfciant at something at such a young in my life. I’m 21 years old and I have been training for 23 years and it’s great.

There are not really any bad things its all about how you make it. If you force up against someone who puts you under pressure then pressure can be good. It will inspire you to take you to the top. It’s all on how you look at it.

SYR: What are some of the other things you enjoy besides training jiu-jitsu?

RG: Jiu-Jitsu, I like to go to the beach swim and body surf. I like to sleep a lot. I eat a lot.

SYR: If you could change one thing about the grappling community today what would you change and why?

RG: I would change the rules for all the tournaments. I would change all competition rules to our rules. Therefore the people are that much more encourage chasing after the victory instead of scoring the points and stalling which is ruining jiu-jitsu today.

SYR: What do you think it takes to take Jiu-Jitsu to the mainstream like Kung-Fu and Taekwondo?

RG: Organization! We need help from more the American people to be more organized so it can be unified and a set of rules whatever it may be and with that and the organization of the tournaments and the weight classes and everything once it gets in order. It’s going to go to the top for sure because people like it, its growing faster then other martial art, and it has the potential to bigger then all of them for sure. But there is no organization so until then we are going to be on hold.

SYR: Anything you would like to ad to the interview?

RG: Check our website it is www.gracieacademy.com, for tournament those of you who want to compete its going to be august 13th to 14th and there will be early registration to save you a couple of bucks. You can go to www.igjjf.com and go check it out and register online. We got a lot of good sponsor’s Samabazon, Tapout, Ultra dot media and the rest of the sponsors on the site. My grandfathers book signing and seminar is going to be a blast for those of you who are interested register early call the academy (310)782-1309 and register for the seminar w/ my grandfather may 14th and the book release party will be the next day at 5pm. Get your book or bring your book and get it signed by the Grand Master.