I have been listening to The Fightworks Podcast for several months now. I have mentioned this in the past on this blog and I highly recommend the podcast to any Jiu Jitsu practitioner. This past episode interviewed Rener Gracie. He was talking about the path his school has taken in regards to teaching pure Gracie Jiu Jitsu. He had some great points when talking about their philosophy. They believe teaching self defense comes first, gold medals and competitions come later. They come under fire sometimes because of their lack of representation in the competition circuit. I have asked myself the question of what is “pure Gracie Jiu Jitsu” compared to the style I train? Rener answered this question by stating if you have the mind set, “if I do not allow myself to lose I will eventually win.” Helio was the master of defense, he could fight for hours before submitting his opponents. This is what Rener was talking about with pure Gracie Jiu Jitsu, no time limits, no rules. Their Jiu Jitsu is based around this and not time limits of competition. I can’t help, but say this all sounds great on the surface, but I feel like I’m being sold something. Rener is very passionate about Jiu Jitsu and that certainly comes through, but it sounded like he was selling a used car to someone. I think sometimes the Gracie’s take a lot of flak for the way some of them have sold Jiu Jitsu to America. I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts on this. I recommend listening to the interview before weighing in. So how do you feel about either training “pure Gracie Jiu Jitsu” or training just plain Brazilian Jiu Jitsu?