Breathe: A Life in Flow

Product Information

To get a personal "road map" into his family's history and the history of the development of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu (and thus Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu). Even those who are not into the sport will come to appreciate the level of candour displayed by the author and the lessons jiu-Jitsu provides for all. I didn’t know anything about Rickson before reading this book, probably because I was 7 years old when he fought his last match. Recently I've been delving into combat sports for the first time since middle school (wrestling) and I've started to take Muay Thai classes at a Gracie Jiu Jitsu place. The book also explores some of the fissures in the Gracie clan and how they grew under the pressure of the family’s mammoth success.

Jiu-Jitsu, the fighting style developed and pioneered by his family, has become one of the world’s most prominent martial arts, and Vale Tudo, the “anything goes” style of Brazilian street fighting over which the Gracies had a monopoly, was an early precursor to the Ultimate Fighting Championship. I would love to learn more stories and insights on how what and how Rickson built that dedication when things looked difficult. The best memoirs provide both a narrative of one's life, and some re-examination and contemplation, but this mainly just focuses on the former. It's been a while since I've read a book about either Brazilian jiu-jitsu or mixed martial arts, so I enjoyed reading this one.

Article about Strategic Legalism as defined in Peter's book, Law and War: An American Story: http://smallwarsjournal. Peter Maguire is the author of Thai Stick: Surfers, Scammers, and the Untold Story of the Marijuana Trade, Law and War, and Facing Death in Cambodia.

Jiu-jitsu involves extreme physical intimacy and poses extreme risks—we have to trust our training partners to respect the tap and other boundaries. The self censorship is pretty obvious if you have any knowledge of the Gracies/jiu jitsu/UFC/MMA/Pride.What is striking about this book is the in-depth examination of the art of jiu-jitsu and its importance outside of the ring to personal development. Frankly, the book lacks depth in MANY places: starting with the origins of Gracie JJ (aka BJJ) - there's surprisingly little on how Helio and Carlos have developed the style, why they did it, what they have struggled with, etc. As Gracies, we were all taught the protocols on fighting, diet, and training, but it was our decision to follow them or not. If you’re interested in martial arts, it’s a no-brainer for one’s reading list, but any reader who enjoys a memoir of a life intensely lived will find the book highly readable. Most of the well known sordid bits of his past are glossed over and not gone into detail much, if at all.