The Valente brothers.
The Valente brothers are true guardians of the gentle art the way it was created, having drunk from the purest of fountains with lessons from the grandmasters Helio Gracie and Pedro Valente.
Heirs of the legacy, brothers Joaquim, Pedro and Guilherme Valente recently built a sophisticated building in Miami, one hundred percent planned around optimizing the teaching of BJJ. Ample, air-conditioned environments; modern design; big screens with video demonstrations; lessons taught with wireless microphones; self-defense simulations with realistic scenarios; organization and methodology developed under the influence of what is practiced across the best universities of the country.
“It’s incredible how the essence of jiu-jitsu continues to be current,” the brothers tell Graciemag. “The secret remains the same: the use of the opponent’s force against them. Jiu-jitsu means flexible, gentle art. Smoothness and flexibility in the adaptation of the body and its movements in response to any type of situation, whether physical or emotional. The grandmasters Carlos and Helio lived for the perfecting of the techniques of anticipation, reaction, defense and counter-attack. Even the attack is a reaction, because it must only occur when there is some room, an opportunity for its efficient execution.”
For a practical example, the brothers recorded a video focusing on self-defense where they illustrate some of the most common attacks in real-life combat scenarios. Note how all of the force used comes from the aggressor, with levers used to perform the counter-attacks:
Want to go really deep into self-defense? Just a tiny sample of Rickson Gracie’s course, Self.Defense.Unit:
