Who is Ralph Gracie?
A few words for the youngsters — or, how to describe a character
Last week we launched a pre-sale of the course “BJJ’s 25 most brutal submissions”, by Ralph Gracie.
Ralph is not precisely the most media-friendly teacher in the world. He was one of the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu pioneers in North California, his school in San Francisco has hundreds of students, and on his prime, he was a fierce and intense fighter, but he mostly stays away from the spotlights, rarely doing interviews and going to tournaments.
It’s natural that new BJJ practitioners don’t put in perspective whose the guy also known as Pitbull.
Therefore I took advantage of a technique borrowed from writer Malcolm Gladwell to describe Ralph on the e-mail letter we sent to Gallerr customers:
Use other people to portray a character.
My job, which was tough, immediately became very simple:
“Do you know any other Gracie?”
“Do you know Ryan?
“Do you know Renzo?”
“Well, you would prefer to fight all of them above but Ralph.”
The course “BJJ’s 25 most brutal submissions” by Ralph Gracie can be reached here.
