I remember years ago watching kung-fu movies and marveling about how the monks would dedicate their entire lives to learning a martial art. I remember thinking, “I can’t believe anyone would do that!” That was years ago and well before I took up Gracie (Brazilian) jiu-jitsu. Life was very different then. I lived and played within five miles of my house. Everything I did, from work, surf, haircut, doctor, you name it, had to be within that radius. I prided myself in the fact that I never drove far for anything, my life was set and set the way I liked it within that five-mile radius. Then one fateful day I started jiu-jitsu – and it was love at first choke.

There were so few instructors in America, the nearest academy was 30 miles away, that I immediately broke my five-mile radius rule and drove twice a week to train. After that I started to train with Rickson Gracie 60 miles away in Laguna Nigel, which meant I expanded my driving radius to 60 miles once a week (I’d still go 30 miles twice a week to my regular academy). As soon as I got settled with the new distance, the first UFC occurred and Rickson got too busy and could not drive down to Laguna Nigel and instead taught only at his main academy in West Los Angeles! Now I was driving 120 miles one way in order to learn and train jiu-jitsu. So much for my five-mile radius!

As I got more involved in the art, I began a conditioning program so I could train longer and be more fit in order to spar longer and harder. Then I learned about the Gracie diet and started to experiment with it. Although I did not follow it 100 percent I modified my eating habits and adopted many aspects of the diet to eat healthier, so I could be more alert and train better.

As competitions were few and far between in America and the lure first World BJJ Championships lured me back to Brazil after a 10-year hiatus from my homeland. During my first visit back I got to train in one of the Mecca’s of jiu-jitsu, the Gracie Humaita Academy where Professor Royler Gracie directed the classes under the supervision of his father, Grandmaster Helio himself. Addicted as I was to the art I went back for many years (until Royler moved to the U.S.) to train and learn the latest movies and watch the best-of-the-best compete. My five-mile radius had now expanded to 6000 miles!

Along the way I went to Abu Dhabi to visit a friend that I had met through jiu-jitsu, Sheik Tahnoon Zayed, who created the famous ADCC tournament and had me visit and train and help with the event every year. My radius had now expanded to literally encompass the entire world! Soon I started writing for the ADCC web site, from then on it was Grappling Magazine, Gracie Magazine (Brazil), Fighter Magazine (Sweden) and now Gladiator Magazine. I also started to write numerous instructional books, spending most of my free time either studying the moves or writing about them.

One day I started to show my wife some self-defense techniques so she’d be able to defend herself and survive an attack or rape attempt. We did this once or twice a week and after a short while she started to like it so much that she began to train jiu-jitsu as well. She is now a black belt herself and a fair amount of our conversation revolves around, you guessed it, jiu-jitsu.

Jiu-jitsu has changed my life completely and I cannot imagine what life would be without it. Looking at what I do now, and the dedication that I have to jiu-jitsu, I can understand completely how the monks felt who lived in the Shaolin Temple to learn their art. Now go train jiu-jitsu!

Kid Peligro can be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .