Fighting Foundations Curriculum
12th December 2018
By Christopher Charalambous
Fighting foundations, The beginning
As far back as I can remember, Valente Brothers called their beginners class Valente Brothers’ Fundamentals. This curriculum isn’t just for novices but for all practitioners, no matter the rank. When joining their school, Fundamentals is where novice students would begin, this is the reason people tend to think of this class as a beginners class.
Truth be told, Fundamentals is supposed to mean, the essential techniques needed for a street fight type of scenario. Each technique taught are Grand Master Hélio Gracie’s essential techniques. All three Valente Brothers, Pedro, Gui & Joaquim Valente are dedicated to preserving Hélio Gracie’s style of Jiu jitsu and to teach the same way as in 1952 at the original Academia Gracie, founded by Carlos Gracie.
The book of Hélio Gracie Jiu-jitsu
If you have on your bookshelf, Gracie Jiu-jitsu by Helio Gracie, (You shouldn’t pay more than $70 or £80 for this book, don’t get ripped off), you will find most of these techniques taught in the fundamentals at Valente Brothers. Rorion Gracie is the one responsible for creating Hélio Gracie’s book, photographed by Thomas De Soto.
It’s clear as daylight that Grand Master Hélio Gracie wanted to keep Jiu-jitsu as a self-defence system, as taught to him by Carlos Gracie. The first part of the book is history, and then onto the essentials, each instructor should need to teach Jiu-jitsu. Then we move onto the techniques, here’s a list in order:
Standing attacks from, face to face. (throwing skills, striking skills, Grappling)
Standing attacks from behind.
Attacked with a weapon (Gun, Bat, Knife, Chair)
The Mount (top & bottom)
The Guard (top & bottom)
Side Control (top & bottom)
Back mount (top & bottom)
You can study Hélio’s book yourself, and you will find a complete system of self-defence. If you have any doubt about Valente Brothers and their knowledge of Jiu jitsu, Hélio, in clear writing, recommends training with the Valente Brothers and other members of the family.
Jiu jitsu goes way back, you can find wall drawings in ancient Egypt of fighting techniques, such as throwing techniques and grappling. Humans have been fighting since the beginning of civilization, so it would make sense that people would need skills to defend themselves.
Hélio Gracie’s curriculum
For those that don’t know, Hélio Gracie didn’t believe self-defence could be taught in a group class curriculum. In fact, you could only learn the self-defence system by taking one to one tuition. Group classes were for sparring at the original Academia Gracie, Why? Giving students the responsibility of attacking didn’t seem effective, until Pedro Valente put forth a curriculum that he developed, based on Hélio’s 40 class private tuition.
Hélio gave permission to test this system at Valente brothers headquarters, Hélio would inspect students to see the results! Around three months later, Hélio paid a visit to Valente Brothers (He only visited 3 schools in the world) and tested students that only learned the group class curriculum. The results were amazing, Hélio gave the go ahead and self-defence Jiu jitsu in a group class system was born. These days, many famous schools have adopted this system based on the original fundamentals.
The Samurai, ancient history
The average human body only bends & moves so many ways, so if you look hard enough, you will find that jiu jitsu is extremely old. The Samurai used Jiu jitsu (Jujutsu is the correct spelling in Japanese terminology) to defend themselves when disarmed. Samurai warriors became outlawed after Emperor Meiji abolished them, in fact, he ordered them to be hunted down and disarmed. The ones that rebelled (Satsuma Rebellion) were killed.
The ones that survived were the ones responsible for spreading Jiu jitsu around the world. (Order 66 Star Wars, Emperor Palpatine ” The remaining Jedi will be hunted down & defeated”, you will find this story has been told many times in fiction).
Fighting Foundations Curriculum By Valente Brothers
When was the exact date when the Fundamentals Curriculum changed its name? To tell you the truth, I’m not sure, but I believe the year is 2016. In September 2017, I think, Valente Brothers moved to their new facilities and a new chapter began in their history.
What I can tell you that I have been working closely with Valente Brothers since 2010. This gives me almost nine years of Valente brothers studying. This makes me a prime candidate to teach the Fighting Foundations curriculum because of my loyalty and dedication.
Teaching 14 hours a day
Our head instructor spends all day teaching group and private classes using the Fighting Foundations system of self-defence, therefore, has the knowledge to teach and improve our students. Christopher Charalambous is a full-time teacher of Jiu-jitsu, starting his day with private classes from 7.30 am onwards, finishing at 10 pm. His passion for Jiu-jitsu like no other. To him, an hour off the mats is a wasted hour of education.
As a result, our instructor’s teaching methods are of the highest standards due to the articulate methods of this system. Jiu-jitsu is now easier to learn, no matter your age, or ability. I personally know a black belt that’s almost eighty years old, what an accomplishment. Grand Master Hélio Gracie passed on this style of teaching to the brothers and others that dedicated many years to Jiu-jitsu.
Grand Master Hélio Gracie Professors
I’m not sure of the exact number of black belts given, but we think the number is around 27. This is due to the difficulty and requirements needed to pass. Chesterfield Jiu jitsu are lucky to have 3 professors of Hélio Gracie as our mentors.
Fighting foundations curriculum around the world
There are only two schools that teach Valente Brothers’ curriculum in Europe, Eric in Weesp, Amsterdam, and Sheffield Self-Defence. If you would like to book an evaluation class in Sheffield or at our location in Chesterfield, here is a link below:
Watch Sheffield Jiu jitsu in action
