Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a grappling martial art that was developed by Carlos and Helio Gracie of Brazil during the early 1900's after Carlos initially learned Judo and other grappling techniques from Mitsuyo Maeda.  Carlos and Helio eventually further developed the techniques that his brother practiced so that a person could be less physically imposing and still defend themselves in a fight. Jiu Jitsu became famous for it's effectiveness in both self defense situations as well as vale tudo, or no-holds-barred, fighting competition.  Brazilian Jiu Jitsu incorporates many different techniques such as chokes, joint locks, sweeps and throws to build a complete fighting system that gives a practitioner the ability to win the fight against a bigger, faster, stronger attacker.  With the increasing popularity of Mixed Martial Arts in the past three decades, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu has grown in popularity into one of the most wide spread and fastest growing martial arts in the world and is consistently shown to be the most effective single martial art available today.

The Lineage of the technique that is available at Wyo Faction today can be directly traced to the roots of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu through Professor David Ruiz, founder of Colorado Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, whom had the privilege of learning and training directly under Grandmaster Helio Gracie as well as Master Rigan Machado, to his student Professor Robert Wunderlich, founder of the Wyoming Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation and the Academy of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Arvada, and finally to his student, Professor David Wenig, whom now brings Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to Rock Springs.