Before we go any further, let me say that I have enormous respect for all the Gracies and believe their system is well worth studying, both for its practical usefulness and its enjoyability.
In a paradoxical way, the Gracies were able to dominate in the early days of mixed martial arts competition because traditional fighters so overestimated their opponents. I'll explain.
Many great fighters will tell you that the toughest opponents aren't necessarily those that are the most skilled and the most highly trained. Instead, it often is those that are untrained who pose the most problems. Untrained fighters move awkwardly due to their inexperience; this makes their attacks harder to predict. They will often do things that are entirely contrary to what a skilled fighter "knows" would never work. Yet, precisely because a good fighter "knows" that certain tactics are stupid - he becomes vulnerable to them. When such an attack is thrown at him, he freezes in disbelief, and he gets hit as a result.
The Vikings were versed in this philosophy. When the battle looked hopeless, they believed that the best thing to do was the stupidest tactic they could imagine - the one thing their opponents couldn't believe they'd be stupid enough to try. And that would often save the day.
Now, I'm not saying that the Gracies are stupid, unskilled or untrained - far from it. But their strategy of taking the match to the ground was so contrary to long-established common sense that traditional martial artists found themselves unprepared to deal with the tactic. Even wrestlers, accustomed to groundfighting, were taken aback by the Gracies' emphasis on submissions and willingness to stay on their backs; wrestlers know about submissions, but tend to stress the pin. Thus, the Gracies' opponents defeated themselves by being surprised at unconventional tournament tactics and making mistakes as a result. In short, the Gracies won all the time in those days because their opponents were simply ignorant about what to do when the "stay on your feet" rule was broken.
Eventually, however, wrestlers and their standup counterparts began to succeed against BJJ practitioners in tournaments. It's a fairly simple explanation: they studied the Gracie game and developed ways to counter it.
Addressing Gracie claims
"Ninety percent of all fights go to the ground" Ask anyone who constantly has to engage in hand-to-hand combat or lives with violence whether this statement is true. I guarantee that the answer will be "no." Cops, soldiers, military operatives, and even bouncers rarely find themselves grappling on their backs in their line of work. This is not to say they don't think it's a useful thing to know, but it's generally not the main way their fights take place.
