Classic Jiu-Jitsu: Jean Jacques Machado

By Riccardo Ammendolia

After the Gracie family made their name in Vale Tudo competition, their cousins the Machado Bros, also followed suit by coming to the United States. 

To showcase their family's style of the art the five brothers sought out grappling competitions rather than fighting. 

In a family of high-level black belts it was tough to stand out as the most technical. Jean Jacques Machado did just that. 

Jean Jacques' game was simple: ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK! 

Most of the time it started with a guard pull, but from then on it would be an onslaught of attacks. 

Jean Jacques' chained together sweeps and submission attacks in a style that jiu-jitsu had not seen before.

The winner of countless competitions in Brazil, what most grapplers remember Jean Jacques for would definitely be his performances at the early ADCC World Championships. 

In 1999 he won the gold medal and was silver medalist in 2000 & 2001, only losing by the slightest of margins and never getting submitted. 

Jean Jacques' performances at ADCC would see him utilize the first half of the match with no points to continually hunt for submission.   

His style of over hooking and underhooking arms to attack while on the bottom came from his Amniotic Band Syndrome, which left him without fingers on his left hand.  

Instead of relying on collar or sleeve grips, he used his arms to hug and control. The years of playing these grips in the gi gave him a distinct advantage over most other competitors who needed to adjust their games for the lack of control no-gi offered. 

Jean Jacques' signature submissions were the triangle choke and armlock, which he would either set up from butterfly guard or event from mount. 

Most of his combinations came from a side to side sweep to submission attack. Sweep to the left– if they defend, attack the right. This proved very effective even at the highest levels and against the elite of ADCC. 

Machado would go on to train another ADCC stand out in Eddie Bravo, contributing to a revolution in the sport of grappling. 

Now a coral belt, this great technician teaches in Los Angeles where he still works to develop jiu-jitsu.