Marcelo Garcia and Fabio Gurgel

I have the honor of shooting world jiu jitsu champion Marcelo Garcia on a regular basis.  It’s a cliche to say someone is humble.  I know.  But Marcelo really is super humble.  At many martial arts schools the teacher is elevated above the students.  He has a special title like Sensei and he isn’t someone you playfully tease the way you would the regular students. 

At Marcelo’s academy however, there is no bowing and no special titles.  If you walked in at the end of class you wouldn’t be able to tell which person is Marcelo because he’ll be sitting on the mat, mixed in with the other students, discussing what techniques worked in the rolling (sparring) today and which ones did not.  

A lot of people train with Marcelo because he is the world champion and he has a wealth of knowledge about jiu jitsu.  For me however, that isn’t the most important thing.  I train with Marcelo because he’s a cool person who is fun to be around.