🥋 French Grappling Comes of Age: Luta Livre, Mendes School, CFJJB… and the End of the “Easy High-Level” Myth

In the latest episode of the On the Road podcast, Wilfried Sam brings together two major figures of Brazilian jiu-jitsu in France:
👉 Nicolas Renier, Luta Livre pioneer, multiple ADCC qualifier, historic no-gi technician, NRFight club.
👉 Vincent Guyen, instructor, referee and CFJJB trainer, who went through Urban Team before moving to the United States to train at the Mendes Brothers’ Art of Jiu-Jitsu when it first opened.

A rare, frank and rich discussion that tells the story of how French grappling went from passionate DIY to genuine willingness to structure itself.

🎧 Listen to the full episode (2h – Part 1/2)

1. A Conversation You Almost Never See in France

French jiu-jitsu is often seen as divided into two worlds:

• the Luta Livre culture, no-gi, forged the old-fashioned way;
• and the CFJJB generation, coming from structured BJJ, with diplomas, refereeing, and federal supervision.

Under Wilfried Sam‘s microphone, these two visions finally talk to each other without filters.

The result: a lucid snapshot of French grappling in 2025.

2. “I Had a Knot in My Stomach Before Going to Class”

Vincent Guyen: Urban Team, 2008 – Baptism by Fire

At 19, Vincent walks through the door of Urban Team in Fontenay-sous-Bois.

No combat sports background, but an immediate shock: intense sparring, body wrecked the next day, testosterone-filled atmosphere.

“I came to class with a knot in my stomach.”

But instead of running away, he stays. And most importantly: he discovers his calling. Very early on, almost from the start, he already sees himself teaching.

This pedagogical instinct will never leave him — from California to CFJJB.

Nicolas Renier: 12 Years Old, No-Gi Love at First Sight

Nicolas discovers Luta Livre at 12, through Flavio Santiago, at a time when the gi dominated everything.

He describes two worlds:

• on one side, “self-defense” classes, rigid, highly codified, always the same scenarios;
• on the other, Luta Livre: alive, rhythmic, creative, each class different, music, energy, direct submission.

“At 12, you want to learn to submit, not repeat a collar grab for a year.”

This shift will lay the foundation for a French grappling culture that isn’t just “BJJ without the jacket.”

3. When France Was Relevant at ADCC

Why did the Luta Livre generation (Renier, Husson, Broche, etc.) break through?

• Because they trained no-gi every day, with ADCC rules in mind, and genuine international ambitions.
• Meanwhile, most people in France were mainly doing gi BJJ… then “taking off the jacket” once or twice a week before a no-gi competition.
• They had direct access to technical details from Brazil, at a time when these details circulated very little.

Vincent: “We’re the last generation that could compete at the highest level… without actually being at the highest level.”

Nicolas also talks about the pioneer’s loneliness: no dedicated coach, few calibrated partners, no dedicated staff.

After his second ADCC participation, he literally finds himself alone on the mat: no more academy, no more structured coaching.

“I thought I was close to the top. In reality, I was light-years away. But I did what I could with what was available in France.”

This passage marks the end of an era: when you could “go to ADCC DIY-style.”

The level has changed. The requirements have changed. France too.

4. California 2012: Before AOJ Became an Empire

A few years later, Vincent goes to work for Venum and moves to California, minutes away from the brand-new Mendes Brothers academy: Art of Jiu-Jitsu (AOJ).

AOJ has just opened. Classes are held with ten students, not 150. Access is total.

“Today, if you go to AOJ, you’ll never experience that.”

He talks about the legendary Friday nights: entire technical Q&A sessions with Rafael Mendes, for over an hour. You come, ask whatever you want, leave with personalized solutions.

He also describes the two brothers:

• Rafael Mendes: the instinctive genius. Explosive, creative, sometimes unreadable. “I’d watch him do things, I couldn’t even understand what I was looking at.”
• Guilherme Mendes: the architect. Composed, methodical, surgically clear.

“For a normal person, Guilherme is easier to follow.”

Vincent emphasizes a rarely articulated point: Guilherme’s real intelligence is also having managed to exist alongside a prodigy brother without disappearing, by becoming strategist, trainer, academy builder.

5. “Secure Position First” vs “Submit Right Away”

The podcast then addresses a key point: there isn’t just one way to teach grappling today.

Traditional BJJ Approach

Positional logic:

• you pass the guard,
• you take the back,
• you stabilize,
• and only then do you attack.

The idea: secure first, submit after.

Melqui Galvão / Modern Luta Livre Approach

In no-gi, it’s almost the opposite. Nicolas describes what he’s seen (and taught) in Brazil:

• in no-gi: “80% direct submission”.
• you create the opening for the guillotine, arm-triangle, leg lock, instead of waiting for “the right position”.

Nicolas talks about doing three intensive classes on the arm-triangle / katagatame with Diogo Reis just before ADCC, and explains that these weapons reappeared in matches a few weeks later.

This isn’t a detail. It shows that modern no-gi is no longer just BJJ without the gi: it’s become a complete teaching system, with its own priorities, timing, and logic.

6. High-Level Has No Ego

“The more weapons they have, the less chance they’ll be surprised.”

This is perhaps the most striking passage of the episode.

Nicolas explains that the very best don’t protect their ego, they protect their progress.

• Mica Galvão gets caught with a muscle crush: he doesn’t look for excuses, he says “Show me.” Then he tries the same thing on all his training partners that day.
• Diogo Reis gets caught multiple times in a Twister / 10th Planet-style control: his reaction isn’t “that doesn’t work on me,” it’s “explain it to me again right now”.
• Nicolas finds this same mindset among young French grapplers from Unik club (team of Remy Marcon): “Explain it to me now. I don’t want to get caught with that in a final.”
• Vincent confirms: when these young people come to his place or to Unique, “if I don’t stop them, they’ll ask me questions until midnight”.

This willingness to learn, immediately, without status or ego, is described as the mark of the new elite.

It’s also a cultural difference from “old-school French grappling,” where national status was sometimes enough to self-proclaim “high-level”.

7. French Jiu-Jitsu Identity: Between Heritage and Structure

The end of the episode shifts to another topic: how to organize jiu-jitsu in France without losing its soul?

Nicolas Renier’s Point

Nicolas defends the importance of preserving Luta Livre as a distinct culture. For him, it’s not enough to say “it’s all grappling, it’s the same.” The name matters.

“If nobody says ‘Luta Livre,’ the day the word disappears, the rank disappears with it.”

For him, erasing the word means erasing a history, masters, a technical lineage.

Vincent Guyen’s Point

Vincent expresses a mirror concern on the Brazilian jiu-jitsu side: if tomorrow a bigger federation decides “grappling is with us now,” what remains of the Brazilian identity of jiu-jitsu in France?

In other words: how to structure without absorbing? How to professionalize without uniformizing everything?

This debate naturally leads to questions about diplomas, CFJJB’s role, France Judo’s potential place, and political issues around official delegation. This is the heart of the episode’s second part.

(The rest of the podcast goes into these questions: mandatory diplomas, legal supervision, who has the legitimacy to teach and award ranks, etc.)

8. Why This Episode Matters

This On the Road episode is more than a conversation between two veterans.

It’s the meeting between:

• the self-taught Luta Livre generation, born in pure no-gi,
• and the CFJJB generation, pushing towards structure (refereeing, training, legal framework).

We hear both the recent history of French grappling and its projection toward the future.

And most importantly: we hear two different approaches accepting to exist at the same table.

➡️ Full episode available on the On the Road podcast by Wilfried Sam.