Why it's called the berimbolo
The name does not come from the capoeira berimbau. And it was not even born in Brazil: it arrived later, from America, when the position was already almost ten years old.
BJJ Square · Updated on 08/11/2026
Samuel Braga, of Gracie Barra, develops the position starting from the variations of De La Riva guard. He tells it himself: “*guys started stepping back to defend themselves, so I started rolling while controlling the arm, purely on instinct*”.
The turning point is the purple belt final at the 2002 Worlds; the black belt debut comes at the IBJJF Worlds in 2005. For all that time the position has no name.
The name was born in the United States
Braga again explains why: “*In Brazil we never gave names to positions, we just explained them*”. The christening comes later, in America, around 2010, when the Mendes brothers start using it and a word is needed for it. Between 2011 and 2012 the Miyao brothers modernise it.
André Galvão is named as the man who coined the term. But he is the one who closes the authorship question with the most honest line in this whole series: “*the berimbolo has no father, it is nobody's child*”.
And the berimbau?
The link with the capoeira string instrument gets repeated often, and it is understandable: the two words sound alike and the movement spins. No source supports it, though. *Berimbolo* is a Brazilian Portuguese colloquialism meaning a tangle, a mess — it describes the confusion, not an instrument.
Note None of the available sources supports the link with the berimbau, and Braga — the only first-hand voice — does not mention it. Until something better turns up, it is an etymology suggested by the ear, not by the documents.
What we do not know
- Who said the word first, and when. Galvão is the most quoted version, but nobody gives a date or a context. The Mendes brothers are credited as popularisers, not as coiners.
- Whether there was a precursor. Marcel Ferreira is said to have used a primitive version as early as 1993. Galvão disputes that it was the modern berimbolo: the question is open.
Why this is the most telling story in the series
The berimbolo is a Brazilian technique, born in Rio, developed by a Brazilian — with a Portuguese name given in America, eight years later, by people who had not invented it. If one story explains why attributions in jiu-jitsu are always disputed, it is this one: doing the technique and naming it are two different jobs, and often they do not even meet.
The other words you will hear at the gym, explained one by one: BJJ glossary.
Frequently asked questions
- What does berimbolo mean?
- It is a Brazilian Portuguese colloquialism for a tangle, a mess. It describes the entangled rolling of the movement.
- Is the berimbolo named after the capoeira berimbau?
- No source supports it. It is a folk etymology born from the two words sounding alike. The documented meaning of berimbolo is “tangle”.
- Who invented the berimbolo?
- Samuel Braga developed it from De La Riva guard between 2002 and 2005. André Galvão, named as the man who coined the word, says that “the berimbolo has no father”.
- What part did the Mendes brothers play?
- They made it famous in the United States around 2010, and it was in that context that the position took its name. They neither invented nor christened it.
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