Introduction To BJJ Strategy
Strategy in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) is important. A clever BJJ strategy and game plan can make up for a very substantial difference in skill, which is often the difference between victory and defeat. You need to consider the win conditions, your specific opponent’s strengths (if you know who it is), and your own capabilities.
This article won’t give you the foolproof best strategy. BJJ has so many rule sets and styles that would be impossible to do. But it will give you the tools needed to put together a strategy of your own.
General Defence, Focussed Offence
There are things you can control, and things you cannot.
In the majority of BJJ competitions, you will be in a bracket of numerous competitors, and will not be able to identify the game plan of each. You may be in some shows where you know the opponent you are going to face and can study them in detail, but these will be far less frequent. Even in this case, there’s a good chance you don’t know what they plan to work on and can’t control that.
So what does this mean for training? You need to be able to defend from a wide range of techniques, and if you don’t know what is coming you need to shore up any chinks in your armour. If you do have obvious weaknesses you will be extremely easy to game plan against. Work on defence in a range of positions, against many different styles and body types. You don’t know what is coming, so you need to be prepared for anything. Your training partners are an important tool, so use your training sessions wisely.
What you can control is what you plan to work on. So you need to become a generalist in defence, but you can become a specialist in offence. You should try to train a lot of different submissions to find out what works well for you, but when it comes to competition strategy, you want to find the few bits that work well for you and double down. That’s where the Pareto principle comes in.
Pareto Principle
The Pareto principle applied to many fields, both within and outside of BJJ. The common statistic given is that eighty percent of results come from twenty percent of inputs, and though the ratios may not be consistent the idea of a small focus providing the majority of your benefits is true. So how do you apply this to BJJ?
The first is to BJJ in general. John Danaher is a master of this and despite the vast array of submissions available in submission grappling he elects to teach only six (albeit with many variations). This is because the vast majority of submissions in high-level competition come from these. This applies to all techniques, be it takedowns, guard passes, back takes, or anything else. Find the important ones, and focus on learning about how to use and defend against them.
The second application is to your game plan. Most competitors only use a couple of techniques. Bernardo Faria (five-time world champion black belt) often says that everything he won was due to three moves – single-leg half-guard, deep half-guard, and over-under passing. Find your few techniques, and learn them as deeply and completely as possible. As said earlier, you want to keep your defence general, but you can double down and focus on just a few attacks. Using the Pareto principle means you can focus on the minority of inputs that produce the most results. Build your strategy and game plan around avoiding potential threats, and funneling your opponent to your strengths, and you won’t go far wrong.
Learn What is Important
Different rule sets can have different emphases. You can see this in the subtle differences in, for example, EBI versus Grapplefest rules. They are both sub-only but with key differences.
Grapplefest prioritises attack; if you are able to launch a lot of submission threats over the course of a match you are likely to win a decision. On the other hand, in EBI, the number of attacks you launch means nothing if you don’t finish the fight in regulation time. The rule set has two positions used for tie-breaking, so the minimalist strategy for EBI is to have great submission defence everywhere, with a focus on both offence and defence in the two tie-breaking positions. This slight change in victory conditions means that you can drastically change the way you prepare for a competition, and how you compete. Study the rules, and learn what is important.
High Percentage Moves and Submission Differential
I think that the idea of ‘high percentage’ moves is an interesting one, but it’s far from perfect. High percentage is similar to the idea in the Pareto principle, but I think it misses out on ideas about consequences if something goes wrong.
Consider the double and single-leg takedown. They make up a large number of the takedowns in competition (and therefore are considered a high percentage) but as a result of their popularity people have learned to counter them. Now, they can result in counter-guillotines. Consider alternative techniques, such as foot sweeps and body lock takedowns. They are more infrequent and harder to complete, but the consequences when they go wrong are almost non-existent. You’re much safer trying these.
Submission differential is an idea that applies to positions more than techniques. Take mount versus 50/50. For no-gi players, 50/50 can be one of the most powerful finishing positions, with an extremely strong inside heel hook. The only issue is that it works both ways. On the other hand, consider mount. A lot of people complain about not having a lot of finishing ability from mount, but what does the person on the bottom have? It’s an extremely safe position for the top-position player; strategically, it might be better than 50/50. That’s not to discourage you from training positions with more danger – they might even be more important to spend time in – but you might want to think about channeling opponents into positions where they are weak, and you are strong. If you are strong just because of a much higher skill level and you can be certain of that, so be it, but it’s not advisable against an unknown opponent.
Tempo – Get On Offence
Tempo is an idea in chess that translates nicely to BJJ.
Tempo describes the pace at which you are advancing to victory. Let’s say you are a minimum of five moves from winning. As long as that number goes down by one each time you move, you are at a maximum tempo. As soon as that number stays the same, or goes up, your move is lower tempo. If you go from a defensive situation to an offensive one, you might call that a high-tempo move.
So in BJJ, the idea is the same. If you are on the attack, look to constantly upgrade the position. If you have back exposure, get your hooks in, then get to a body triangle, then look to trap an arm, then look to secure the finish. If you are on defence, it’s okay to prevent your opponent from improving their position, it’s good to make their position worse and yours better, and it’s best to get back on offence. A move that takes you from a defensive position into an attacking position is a high-tempo move – a buggy choke might be a great example. Keep your tempo high. This is an idea that Marcello Garcia used a lot, and emphasised the importance of getting back to counter-attacking when in a defensive situation.
It can be hard to get back on offence from a defensive situation though. If you are attacking your opponent, they may have to make concessions to keep their defence up. Maybe if you are hunting the back they can keep you off by sticking themselves to the mat, but in doing so they take the bottom position and put themselves in a pin. When you are under attack, it can be hard to think clearly due to the aggressive pressure. Get on offence, don’t give your opponent a chance to reset, and keep them on the back foot.
First Point
When you factor in points, they add an interesting dynamic to the tempo. People often point out that the first person to score wins the match the vast majority of the time. Obviously, the better person is likely to score first and is also most likely to win, but consider the situation once one person is up on points. Simply slowing the match down is a higher tempo move for them than their opponent – they are getting closer to winning, while their opponent is closer to losing. As the end of the match draws near the person down on points has to do more and more to win. Someone who is rushing is often easier to submit, so scoring that first point is important. It puts you on the path to victory and provides you with room to think and breathe.
Conclusion
To strategise well in BJJ you need to know your rule set. Know where you are strong and they are weak and know what you are judged on. From there, it is about putting yourself in as advantageous a position as possible. Don’t let them gather themselves, keep yourself safe, and funnel them into the areas where you are most dangerous. If you can do that through the match you won’t go far wrong.
