A Wrestler's Guide to Starting BJJ

This is a living document that will change as I update my thinking over time.

I’m a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I was also a fairly successful high school wrestler. I also have ADHD, which means I tend to focus on a handful of simple one or two step concepts in my grappling instead of learning 10,000 complex moves.

When I started it was all “get used to being on your back” and “learn guard.”

Now that I’m older, I think wrestling skills translate pretty well to BJJ, and you shouldn’t be on your back (much).

So this is not a comprehensive guide to BJJ. This is more a crash course to a very particular subset of BJJ based on my opinions. There are other opinions and you can feel free to follow those instead or develop your own. I will try to explain why I have my opinions, or at least give pointers to why, but this is a guide, not a PhD thesis defense.

Finally, this will be a lot to absorb. I’m trying to structure it such that you can reference it repeatedly as you develop your game and find yourself in different positions, while giving enough of “why” so you can develop your own thoughts about it and not just mimic my techniques.

If you’re on a desktop PC, there is a table of contents to the right. If you’re on a mobile device, the table of contents to each position is at the very bottom of the article.

Summary

Everything I say can be summarized as follows:

Top: Get on top. Choke them.

Bottom: Control their hand so they can’t choke you. Get on top. Then choke them.

In general, if you know how to deal with 18 positions (6 top and bottom = 12, and 6 bottom only = 18), you can do pretty well. Similar to John Smith winning 6 world championships in wrestling with a handful of techniques, I think you can do pretty well in BJJ with 18 techniques.

Submissions

Goal: choke them with your hands.

There are literally thousands of variations of submissions available. However, my personal opinion is to stick with the submissions that are the most effective in MMA. This translates well to no-gi BJJ and also translates well to self defense BJJ where you may not have a strong jacket available to use for control/chokes.

If you take the top 6 submissions, they account for 84.9% of submissions:

• rear naked choke (RNC)
• guillotine
• armbar
• triangle
• arm triangle
• d’arce

If you break them down further, you see that 85% of these top submissions are chokes (everything but the armbar). And 93% of them are attacks you do with your hands (everything but the triangle choke).

So in broad strokes, if you want to submit someone, the most effective way to do it is to attack them with your arms and choke them.

Scoring

Goal: Get on top.

At the highest level of the sport:

• Only 36% of matches end in submission. So, just like wrestling, submitting/pinning really good people is hard. Learn to score points.
• 78% of submissions (31/40) are from top position (back take is a “top” position). In other words, the positions that score points are also the best ways to progress to submissions.

Source: bjjheroes

The above stats are from the ADCC competition, but I’m going to switch to IBJJF scoring, similar but slightly different. If you enter a local tournament, it’s more likely to follow IBJJF scoring, so more useful for now.

Top Scoring positions

• 3 points guard pass
• 2 points knee on belly
• 4 points mount
• 4 points back take

Bottom Scoring positions

• 2 points sweep (getting on top from guard)
• 4 points back take

Neutral Scoring positions

• 2 points takedown

The IBJJF has a very nice, free rule book: https://ibjjf.com/books-videos

Section 4 beginning on page 18 details the point scoring rules in detail with illustrations.

A submission (tap) is like a pin and ends the match, so it doesn’t have a point value, it’s a win.

As a wrestler, it’s important that no matter what anyone tells you, being on top is important. Don’t fall for the “get used to being on your back.” It’s a half truth at best:

• 4 ways to score from top position.
• no ways to score without getting on top.

It is very very advantageous to get on top and stay on top. Getting on top or getting a better position on top are the only ways to score.

The only concession to make as a wrestler is to be ok with exposing your back to the mat. It doesn’t give up points in BJJ and when you’re on bottom it gives you good options.

In that vein, learn to count BJJ points in your head so you know if you are winning or losing. This will help you realize what is an advantageous BJJ position and what isn’t.

Also note that taking back is where the most dominant submission (rear naked choke) happens, and is an almost infallible predictor of who will win at the highest level of the sport:

“Maybe the most conclusive aspect of the back takes is that it has shown to be the biggest deciding factor when predicting the winner of a match, outside (obviously) of the submission.” BJJHeroes

Positional Breakdown

For the rest of this article I will talk about specific positions, what they are, and what I recommend you do from them. In general I aim for things that work 80-90% of the time. You will always find someone who has an answer to any particular technique or strategy, so nothing is 100%.

I believe there are 12 positions in BJJ, 6 of them important and 6 of them less important. This is my personal take and there are many people who will disagree.

I’ve also organized these in terms of dominance from least to most. This also corresponds with a natural progression: take them down, end up in guard. Pass guard, end up in side control. They turtle to prevent side control so you go to front headlock. From front headlock go to back take.

Major Positions

These are positions where you need to know both top and bottom sides of the game.

It starts from neutral, where no one has an advantage, and goes through transitions ending with back take. Taking someone’s back is the most dominant position with the highest percentage submission (RNC). If you’re on bottom, back is the worst place to be.

1. Neutral - no one has an advantage.
2. Open Guard - top has a slight positional advantage.
3. Side control - top has a major positional advantage.
4. Turtle - top has ability to transition to back take or front headlock, the two most dominant positions.
5. Front Headlock - top has access to second most successful submission (guillotine).
6. Back Take - top has access to the most successful submission (RNC).

I’ll go out on a limb and say that since front headlock leads to the second most successful submission in UFC (guillotine), that makes it de facto the second most dominant position in BJJ. I don’t know of anyone who seriously disagrees that a back take is the most dominant position.

Neutral

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XweuFgTVZxo

Goal: get to the ground without losing points, preferably on top.

One interesting aspect of BJJ rules are that if you voluntarily pull guard, you don’t lose points for ending up on bottom. So if you’re having a hard time safely scoring takedowns, you can pull guard and then sweep your opponent to end up on top for 2 points.

Attack

Any time you shoot a wrestling shot you put your neck within reach of their arms. You will get choked by anyone good.

Best Options:

• snapdown to front headlock (second most dominant position).
• low single/sweep single (but if they get a hand by your neck, grab the hand and bail on the takedown).

Guard Pull

Get two on one control at one of their wrists. Slide your legs into half guard.

Open Guard

This is any sort of leg entanglement where the legs are not locked. For example, half guard:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XweuFgTVZxo

Open Guard: Top

Goal: Choke them or pass their guard.

I wish I could say there was a magic way to do this, but… there isn’t. This is going to be the most complicated thing to learn. The advice I have is instead of learning how to pass all guards, since you’re on top you should be able to funnel the game to the guard you want to play. I used to play a lot of half guard from my knees, but bigger strong people will control you from there. They will overpower your arm and move you into their game. Therefore:

• Funnel the game to half guard.
• Stand up to shake their half guard down like Gordon Ryan used vs Josh Saunders. If they come up to attack your leg, their neck is within choking distance. Use the front headlock to advance or submit.
• If they don’t come attack the leg, get control of their upper body (either head or arm), knee slice pass or go the other direction to three quarter guard. Pass. Then work your side control game.

Open Guard: Bottom

Goal: Control one of their arms until you can get on top.

This is also very complicated and good people will give you a hard time. However, here are simple tips that should scale fairly well.

Control their attacking hand with two hands. This is the most important thing to start with:

I’d rather fight a one armed man

Don’t let go of it until you have a high success sweep lined up.

• Use it to launch a kimura. They will likely block this by clamping their arm to their thigh…
• So transition to a kimura+coyote sweep…
• If they block this go for double leg control sweep…
• If after 60 seconds you have’t gotten on top…
• frame against their neck and stand up to front headlock.

Side Control

Side control can look like either of these, or even with bottom turned away:

Source: IBJJF Rule Book

Side Control: Top

Goal: Choke them.

Get one hand by the neck and attempt to choke them. Guillotine, papercutter, north south, darce, reverse arm triangle.

Details here

Side Control: Bottom

Goal: Control one of their arms, reclaim guard.

Be on your side, control an arm, turtle, reclaim guard.

Turtle

I’ve come to believe turtle is a form of guard. It creates space for your legs to re-guard, and if your opponent passes your guard but you turtle, you don’t lose points for the guard pass. On the flip side, you are not facing your opponent and you are exposing your back to them, so it’s a double edged sword. I think of it as a transitional position only. If I can stay in turtle for fewer than 5 seconds I will probably improve my position. If I stay longer, I will probably get submitted.

Turtle: Top

Goal: Get to front headlock. This bypasses their legs so they can’t re-guard.

Go to front headlock immediately. Try to choke them.

Turtle: Bottom

Goal: re-guard.

Reguard by inserting your leg between theirs to reguard to half guard. Make sure to control a hand so they can’t choke you.

Front Headlock

Source: Knight Jiu-Jitsu

This is perhaps my most controversial take. I believe front headlock is the second most dominant position for 3 reasons.

1. It provides entry to the second most successful submission (guillotine).
2. Your opponent is facing down: they can’t see what you’re doing and their hands are busy fighting your choke so they can’t attack you
3. there are easy entries to back take (the most dominant position)

Front Headlock: Top

Goal: Choke them or take their back (rear naked choke is twice as effective as guillotine).

Choke them. If you can’t choke them switch to chicken wing grip on their wrist and cross face to back take. If that doesn’t work back to front headlock to choke them, etc.

Do not pull them on top of you to choke them. Stay in front headlock position to retain your mobility.

Front Headlock: Bottom

Goal: don’t get choked.

Two on one grip on one wrist. Do not let go. Either stand up to neutral or reguard.

Back Take

Back Taker (Top)

Goal: Choke them.

If you have a back take, control the arm nearest the mat with a chicken wing grip. Use your other arm to cross-face and set up a rear naked choke. Get both hooks in. If they are able to switch sides, you need to switch chicken wing arms or roll them back over.

Back Taken (Bottom)

Goal: Get them off your back to a better position.

Get your chicken wing arm free. Get your back flat on the mat.

Minor Positions

These are positions where you only need to know one side of the game.

I will get hate for calling mount a minor position. I’ll just say that once you understand attacks from other top positions, mount is all of that but more. If you can get to mount, you’ve already dominated the match (probably), so it’s like a bonus. A bonus is marginal. For all of these, you will need to know how to escape from bottom, but you won’t necessarily need to know how to play top to win.

1. Closed guard
2. Leg Attacks
3. Knee On Belly
4. North/south
5. Scarf hold (Kesagatame)
6. Mount

Closed Guard

This is when one opponent has legs locked all the way around the torso of the other. It looks like this:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN2NFwpF9FI

Closed Guard: Top

Goal: Break open their legs. Learn to keep your arms in close and control one of their arms at all times. Learn what it feels like to be arm barred or triangled from here and then avoid being arm barred or triangled.

Grab one arm and stand to break guard

This is an important position to train from as a wrestler because the more experienced BJJ guys will try to pull you into this. Learn to keep your arms in close and control one of their arms at all times. Learn what it feels like to be arm barred or triangled from here and then avoid being arm barred or triangled.

Closed Guard: Bottom

Ignore this position. Don’t pull closed guard from bottom.

• It’s a complicated game.
• It tends not to scale if you fight people above your weight class.
• It’s not a winning strategy at the highest levels of the sport or in MMA.

Leg Attacks

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XweuFgTVZxo

I call this a minor position because at the highest level of the game, 78% of submissions are achieved by upper body submissions, not leg attacks. Leg attacks are a detour from establishing positional dominance, don’t score points, and may lose you points. It’s part of the game, but not the first part to focus on.

Leg Attacks: Attacker

Don’t worry about this. It’s a whole art unto itself. Ignore the dark arts for now. Whatever you do, they will be better until you put time into it.

Leg Attacks: Defender

Goal: don’t get submitted.

Grab an arm at the wrist and control it with both hands. Do not let them connect their hands for the submission. Use the scramble to get on top. It’s very difficult, though not impossible, for someone to apply pressure to your legs without being able to lock their hands up.

Knee On Belly

Source: https://ibjjf.com/books-videos

Knee On Belly: Top

Don’t worry about knee on belly except to score 2 points.

Knee On Belly: Bottom

Goal: get them off of you.

Turn to your side, grab the leg and wrestle up. Protect your neck if they attack it by grip fighting.

North/South

I call this a minor position because there isn’t a lot of variation to it. It’s a very dominant position for top, very bad position for bottom. I use this to finish people a lot. The north/south choke is one of my most frequent submissions and I set it up from side control.

North South: Top

Goal: Choke them.

Like this:

North South: Bottom

Goal: get back to side control.

The key to not being choked is to turn your chin so it is not trapped in their armpit. Turn your chin away from the armpit, turn into them, get wrist control on one of their hands, get back to side control on your side.

Scarf Hold (Kesagatame)

Source: Knight Jiu-Jitsu

This is a very dangerous position with many many submission opportunities. It used to be one of my go-to positions until I realized that I can’t hold people who outweigh me by 100 lbs in it.

Scarf Hold: Top

Don’t go here. It doesn’t scale on really big opponents, and why bother training to fight only smaller people?

Scarf Hold: Bottom

Goal:

Get your elbow to the mat. Come out the back, take their back.

If you are bigger than your opponent, just roll them over so you are on top.

Mount

Source: IBJJF Rule Book

Mount: Top

Don’t worry about taking top mount except to score 4 points. Anything you can do from here as a beginner/wrestler, you can do from side control.

Mount: Bottom

Goal: Get out to neutral or guard.

Turn to your side, control one arm. Wait for them to bring a leg up to try to take your back. Scoop both arms under the leg and scoot out the back.

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