By Russ Jensen, PhD
Owner & Head Instructor, Ground Rules Academy
BJJ is all-encompassing
The big 3 grappling sports in the US are wrestling, judo, and BJJ. Each has its own unique culture, training philosophy, history, and ruleset. I believe there is a lot to appreciate in all of our beloved grappling arts.
Having recently embarked on my own serious venture into judo, I’ve been thinking a lot about how the grappling arts overlap. A friend, Tyson Tran, put it beautifully in one sentence: “Jiu jitsu encompasses all of the other grappling sports”.
I believe it starts with the win condition for each of the sports. The question is — how do you end the match? We’re going to ignore points entirely, because they only matter if nobody meets the win condition before the clock runs out (some rulesets have a technical win when the difference in points reaches a certain amount, but we’ll ignore this too). We only care about the ultimate goal of each sport:
In wrestling it is the pin/fall
In judo it is the throw. It’s possible to win with a pin or a submission on the ground, often after an unsuccessful throw, but the referee will reset you to standing if the groundwork stalls.
In BJJ it is the submission
You may notice right away that sport BJJ includes pins and throws, but that is not good enough for an immediate win.
There is a way to visualize the relationships between sports, starting with a rough map of grappling situations/positions. Each topic below is like a location on a map, and I’ve included all locations (that I can think of) that can be found in a grappling match.
Wrestling
Let’s take a look at which locations are present in folkstyle and Greco-Roman wrestling.
There’s lots of action in wrestling. With no clothing to grip and short rounds, matches are exciting and fast-paced. I’ve included back control because, in Greco-Roman wrestling, wrestlers often attack opponents in a belly-down position.
I’ve long said that wrestling is the same as BJJ but without guard and submissions. And indeed, when a wrestler starts training BJJ, these are some of the largest skill gaps to overcome. But wrestlers are often extremely coachable, and they bring a strong set of standup and pin skills that make them a problem on the BJJ mats, even from day one. We love working with wrestlers!
Judo
There is much more overlap between judo and BJJ, which is not surprising given BJJ is a more recent offshoot of judo.
Judo, at least in part, contains all of the same elements as BJJ. Some of the locations are shaded because the competition rules are more restrictive around these areas. Grabbing pants is not allowed during throws, the only legal submissions are elbow locks and strangles, and practically speaking, the guard exists as a tool for the bottom player to force a stall and get a standing restart.
But good luck if you decide to go toe-to-toe with a seasoned judoka. They’ve honed the art of launching humans and using gravity as a weapon. Make sure you know how to fall safely because you’re going to hit the mat. And if your partner is having a bad day, then you might hit hard.
On the ground, judokas tend to have rock-solid pins and lightning-fast submissions. They’ve developed these skills in order to win via alternative routes before the referee resets them to standing.
BJJ
All of the locations on the map are accessible in the hunt for submission.
It is arguable that, in the absence of a pinning or throwing win condition, these situations get deemphasized. Which is fair. Many BJJ players have opted to skip throws and pins entirely and build a game around pulling guard. But there are arguably just as many BJJ players that wrestle for top position and smash their way to submissions. The option is present to build your grappling game to suit your body and your personality, because all of the situations are available to us with minimal referee intervention.
An additional note on attire: Wrestling does not grip clothes. Judo grips clothes. BJJ does both in gi and no-gi. Once again, BJJ encompasses the other arts.
There is no winner
We are not arguing that one grappling art is better than another. That is subjective and comes down to individual preferences. I am a true fan of the grappling arts and I believe that all of them are awesome.
As a BJJ-focused grappler, I believe there is much to learn from our sister grappling arts. They have focused their attention on aspects of the grappling game, like throws and pins, that are sometimes overlooked in BJJ communities.
Russ Jensen, PhD, is a Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt and the founder of Ground Rules Academy in Pleasanton. With a PhD in physical chemistry from MIT, he brings a unique, science-based approach to teaching jiu jitsu.