Best BJJ Strategies

[Great Sage]

I have a basic understanding of wrestling/submissions, but no experience in BJJ. Someday, I hope to be have enough time to take formal lessons, but for now I'd like to rely on some insights from anyone (seeing as many of you study BJJ). Basically, I just want to understand simple strategies or techniques that can be applied:

Against a rushing assailant (unarmed).

A typical BJJ attack, or best attack strategy.

What is the theory of attack? Go for the neck first, leg, arm, etc?

Anything BJJ that is helpful as far as explanation... You don't have to go indepth about techniques. I'm more interested in the thinking behind the art.

[Kilo5518]

Boy, this response could be pretty broad. I will try to be as simple as I can.

Against a rushing attacker:

against an unskilled opponent- 1. a person unskilled in BJJ or a person with basic wrestling skills is usually very open to a guillotine. A person that is charging you and attempting to take you down usually tucks his head to avoid blows and shoots with his head down and his eyes up. A BJJ player usually will step to the side at the last instant, wrap the neck and lock in the arm. The BJJ player can either sit back and submit the person on the ground (choke), sit back submit him (neck crank), stand and submit (choke), (neck crank), or pound him while he is held with knee strikes or punches.

Against a rushing attacker who is trying to hit you- usually a misdirection to the side and a takedown from the side or rear works. The BJJ player will keep his face protected by keeping his head tilted forward- leaving very little striking area for the one shot knock out artist. On the takedown, If the person lands on his stomach and trys to base up from there (stand from all all fours), a choke is in order. If he rolls to his back- he will be mounted (schoolyard style), side control (laying across his body and controlling him from the side), knee on- (knee on stomach while you hold him down with your hand or hands), four corners (chest on his head- body laying in opposite direction- holding down). All of these positions are bad news for a person unskilled in submission fighting. Strikes are delivered, when defended they give way to various armbars, chokes, wrist locks, joint breaks, and leg locks.

***I''ll be back- tea is done.

[Kilo5518]

if overpowered or caught off guard. A BJJ man can control the opponant by using the guard. This is where we wrap our legs around the attackers waist, and control his upper body and arms with our hands. There are many variations of the guard- open, spider, butterfly, closed, extended, half- etc. This would take me a dozen more posts to cover. A submission artist in his guard will attack the opponents arms with any number of armlocks. Chokes and neck cranks are also easy from here. Its not a matter if it will happen, but when, against someone who hasn't seen it. A person with no ground skill would be out of commision within seconds against a person skilled in the guard.

Typical attack strategy:

for me: depends on the situation. If its one on one, I close the distance by keeping my head down to avoid blows, attacking to the side to avoid kicks; I initiate a takedown (usually a leg entanglement), get the guy to the ground and see what he knows. As stated above- no skills means the guy usually goes to all fours- I would backmount him (get on his back and intertwine my legs in his) and choke him out. If he tucks his neck, I'll drop elbows on his head, neck, back and shoulders. If he has skills I play it by ear.

if its crowded and he has friends- classic muay tai or maybe a standup submission until I can get the hell out of there. Object would be to do a whole lot of damage quickly without flopping on the beer soaked floor. Nothing pretty just some quick strikes and a quick exit.


My theory of attack is usually to try and get hold of a leg, or control the guys body to take him down where most guys are ineffective. A lot of your stategy depends on how much and what you know as well as how much the guy you are fighting knows. Bjj is not a real static style and has been crossed with so much, you sometimes don't know what you are getting from one school to the next. It seems like every school incooperates some ground fighting with their traditional standup now, but their skills are varied and sometimes non-existant against a pure bjj stylist.

Hope this helped. If you gave me a specific situation, I could probably give you a more direct answer.

[Bjjexpertise@be]

Nicely stated Kilo. But i nvere knew there were soo many variations of the guard.
Well back to the main event. Against a charging attacker, i would normally perform the guilliotine. This may require some timing but this is what you do. When the guy bends his knees and shoots for the legs, bend your knees a bit and wrap your arm around his neck and A.)stand up, this will straighten his legs so he cannot continue the takedown and puts pressure on his neck.
B.) throw both your legs up and wrap them around his waist, then throw your wait to your back and force it to the ground.

[DRLashambe]

Against a rushing attacker who stays fairly upright, I actually prefer the double leg takedown. An untrained rushing opponent will have tremendous forward momentum, and by taking his feet out from under him, you can usually put him to the ground really hard. If you pull his legs to the side, you can often throw him hard and get to his back for a choke.

As far as a theory for BJJ fighting goes, I would suggest this: control your opponent's movement first. This can be with a gaurd, full mount, side mount or cross mount. Once you have your opponent's movement controlled, the number of options you have (grappling or striking) is huge.

[Bjjexpertise@be]

that's true but i think we're talking about a trained opponent

[SilverWolf33]

I really like the Triangle, I just learned that. Oh and the arm bars and ankle locks, but when I was first learning the arm bars i didn't wear a cup and my partners forearm was across my groin pulling down and it hurt beyond imagination

[Great Sage]

Thanks for all the response, Guys... I will definitely keep those things in mind while training.

[ill_proph]

If he's going for a takedown...

Single/double/Smith etc ... sprawl or should stop

A med level brazilian takedown ... shoulder stop

If he's very upright ... just clinch but get better arm positioning


If he's striking just go for a takedown of your own.


So that's pretty simple. Just four or so techniques to learn.

[SilverWolf33]

It burns when I pee

[ill_proph]

It burns when I pee

Then maybe you should see a doc about that. BTW, wrong forum.

[SilverWolf33]

You mean this isn't the Burning Piss forum? Damn, not again

[BJJ_White_Boy]

Close your knee's when you put someone in an arm bar. Then, his forearm doesn't hit your groin, and you have more control over his arm. I dunno if you know this already, put just putting it out there if someone doesn't know.

[Bjjexpertise@be]

i like to apply the arm bar by pushing the arm to the side of the groin, not ON the groin

[Great Sage]

Originally posted by BJJ_White_Boy
Close your knee's when you put someone in an arm bar. Then, his forearm doesn't hit your groin, and you have more control over his arm. I dunno if you know this already, put just putting it out there if someone doesn't know.

Hey, you know... This is so obviously true that I never thought about it, because I have been hit in the groin while executing the arm bar... That's great man!