Jiu-Jitsu: A Game of Styles

Jiu-Jitsu is an art of style. Like the different fighting styles in old Kung-Fu movies, there are a myriad of styles contained within Jiu-Jitsu. However, unlike old Kung-Fu movies, the style of any given practitioner isn’t necessarily defined by a geographical region. As it relates to Jiu-Jitsu, I define “style” as a reliance upon a number of related techniques, that when chained together form an overarching game. You will hear competitors speak of their “A game,” the techniques that they feel they have mastered and that allow them to win matches. This is their style.

A particular style or game – like everything in Jiu-Jitsu – isn’t rigidly defined, necessarily named, or set in stone. Generally speaking, there are “guard players,” “passers,” “old-school” types, “unorthodox” types, etc. However, styles evolve and change. They are as fluid as we need them to be to succeed as martial artists, competitors, or practitioners. Jiu-Jitsu is so personal, and beautiful, because there are as many styles as there are practitioners. Our style is a unique expression of who we are. The style we embody today, might not be same as it was two years ago. It certainly won’t remain unchanged as we age and our bodies face certain limitations that may constrain us. Like our very selves, our style is constantly changing and evolving.

Sometimes a particular style is informed by a general philosophy of Jiu-Jitsu. For example, Eddie Bravo created his 10th Planet system with MMA in mind. After seeing the decline of Jiu-Jitsu in MMA, he sought to create a style that would allow Jiu-Jitsu fighters to dominate once again. In order to do so, he thought it necessary to rid himself and his students of the gi, as the gi is not worn in MMA competition. Mr. Bravo created a guard game and system (the rubber guard) that he thought would allow guard players to restrict their opponent’s ability to strike while also improving their own ability to advance position and attack submissions.

Similarly, the stripped-down “basics” approach of Rickson Gracie and other members of the Gracie family is informed by a philosophy of self-defense. If Jiu-Jitsu is primarily for defending oneself, practicing esoteric guards – such as the various inverted guards that would leave you exposed and vulnerable to strikes – would be a waste of time. That is why you see such a heavy emphasis on the “basics” in the style of Rickson’s son Kron, as well as in other members of the Gracie family.

On the other side of the coin, you have many modern Jiu-Jitsu academies and practitioners who are solely focused upon the application of Jiu-Jitsu in a sporting contest. Because of this philosophical difference, you will see entire academies and teams focus on the minutiae of more modern guards like DLR, RLDR, and techniques like the berimbolo, “kiss of the dragon,” rolling back takes, and other techniques that have few applications outside of a sport Jiu-Jitsu competition.

The underlying philosophy behind these respective approaches to Jiu-Jitsu assists in determining what style each academy, team, or practitioner will adopt. However, this is just one – albeit fundamental – factor that helps to determine and guide one’s Jiu-Jitsu style.

Choose Your Style!

There are many factors that can determine what style you embody and employ, and not all of them are mutually exclusive. Sometimes the preference for one style over another is a function of your body type and physical assets. This includes weight, muscularity, agility, cardiovascular endurance, limb-to-torso ratio, etc. Other times it is an emergent phenomenon – over time a particular style is developed and cultivated through countless hours at the academy finding techniques that are efficient and effective. This is a process akin to natural selection. You will naturally gravitate towards and adopt techniques and games that you find easier to impose upon your training partners and abandon techniques you find onerous, unnatural, and unsuccessful. Another factor in determining your Jiu-Jitsu style is the academy at which you train and/or the style of your instructor. Finally, you may simply choose a style or game that may not be optimal for your body type, isn’t particularly effective for you (yet!), and that wasn’t inherited from your academy or instructors. You simply see a style that you enjoy. It may be a style that you admire because of its efficacy, the athleticism involved, the way it makes you feel when you’re training, or quite frankly: because it looks flashy and exciting.

Physical Determinism?

Many Jiu-Jitsu athletes and practitioners will adopt a style that compliments their body type and other physical characteristics. It probably wouldn’t be in the best interest of a person who is 5’5”, 260 lbs., with short legs and arms to try and be a master of the spider guard, De La Riva guard, or really any modern open guard. On the other hand, somebody who stands at 6’3”, 180 lbs., with long limbs would benefit greatly from adopting the various open guard styles. The tall, lanky, long-limbed practitioner – think Leandro Lo, Keenan Cornelius, Romulo Barral, Edwin Najmi – will be able to more efficiently and effectively utilize the length of their legs in the spider or various open guards. They will use the advantage of their long limbs to manage the distance, defend their guard, and / or tie up their opponent in De La Riva, spider guard, lasso, worm guard, or any variation of open guard. They will do this with far more ease than the stocky short-limbed athlete whose legs are short and therefore not as dexterous. This is why Keenan Cornelius is an incredible guard player and has introduced innovations to the open guard with his lapel guards and worm guard. Similarly, this is why the Miyao brothers – with their incredibly long, skinny, and rubber-band-like legs – have infamously impassable guards (PED use notwithstanding).

On the flip side of that coin are the Heavyweights (or Super Heavyweights). Athletes like Bernardo Faria or – to use an older and more extreme example – Luiz Felipe “Big Mac” Theodoro. Both are known for their heavy top-pressure and passing game. They effectively utilize their natural advantages and develop a style that compliments those advantages, using their weight and size to smother and pass the guards of their opponents.

As athletes, it is rarely a bad idea to play the cards that we are dealt in the genetic lottery and develop a style that complements our natural physical assets. The more we conform our style to our body type and other physical characteristics, the less we will have to struggle to adapt and compensate in other areas.

None of this is to suggest that a larger and heavier person can’t become a master of the various guard styles, or that a skinny and lanky person can’t be a phenomenal pressure passer. Take a look, again, at Bernardo Faria or Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida. Both have fought in the Super Heavyweight division and are renowned pressure passers, but are equally well known for their half guard game and Buchecha in particular is known for his surprising speed and agility.  Similarly, one would expect Gui Mendes, who fought at Light Featherweight during his illustrious career, to be known for athletic speed passing and leg agility like his brother. Yet, instead he developed a strong pressure passing style defined by his crushing knee slide pass to baseball bat choke.

Our genetic makeup provides us with predispositions toward certain styles, and we can certainly benefit from adopting a style that complements our physical assets, but by no means are we bound by that. The beauty of Jiu-Jitsu is that we can, with the proper amount of training, effort, and grit, develop a style that transcends our own physical limitations.

Born of Action, Not Design

The more time we spend on the mats, the more we gravitate towards a particular style. We find techniques and combinations of techniques that work well for us. It may be that we are intentionally working on these specific techniques, tirelessly striving to impose them upon our training partners. But sometimes a game just emerges, seemingly out of nowhere. In fact, this game doesn’t – obviously – emerge mysteriously from the ether, but from our daily actions on the mats.

We often find ourselves in the same positions and situations, day after day, that we don’t consciously intend to put ourselves in. How many times have you been training and said to yourself, “Well, here I am in bottom half guard again!” or, “Damn! Stuck in a triangle for the thirtieth time this week!?” We don’t necessarily intend to place ourselves in these positions (after all who tries to be on the receiving end of a triangle?). Our conscious or unconscious movement patterns while training continually lead us to these same situations. Working in and through these same positions and situations week after week, month after month, we start to develop a game plan. We find that some techniques work really well for improving or advancing our position – or avoiding/escaping that triangle! – and some techniques don’t work so well. It’s a process of trial and error and from it: a game emerges.

Specific positional drilling is a great way – arguably the best – for purposefully harnessing the power of this unintentional process of style development from which a strong game will emerge. Other than that, it’s simply a matter of time spent training and an endless loop of trial-and-error in the laboratory that is the Jiu-Jitsu academy.

Follow the Leader (or team!)

Most – if not all – legitimate Jiu-Jitsu academies and instructors will try and impart upon their students a complete game, while trying not to force their own stylistic preferences. As instructors, we want our students to learn the lessons we have learned, but also to evolve as independent people and martial artists. We want our students to develop a style that allows them to express themselves as individual Jiu-Jitsu practitioners.

There are certain fundamental techniques in Jiu-Jitsu that I personally dislike and don’t generally utilize in my game. This can be for a variety of reasons, mostly stemming from personal preference. For example, I just don’t like loop chokes! They’re a perfectly viable attack, I’m just not successful with them and prefer to utilize other options. Personal physical limitations are another reason why I dislike certain techniques. I don’t like the Ezequial choke, because it is incredibly painful on my arthritic fingers. Were I to withhold the instruction of these techniques simply because of my own personal preferences, it would be a massive disservice to my students. In fact, one of my blue belts loves Ezequial chokes and is incredibly successful with them. On the other hand, I love the half guard, but it wouldn’t be fair for me to force others to like it if they are not best equipped to be successful with that position.

All of that being said, as an instructor it is incredibly hard – maybe impossible – to not pass your preferences on to your students. I teach half guard with a far greater enthusiasm – and simply have more to teach – than I do positions I don’t utilize daily, like top RDLR. Teachers will invariably – maybe even inevitably – spend more time on and show more enthusiasm for styles, games, and techniques that they personally find effective.

Students will generally imitate their instructors, for they are the ones to whom they look for guidance. You can spot an AOJ student on the mats by more than just the patch on their back. They are usually very deft and agile guard passers, showing beautiful legwork and transitions while also having very strong DLR and RDLR games on the bottom. Most academies do not teach DLR and RDLR in their beginner level classes. From my understanding, AOJ does. Their style is imparted upon their students from the earliest stages. Carlson Gracie Team and some of the other Gracie family academies, on the other hand, are generally very linear and pressure based. This is the so-called “old school” approach: get on top, stay on top, pass, and submit. No frills, no flashy style, but a style nonetheless. Those from Atos HQ – like their professor, Andre Galvao – generally have a very aggressive and athletic style. Obviously the major teams – like Alliance, Atos, and Gracie Barra – are far too large and contain too many instructors, leaders, and athletes to embody one single style, but within each school I think you’d be able to spot certain trends.

Our style and the game that we play is developed in the academy, led by our instructors, and reinforced by our training partners/teammates. It only seems reasonable to assume that our instructors and training partners (team) would influence the development of our style.

Jumping on the Bandwagon

Finally we come to what may be the most important factor in the development of style in Jiu-Jitsu: personal choice. We can’t choose our body type, outside of our general weight. If you are not an instructor – and especially if you’re a hobbyist / non-competitor – you generally don’t have a say in the techniques that are taught on a daily basis. And although you are not always directing the focus of of any given class, or the overall curriculum, a style often emerges from our daily training patterns. Although we do ultimately decide what team we are on, and who our instructors are, this is often just a result of convenience: we choose the academies that are closest to us, those that our friends may already be training at, or are constrained by budget. There is an element of choice in each of these factors, but a lot of it is out of our hands.

However, we can choose what we decide to practice during our time on the mats, especially during “open,” “live,” or “free” rolling. We can choose to execute the techniques and play the games that define any given style, day in and day out. Some styles just appeal to us on an emotional level. Regardless of its personal efficacy, you may love to play the berimbolo game. It’s fun to invert, explore and push the boundaries of your leg dexterity and inverted awareness. Playing a fast and athletic style, doing cartwheels and rolling back-takes is just plain fun, regardless of whether it is effective or not. The more fun we have on the mats and the more we enjoy our time spent training, the more we will learn.

Much of what we choose to play also depends upon what we see in the larger Jiu-Jitsu community, mainly in competition. Jiu-Jitsu is always evolving, and trends towards certain games and styles can take the Jiu-Jitsu world by storm. Marcelo Garcia captured everybody’s attention with his highly developed and aggressive butterfly and X-guard game. Roger Gracie continually astounds the Jiu-Jitsu community with his seemingly simple “back-to-basics” style, killing his division with his dominant mount and cross-collar chokes. Rafa Mendes showed the Jiu-Jitsu world the power of innovation with his expansive DLR and berimbolo game, making Jiu-Jitsu fast, exciting, and dynamic. Currently, the Danaher Death Squad is turning heads with their submission-only oriented style, and hard-to-stop leg-lock system. Yesterday everybody was obsessed with the ‘bolo, and today everybody wants to do heel-hooks and toe-holds.

Some criticize these movements as fads – and there is some truth to that – but so what? There’s nothing wrong with seeing a new and exciting style that is gaining traction in the competition circuits, garnering success amongst its practitioners, and wanting to try it out for yourself. Any given style may ebb with time, and that’s okay, because everything does. During your time experimenting with one style or another, you’ll have learned a lot of lessons, exposed a lot of weaknesses, and built a lot of strengths along the way. That is what Jiu-Jitsu should be all about: having fun and growing, not only as Jiu-Jitsu practitioners, but also as people. Keeping our minds open and not just taking the easy road, but attempting to push ourselves into new territory.

What is your Jiu-Jitsu style?