What Is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu?
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) is a grappling-based martial art that focuses on ground fighting, positional control, and submission holds. Unlike striking arts like boxing or Muay Thai, BJJ teaches you to neutralize a larger, stronger opponent through leverage, angles, and technique. The core philosophy is simple: take the fight to the ground, establish a dominant position, and finish with a choke or joint lock.
BJJ traces its roots to Japanese Judo, brought to Brazil by Mitsuyo Maeda in the early 1900s. The Gracie family — particularly Carlos and Helio Gracie — adapted and refined the techniques, emphasizing ground fighting and submissions for smaller practitioners. Today, BJJ is practiced worldwide both as a martial art for self-defense and as a core component of modern mixed martial arts (MMA).
For beginners, BJJ can feel overwhelming. There are dozens of guards, hundreds of submissions, and an endless web of transitions. That is exactly why the MindBJJ interactive mindmap exists — to visualize how every position connects and help you learn systematically rather than randomly.
The Six Foundational Positions Every White Belt Must Know
BJJ positions fall into two categories: top positions (where you are pinning or passing) and bottom positions (where you are playing guard or escaping). Understanding these six positions is the first step toward building a complete game. Most white belts spend their first 6–12 months cycling between these positions during sparring.
Closed Guard
Closed guard is the most fundamental guard in BJJ. You lie on your back with both legs wrapped around your opponent's waist and your ankles locked. From here, you can attack with armbars, triangles, kimuras, omoplatas, and sweeps. The key is breaking your opponent's posture — pulling their head down and controlling their sleeves or collar so they cannot posture up and open your guard.
Open Guard
Open guard is any guard where your legs are not locked around the opponent. It includes spider guard, de la Riva, butterfly guard, and many others. Open guard is more dynamic than closed guard but requires better timing and active frames. Beginners often struggle with open guard because the opponent can more easily pass, but it is essential for modern BJJ and no-gi grappling.
Half Guard
Half guard occurs when you have trapped one of your opponent's legs between your own. It was once considered a losing position, but modern BJJ has transformed it into a powerful attacking platform. The key battle in half guard is the underhook — whoever secures the underhook (an arm wrapped under the opponent's armpit) typically controls the position. From half guard, you can sweep, take the back, or submit with kimuras and guillotines.
Side Control
Side control (also called side mount) is a top pinning position where you lie perpendicular to your opponent, chest-to-chest. It is the most common position after a guard pass. From side control, you can submit with Americana, Kimura, arm triangle, and north-south choke. You can also transition to mount, knee-on-belly, or take the back. Maintaining side control requires constant pressure — if you relax, your opponent will shrimp and recover guard.
Mount
Mount is the most dominant position in BJJ. You sit on your opponent's torso with both knees pinching their ribs. From mount, you have access to high-percentage submissions: Americana, arm triangle, Ezekiel choke, and mounted triangle. The key is staying in "high mount" (under the opponent's armpits) to eliminate the bridge-and-roll escape. Escaping mount is exhausting because you are carrying your opponent's weight while they have all the attacking options.
Back Control
Back control means you are behind your opponent with your chest against their back and both hooks (feet) locked inside their thighs. This is widely considered the most advantageous position in BJJ because your opponent cannot see you, and you can attack while they have no direct counter. The rear-naked choke (RNC) is the signature submission from back control, but you also have bow-and-arrow choke, collar chokes (gi), and transitions to the truck position.
The Four Essential Submissions for Beginners
Submissions are techniques that force your opponent to "tap out" through chokes or joint locks. As a white belt, you should focus on mastering these four submissions before branching into more advanced techniques. Each one teaches a fundamental mechanical principle that applies to dozens of other submissions.
Rear-Naked Choke (RNC)
The rear-naked choke is the highest-percentage submission in BJJ. You wrap one arm around the opponent's neck from behind, slide your other arm behind their head to lock a "figure-four" grip, and squeeze until they tap. The choke cuts off blood flow to the brain through the carotid arteries — not the windpipe. It works from back control and is effective in gi, no-gi, and MMA.
Triangle Choke
The triangle choke is a blood choke executed from guard. You trap your opponent's head and one arm between your legs, forming a triangle shape with your thighs. By pulling their head down and squeezing your knees together, you compress the carotid arteries. The triangle works from closed guard and open guard, and it sets up naturally when an opponent overcommits one arm while posturing up.
Armbar
The armbar hyperextends the opponent's elbow joint. From closed guard, you isolate one arm, swing your leg over their face, and extend your hips while controlling their wrist. The key detail is keeping the opponent's thumb pointing upward — this aligns their elbow for maximum leverage. The armbar is one of the oldest submissions in grappling and works at every belt level.
Kimura
The Kimura is a shoulder lock named after Japanese judoka Masahiko Kimura, who famously used it to defeat Helio Gracie. You isolate your opponent's arm, grip their wrist with both hands, and rotate their arm behind their back. The Kimura works from side control, closed guard, half guard, and north-south. It is also an excellent grip-fighting tool because controlling the Kimura grip often opens sweeps and transitions.
How to Start Training BJJ as a Beginner
Your first month of BJJ will feel like drinking from a fire hose. You will learn new positions every class, your body will ache in places you did not know existed, and you will likely get tapped dozens of times by people half your size. This is completely normal — every black belt started exactly where you are now.
Find a reputable academy. Look for a clean facility, structured curriculum, and instructors who pay attention to beginners. Most academies offer a free trial class — take advantage of it. Ask about the class schedule, pricing, and whether they separate beginners from advanced students.
Start with the gi. The gi slows down the action and gives you more grips to learn fundamental positions. Once your base is solid, no-gi adds wrestling, leg locks, and faster scrambles. Many academies train both, but the gi provides the best foundation for understanding BJJ mechanics.
Gear you need: A BJJ gi (not a karate or judo gi), a white belt (usually provided), and a mouthguard. For no-gi classes, a rash guard and grappling shorts are standard. As you train more, you may want knee pads, ear guards, and finger tape — but start simple.
Tap early, tap often. The most important rule for beginners is to tap the moment you feel a submission locked in. Your training partners are not trying to hurt you — they are helping you learn. Tapping is not losing; it is data collection. The more you tap, the faster you learn what not to do. After 6–12 months of consistent training, you will start to see patterns and develop your own style.
Building Your First BJJ Game Plan
A game plan is your personal roadmap of preferred positions and techniques. Rather than trying to learn everything at once, white belts should build a narrow but deep game plan around one guard, one pass, one mount attack, and one submission from back control.
For example, a simple white-belt game plan might be: Closed guard → hip bump sweep → mount → Americana. Or: Half guard → underhook sweep → side control → Kimura. The exact techniques do not matter as much as the principle: have a path from bottom to top to submission that you can execute consistently.
Use the MindBJJ mindmap to explore which positions connect to your preferred techniques. Click any node to see related sweeps, submissions, and escapes. The mindmap helps you visualize the entire jiu-jitsu landscape so you can build a game plan that flows logically from one position to the next.
Fundamental Techniques — Video Library
Click any topic below to search YouTube for instructional videos from world-class BJJ coaches. Each search is prefilled with the technique name and BJJ context to help you find the best tutorials.
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The interactive mindmap visualizes every position, transition, and submission in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Explore how closed guard connects to sweeps, how half guard chains into leg locks, and build your personal game plan.