For Identification Purposes Only

When you think of Keenan Cornelius, you might think of lapel guard. Jeff Glover and donkey guard. Roger Gracie and basics that seem impossible to stop. Bernardo Faria and deep half. Those are parts of their jiu jitsu they’ve become known for. Their game.

So if someone asks you what your game is, would you have an answer? Should you have one? And when are you supposed to have a game figured out?

You can probably name a few people in your school whose games seem obvious. One person keeps finding your back. Another has a guard you’ve spent a considerable amount of time trying to leave. Maybe one person has a submission they hit from everywhere. Even when you know what they want to do, you still have to deal with it.

Then there’s you. You know a sweep. Sometimes it works.

Is that a game?

Some Assembly Required

At white belt, having something you can remember and attempt during a round can feel like a considerable accomplishment. You recognize a position, you know something to try, and occasionally the other person ends up where you wanted them.

You start looking for that opportunity more often. Your partners might even begin to recognize it.

That sounds like the beginning of something. Whether it feels like enough to call your game might depend on who you’re comparing it to.

If you’re comparing those few familiar pieces to someone who has spent years connecting theirs, you’re probably going to feel a little underprepared. They probably have answers to reactions you didn’t even know were options.

So maybe you figure you’ll have a game at blue belt.

By then, you could have a few sweeps, some passes, and submissions you look for regularly. You might be getting better at reaching the positions you want. You also might have learned enough to realize how much jiu jitsu you haven’t tried.

More likely, though, at blue belt you feel like you know everything there is to know about jiu jitsu. You probably know more than your instructors do because they’re old and don’t believe most of the best Instagram moves even work. And, of course, you definitely have a game. (Google the Dunning-Kruger effect. It has blue belt written all over it.)

Back to my point, now you have more options and more reasons to wonder whether you’ve found the ones that suit you.

How much do you even need to know before you can make that decision?

Based on Available Information

There’s a difference between knowing what you usually do and knowing why you prefer it. Sometimes those are easy to confuse.

You might keep returning to closed guard because you like the control it gives you and understand a few things to do there. You might also keep returning to it because it’s the only guard you’ve spent much time learning.

In either case, closed guard is where you’re choosing to work. But your answer to “Why do you like it?” might change considerably after you’ve had more experience elsewhere.

I think the phrase “my game” can carry more weight than we realize.

It can describe the positions and techniques we currently rely on. It can also start to sound like we’ve figured out what kind of jiu jitsu practitioner we are.

That’s a fairly big conclusion to draw while we’re still discovering what we can do.

There’s value in having something familiar. A position you know how to reach and a technique you can attempt from there give you a little direction. As you spend more time there, you start noticing what usually happens next. You make adjustments. You find another option for the person who has figured out how to disrupt your “game.”

Contents May Vary

I don’t think you need to wait for a particular belt before you can declare something your game. By purple belt, though, you may have a clearer sense of what you like and how it fits together. You’ve had more time to explore, make connections, and develop a way of doing jiu jitsu that feels like yours.

As an example, one of my students didn’t like deep half guard when he was a white belt. He’s a purple belt now, and it’s one of his favorite guards. As his understanding of jiu jitsu as a whole has grown, he’s developed a style of his own, with deep half as one part of it. Is it his game? Only he can say, but it's not not his game.

Even the names we started with have more to their games than those short descriptions suggest. Keenan is a nogi world champion, and there aren’t any lapels to grab there. Bernardo’s deep half helped him reach the top position, where his pressure passing gave his opponents another problem. Donkey guard is one small example of the creativity in Jeff Glover’s jiu jitsu. And Roger kept refining a game people already recognized, making those familiar basics that much harder to deal with.

So if someone asks you what your game is, you might have a clearer answer today than you did a year ago. A year from now, you may describe it differently or understand the same answer a little better.

See you on the mats.

Joshua is the owner and head coach at 608 Jiu Jitsu in Cross Plains, Wisconsin. He writes about learning, problem solving, and becoming a better training partner through jiu jitsu.

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