For years, internet forums have been awash with talk about what Joe Rogan’s game is whilst using Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Being a popular advocate of BJJ and black belt under Eddie Bravo, he is known for helping grow the influence of BJJ to a global audience.
However, until now – little was known about how he likes to play BJJ and what his style is. It’s one thing being a commentator on BJJ, but being a practitioner of the sport is something completely different. During a conversation with fellow black belt Lex Fridman, Rogan was asked about what his style was when training BJJ.
Rogan responded by saying he wasn’t big on takedowns and preferred to pull guard. In true 10th Planet fashion, his favourite guard positions were the rubber guard and lockdown via half guard. Rogan claimed he liked rubber guard due to his flexbility and used lockdown to get to the dogfight position and initiate sweeps.
He also mentioned that he preferred playing on the top, which isn’t surprising given his strength and size and repeatedly used the phrase “smush” when talking about putting pressure on his opponents. Interestingly, he concluded that his favourite submissions were strangles as opposed to joint locks such as the armbar. Rogan added that this was due to the strangle ending the fight instantly, whereas people can potentially continue with a broken arm.
Overall, it’s an interesting insight into the world of Joe Rogan and his involvement in BJJ. He also mentioned how doing arm triangles for years lead to a bulging disc in his neck and that he wished BJJ wasn’t as tough on the body. With this in mind, if he still trains these days is unknown – but there is footage of him sparring back in the day and true to his word, he seemed to have a fairly pressure-based game with little mercy. With this in mind, it would be great to see him show a few of his best moves either in sparring or even in a drilling format.
