In life, you’re often taught that being taller is a good thing. However, this can sometimes be flipped upside down when it comes to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and grappling. Basically, when you need to train and have a game plan that is specific to your height and body shape. If not, you may struggle to play to your advantage. Thankfully, BJJ really is for everyone and as long as you do this, you should be ok…regardless of height or size. So, here’s how you should grapple as a taller BJJ practitioner.
Table of Contents
Is it good to be tall for BJJ?
Firstly, if you’re taller, you can develop a very tricky guard game as it’s arguably easier to retain guard with long legs. Playing to your advantage, positions such as spider guard in the gi will help use long limbs to your advantage and stretch your opponent. Similarly, closed guard can also be beneficial as you can use your long legs to keep your opponent locked into your guard.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, sometimes being tall can be a hinderance when passing the half guard. If your legs are very long, then there’s more room for them to get stuck and entangled with the opponents legs.
One issue with being big is with takedowns. Basically, you’ll have a worse chance of takedowns than smaller people due to them having a lower sense of gravity. Basically, the closer your knees are to the floor, the better your base will be.
This means you’ll have to be careful on your feet. Thankfully, there’s a number of Judo takedowns that are suited to lanky grapplers that utilize the legs such as the Uchi Mata. However, in wrestling and no gi in particular, takedowns can be a problem. That’s not to say they’re not possible, but it’s something that you should look out for.
As said earlier though, being tall has its perks, but also has some problems. It’s fair to say this about all kinds of builds though. For instance, we also have a guide here for short and stocky BJJ practitioners.
Is Jiu Jitsu hard for tall people?
Aside from takedowns, there are some other issues that taller people will run into. Firstly, you may struggle from certain submission escapes and defenses. For instance, if you’re arms are longer, then that means naturally there’s more chance of getting armbar’d. Similarly, if your neck is longer then it’s harder to defend against triangle and darce chokes. In short, there are certain negatives that come with being taller.
Another, lesser mentioned issue is when competing. Imagine being a 6’6″ lightweight who weighs in at just under 76KG. Now, imagine your opponent is 5’5″ and the same weight. Naturally, you can expect your opponent to be stronger than you. This is problematic as everyone knows that strength and power is very useful when grappling and it may put you at a disadvantage. In some ways, you could argue this example is like fighting against someone one or two weight classes above you.
Are taller people better at grappling?
As we’ve looked at some of the disadvantages, it’s only fair to look at the advantages of height too. One example of this is with submissions. Naturally, taller people will be easier at entering triangle chokes as their legs are so long. You can make a similar case for armbars and locking body triangles from the back becomes easier too.
This is great news, as statistically armbars and triangles are very common, as is taking the back. However, once again…it’s really a case of certain things help certain body types whilst they can be problematic for others. With this in mind, it’s fair to say that taller people aren’t naturally suited towards grappling anymore than shorter people.
One thing to keep in mind though is that being tall in fighting can be advantageous. Whilst many of the previously listed principles still apply – the point is that in fighting, you can strike. If you have long legs or arms, then you have a bigger reach which can be considered an unfair advantage against smaller folk. Regardless, this point is mute when looking at BJJ and grappling.
Looking at champions as examples
If you look at world and ADCC champions in BJJ, then there’s really not much in it. For every tall, lanky Keenan Cornelius, you’ve then got Jeff Monson who is short and stocky. Similarly, you could compare the height of Braulio Estima to the shorter Andre Galvao or Marcelo Garcia. This shows that height doesn’t really matter at either end of the spectrum.
There are countless other examples that show that whatever you’re genetics, you can succeed in BJJ if you play to your strengths and really it’s about getting comfortable with your own positives, rather than focusing on the negatives.
Conclusion
Being lanky or tall can certainly have its perks when doing BJJ, but it can also have its drawbacks too. If you’re looking for someone whose body type is inspirational as a lanky grappler, then look no further than Chad ‘The Beast’ Hardy who has made his long limbs work perfectly for his game.
Naturally, you should also figure out certain movements and techniques yourself and after a few years, you should be comfortable as a taller grappler who can handle themselves against all sorts of different builds and sizes.
