There are 4 ways to win a BJJ match under IBJJF rules. Some modern no-gi tournaments will often be submission only, but as the name says, the way to win this kind of tournament is quite obvious.
We will analyse each way of winning and discover the best gameplan based on your opponent and their style.
Ways to win:
- Submission
- Points or Advantages / Penalties
- Disqualification
- Walkover
Submission
Submission is considered the most dominant way to win a BJJ match, in theory this should happen after you have racked up points and advantages, then from a great position you are able to find an easy submission. Whilst this is somewhat true, it is certainly not always the case and submission can often be your best chance to win against a far superior opponent.
I firmly believe that your best chance of beating someone who is considerably better than you is by a sneaky submission. If the opponent has better fundamentals from every position, the last thing you would want is a half guard or 50/50 battle against them.
Dean Lister once said “I was told that the Choke is the King, the Armbar is the Queen, and the Footlock is the Dirty Thief.” This quote will allow you to defeat superior opponents in competition. Of course, you should not go into a competition thinking you are the worst, but if you have seen a video of your opponent and understand they have shut down other people who are better than you, it is always good to have the dirty thief in your back pocket for when it’s needed.
Of course, it is not just the footlock that can steal victory from the jaws of defeat, other examples might be wrist locks, loop chokes, ezekiel chokes, inverted triangles and many more. It all depends on the situation and set up.
In the video below (timestamped for your convenience) Bianca Basilio is 2 points down in a high level match with under 2 minutes remaining. Whilst this is not a guaranteed loss by any means. Her chance of winning by points at this moment is certainly under 50%. She opts to attempt a footlock and immediately wins the match, making the points irrelevant.
Points / Advantages / Penalties
Victories by points or advantages are more often seen at the high levels of BJJ, as opponents become increasingly harder to dominate and submit. With this being said, winning by points is often a much safer way to win a match, if done correctly.
When you are in a BJJ competition you should always have someone coaching you on the sidelines, even if a higher belt is not there, a lower belt can still tell you who is ahead on the scoreboard and how much time is left even when you cannot visibly see the scoreboard.
For example it is much better to control someone on their back, knowing their only way of winning is to try a sneaky submission. If you avoid this sneaky submission then you will win, where as if you were to try a bow and arrow choke which failed, you may end up in bottom half guard after a scramble. If the opponent passed you, this would then give them 3 points, you may not have enough time to recover this deficit and lose as a result of a failed submission.
At the very highest levels, we will often see competitors keep looking at the clock and then going for a late advantage or sweep which their opponent cannot recover from. This is because the differences in ability are extremely minimal at this level and it is often impossible to submit your opponent within 2 minutes.
DQ’s & Walkovers
Firstly, to get walkovers out of the way, this is where your opponent is overweight, injured, or simply does not show up to the competition on time, you will be awarded the win and advance to the next stage of the bracket.
As for disqualifications, some of the time they are used in a dirty way. Occasionally the competitor will intentionally try to get their opponent disqualified. The most common way is to pull the opponent’s leg across the knee line from De La Riva guard – resulting in a knee reap. This is a pretty stupid way to try and win as you don’t really gain anything, however, if your opponent is intent on breaking the rules it is a fine way to win.
Worth remembering is that the result is not secure until the referee raises your hand. I have seen a lot of competition matches where the opponent will try their best to disrespect people on and off the mat before it is officially over. To be honest, these disqualifications for bad sportsmanship aren’t given out enough, but they still happen.
Perhaps the most notable disqualification is the below video where one belt taps another and then continues to celebrate like he has won the mundials, one ground slam, one forwards roll followed by a dance and then another forwards roll.
Summary
If you are technically far superior to your opponent, but they still remain a threat, winning by points is most likely the safest way to advance to the next round. This may be against your instinct, since if you submit them the match is immediately ended, but people do not like to think about when submissions go wrong (which is a decent amount of the time).
Conversely, if you are significantly worse than your opponent or losing by a points margin which you do not have time to make up. Then obviously a submission is the best way to go. If you have no way of getting a dominant position on your opponent, then you will be forced to try a low percentage submission. Even though this is an unlikely chance of winning, it may turn 2% into 10%, so is a gamble well worth taking.
Lastly of course, if you really want to say something disrespectful to your opponent’s coach or do a celebratory dance as shown in the video above. Please wait until the match is fully over and you have left the mat, this is still pretty ridiculous, but at least you will not be disqualified for your antics.
