Guide

BJJ terminology for beginners

By Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Singapore · Updated 3 November 2026

What do the BJJ words mean?

Most Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu vocabulary names one of two things: a position, meaning who is where, or an action, meaning what someone is trying to do about it. Guard, mount, side control and back control are positions. Pass, sweep, escape, submission and tap are actions. The rest is class shorthand: a drill is practice with a cooperative partner, a roll is live practice, and a round is one timed go.

Why the words matter more than they look

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is taught verbally while you are upside down and cannot see the coach. If you know what the words point at, an instruction lands as information instead of noise, and you stop losing the first ten minutes of every class to translation.

You do not need to memorise a glossary. Positions have names because the sport is scored by position, so learning the names is the same work as learning the map. After a few weeks these stop being jargon and start being the only sensible way to describe what happened.

This page covers what you will hear. It does not tell you how to perform anything: the point of a class is that a coach watches you do it and corrects what the page cannot see.

Every session at this academy is no-gi Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, so the vocabulary you will actually hear in class leans on body position rather than jacket grips.

The positions, from worst to best for you

Guard is the bottom position where you use one or both legs to stop the person on top from settling past them. The IBJJF rulebook defines it exactly that way, as using one or more legs to block the opponent from reaching side control or north-south. Guard is not losing. It is the position most of the sport is built around.

Half guard is guard with one of the top person's legs trapped, which stops them from getting all the way past. Closed and open guard describe whether your legs are locked around them or working free.

Side control is the top person pinned across your chest from your side. North-south is the same idea with them facing the other way, head toward your head. Both are positions you want to get out of from underneath.

Mount is someone sitting on your torso. Back control, often just called the back, is someone behind you with their chest to your spine. In competition these are the two highest-scoring positions, at four points each, which tells you how much they matter.

Knee on belly is the top person's knee on your midsection with the other foot on the floor. It scores two points and it is uncomfortable by design.

Sources: IBJJF rulebook downloads · IBJJF Rule Book (PDF, June 2024). Checked 3 November 2026.

The actions: what people are trying to do

A pass, or guard pass, is getting from in front of someone's legs to controlling their upper body. A sweep is reversing from the bottom so that you end up on top. A takedown is putting a standing person on the ground and staying on top.

An escape is getting out of a bad position back to a neutral one, usually back to guard. Escapes are the first thing a good beginner class teaches, because they are what you need most in your first six months.

A submission is a joint lock or a strangle that makes someone concede rather than hurting them. A tap ends it: two clear taps with the hand, a foot tap if your arms are trapped, or simply saying stop. The competition rules recognise all three, and in a class the same rule applies with no argument attached. You can tap at any time, including before anything is applied, and in a training room it is treated as the ordinary way to end a position.

Submission is also where the word jiu-jitsu earns the gentle art label it is often given. The target is someone conceding a position, not an injury.

If a submission that catches you keeps catching you, the etiquette guide covers how to raise it with a partner or the coach.

Sources: IBJJF rulebook downloads · IBJJF Rule Book (PDF, June 2024). Checked 3 November 2026.

Class words you will hear in your first hour

A drill is practising a technique with a partner who is cooperating, which is almost all of what a beginner does. A roll, or rolling, is live practice where both people are genuinely resisting. A round is one timed go of rolling, usually a few minutes.

Positional sparring is live practice starting from one position with one goal each, which is how most people are introduced to resistance without the whole chaotic picture.

Tapping out means asking for the exchange to stop. Tap early when unsure, release when your partner taps, and tell the coach if you have a concern.

Oss is a word you will hear shouted in some rooms as acknowledgement. Its origin is disputed and its use varies by academy, so take your cue from the room rather than from the internet.

If the sport itself is still new to you rather than just its vocabulary, start with what Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu actually is, which sets out the standing and ground phases these words describe.

No-gi vocabulary, which is what you will need here

Without a jacket there is nothing to hold, so the words describe where limbs and heads are instead. An underhook is your arm threaded under theirs from inside. An overhook is the reverse, your arm over theirs. A body lock is your arms closed around their torso.

Wrist control, head position and hip position come up constantly for the same reason: in no-gi they are the handles. A rash guard is the fitted top you wear instead of a jacket, and spats are the leggings some people wear under shorts.

Submission grappling is the broader name for no-gi grappling with submissions, and you will see this academy's classes described both ways. They are the same sessions.

What to wear is a separate question with a separate answer: see what to wear to your first class.

Belt and rank words

Adult belts run white, blue, purple, brown, black. A stripe is an interim mark on the belt between promotions in academies that use them. Promotion is the coach's decision based on watching you train, not a timed syllabus, which is why two people in the same room progress differently.

Professor and coach are both used for whoever is teaching; which one a room uses is cultural rather than meaningful. Lineage describes who taught your coach, and who taught them, and so on back.

Open mat is an unstructured session where people train what they want. Competition class, where a room runs one, is preparation for tournaments. This academy is not run as a competition team, so most students never need the second of those words.

The ranks have their own guide: how the BJJ belt system works.

A labelled map of the five positions

The words above all describe one thing: who is where. This is that, drawn. Five positions, each with a diagram, a line saying who is underneath, and a plain description. There is no technique in it, because a diagram cannot teach you to move and a coach can.

The shaded figure is the person on top, or behind, in each pair. The outlined figure is the person underneath, or in front. Where the diagrams show someone lying down, the mat is the line along the bottom.

Nothing to sign up for. Print it, or just read it here.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu positions: who is whereBrazilian Jiu Jitsu Singapore. Five positions, no techniques. The shaded figure is on top or behind.

1. Standing Both people are on their feet, standing on the mat. Both people are on their feet, facing each other. Every exchange that does not begin on the ground begins here, and the first question is who ends up underneath.
2. Guard The person underneath has their legs between the two of them. They may be seated, on their side or lying on their back. The person underneath uses one or both legs to stop the person on top from settling past them. Being in guard is not the same as losing: a large part of the sport is played from down there, and the bottom person has their own way to reverse it. The diagram shows one common version, lying on the back; guard is also played sitting up.
3. Side control One person is on their back underneath. The other is across their chest, from the side. The legs are no longer in the way and the top person's chest is across the bottom person's chest at an angle. It is a holding position: the person on top is trying to keep it, and the person underneath is trying to get their legs back in or get out from under.
4. Mount One person is on their back underneath. The other is sitting on their torso. The top person sits astride the chest or stomach with their weight above the other person's hips. The legs of the person underneath are behind the top person rather than between the two of them, so nothing is blocking the chest-to-chest contact.
5. Back control One person is behind the other, chest against their spine. Usually both people are sitting or lying on their side, one in front of the other. The person behind cannot be seen by the person in front, which is the whole point of it: the attacks come from behind the front person's field of view.

The same map in words, for anyone reading this without the diagrams:

Standing. Two upright figures facing each other, both standing on the mat line. Both people are on their feet, standing on the mat.
Guard. One example of guard: a figure lying on their back along the mat with legs raised toward a second figure kneeling in front of those legs. The person underneath has their legs between the two of them. They may be seated, on their side or lying on their back.
Side control. A figure lying flat on their back along the mat with a second figure's torso lying across their chest at right angles. One person is on their back underneath. The other is across their chest, from the side.
Mount. A figure lying on their back along the mat with a second figure sitting astride their torso, facing their head. One person is on their back underneath. The other is sitting on their torso.
Back control. Two figures one behind the other, the rear figure's arms reaching around the front figure's chest. One person is behind the other, chest against their spine.

Top and bottom are the only perspectives drawn here. Nothing in this map is a score, a ranking or a sequence: positions are not worth anything until a competition rule set says so, and no diagram tells you how to get into or out of one.

Every session at BJJ Singapore is no-gi, so the positions above are the ones a class names, without jacket grips. Ask the coach to show you any of them in the room; that is what a class is for.