Types of Jiu-Jitsu: The 27 BJJ Styles
A field guide to the styles of jiu-jitsu — the 27 recognizable games competitors build their whole approach around, across gi and no-gi.
Not sure which is you? Take the quiz →Guard Players
9They fight best from their back, treating the guard as an attacking platform. Sweeps, submissions, and back-takes all launch from underneath.
Closed Guard Specialist
Both"You're in my web now." Locks you in and dismantles your posture piece by piece.
Half-Guard / Deep Half
GiTurns a "losing" position into an underhook-driven sweeping machine.
Butterfly Guard
BothHooks in, elevates, and off-balances — a springboard for sweeps and the back.
Spider / Lasso Guard
GiTurns your own sleeves into levers — a spider web of grips and tension.
De La Riva / Berimbolo
GiThe modern gi acrobat — inverts, spins under, and takes the back off a sweep.
X-Guard / Single-Leg X
BothGets under the hips, isolates a leg, and topples the strongest passer.
Lapel / Worm Guard
GiWeaponizes your own jacket — ties you into knots you can't untangle.
Rubber Guard
No-GiThe flexible closed-guard-for-MMA — high legs that trap posture without grips.
Z-Guard / Knee Shield
BothA knee-frame that stiff-arms pressure and reopens space to recover or sweep.
Passers
5They live on top, and their whole art is getting past the legs to dominant control. The split is philosophical: crush the space, or outrun it.
Pressure / Smash Passer
BothMakes you carry their weight until the guard caves. Slow, heavy, inevitable.
Speed / Movement Passer
GiNever there to be grabbed — passes with footwork before you can grip.
Leg-Drag Specialist
BothDrags the legs across to strip them off the equation and slide to side control or the back.
Body-Lock Passer
No-GiThe modern no-gi answer — clamps a body lock so tight the guard has nothing to open.
Toreando / Standing Passer
BothControls the legs from range and shuffles around them like a matador.
Submission Hunters
6Position is a means, not the end. These players organize everything around a signature finish and chase the tap from anywhere on the mat.
Leg-Locker / Lower-Body
No-GiRewrote modern grappling — treats the legs as the primary hunting ground.
Back Attacker / RNC Hunter
BothLives on the back — the highest-percentage position — and strangles from it.
Guillotine / Front Headlock
No-GiPunishes every takedown attempt and level-change with a choke.
Kimura Hunter
BothOne grip, everywhere — uses the kimura as control, sweep, and finish all at once.
Armbar / Juji Specialist
BothIsolates an arm from guard, mount, or back and breaks it with relentless detail.
Triangle Hunter
BothReads the arms-in/arm-out geometry and closes the legs into a strangle.
Takedown & Control
3They decide where the fight happens. Grounded in wrestling or judo, they impose top position from the opening exchange and never give it back.
Wrestler / Wrestle-Up
No-GiDictates position with takedowns on top and elevator wrestle-ups from the bottom.
Judoka / Throw-Based
GiEnds the standing phase in one explosive moment — you're already flat before it starts.
Pin & Crush Controller
BothRides the top game — mount, back, crucifix — and suffocates until the finish appears.
Style & Philosophy
4These aren't positions but temperaments — the overarching approach that colors every choice a grappler makes on the mat.
Scrambler / Dynamic
No-GiThrives in chaos — the faster and messier it gets, the more they win.
Point / Positional Strategist
GiPlays the rulebook like a chessboard — the right position at the right time, every time.
Fundamentals / Self-Defense
BothFewer techniques, done perfectly — the classic Gracie blueprint of survive, control, finish.
All-Rounder / Complete Grappler
BothNo hole to attack — dangerous on top, on bottom, standing, and hunting subs.