Taxonomy
Positions
- Includes foundational positions like guard, side control, mount, back control, turtle, etc.
- Focuses on controlling your opponent and transitioning effectively.
Submissions
- Techniques to force your opponent to tap, such as chokes, joint locks, and compression locks.
Sweeps
- Techniques to reverse positions, typically from guard, allowing you to end up on top.
Escapes
- Techniques to break free from bad positions or submissions, such as mount or side control escapes.
Takedowns
- Techniques to bring your opponent to the ground from a standing position.
- Includes wrestling takedowns (e.g., single-leg, double-leg) and Judo throws (e.g., Osoto Gari, Uchi Mata).
Passes
- Techniques to transition from the opponent’s guard (closed, open, half, etc.) to a dominant position like side control or mount.
- Examples: knee slice pass, torreando pass, over-under pass.
Transitions
- Movements to advance or adjust between positions, often focused on maintaining control.
- Examples: transitioning from side control to mount, or from back control to an armbar
Guard Retention
- Techniques to maintain or recover guard when your opponent attempts to pass.
- Examples: hip escapes, leg pummeling, framing, and inverting.
Guard Attacks
- Sub-category that focuses on submissions and sweeps specifically initiated from guard positions.
- Examples: triangle from Closed Guard, omoplata from spider guard.
Counters and Reversals
- Defensive techniques to neutralize or counter an opponent's attack, often turning their momentum against them.
- Examples: countering a single-leg takedown with a sprawl or reversing a guard pass attempt.
Controls and Holds
- Techniques to immobilize or control your opponent while preparing for submissions, transitions, or maintaining dominance.
- Examples: cross-face, Underhooks, grip fighting.
Standing Techniques
- Techniques specific to standing engagements that don’t necessarily lead to takedowns.
- Examples: grip fighting, disengagements, or clinching.
Flows and Chains
- Sequencing techniques together for smooth transitions between positions, sweeps, and submissions.
- Example: chaining a sweep into a submission, such as a scissor sweep to armbar.
Positional Strategy
- Techniques and concepts to control and dominate specific positions.
- Examples: cross-face and underhook for pinning in side control, body triangle control from back mount.
Movement Mechanics
- Principles that govern motion, including how forces, structures, and systems interact to produce and control movement.
- Encompasses the biomechanics, physics, and techniques involved in achieving efficient, effective, and safe motion in various contexts.
Grips
- Manner or technique of holding, grasping, or securing an object, surface, or opponent, often using the hands, fingers, or other parts of the body.