Master These 5 BJJ Positions To Dominate Your Opponent

Since the start of the match, both grapplers try to dominate each other by implementing many techniques, moves, or skills, and being in such positions that assist them in getting themselves dominant over each other. There are a lot of positions in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu where you can learn and execute many different techniques. But all these positions are not so effective for dominating. Therefore, you should know how you can dominate your opponent and what positions can assist you in securing dominance over them.

• Dominance is the ultimate goal of every grappler whenever they start the match, training, or sparring. Being dominant in the art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, you are in a position where you have complete control over your opponent’s body. When you have their body in your control, it means that you are controlling their arms, legs, head, and movement.

• Therefore, they cannot move themselves or any part of their body as freely as they did before, depending on the extent of the control you have over them. When you have dominance over your opponent, they will be left with no other option than to shift themselves to the defensive mode. Moreover, you have the opportunity to make attacks, sweeps, transitions, and submissions to knock them out of the match.

You should keep dominance as your priority in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

• Dominance is the base for submitting your opponent. You get many opportunities for submitting them through applying various chokes, locks, bars, and other submission techniques.

• You get the strategic advantage over your opponent as you are applying one dominant position, and then you can transition the situation and position to various other dominant positions, making your opponent even more submissive.

• Your grappling improves a lot, and you are always at an advantage over your opponent.

• Pressure is a common thing in BJJ matches. But when you are in the dominant position, then you are not taking any pressure because you are already doing better than them.

• Dominance allows you to execute your moves and techniques strategically and not execute any techniques just randomly.

Hundreds of positions in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, but there are only a few of them that make you dominate your opponent. Let’s discuss such techniques. The following are the top five positions in BJJ, which provide you with dominance over your opponent:

• The first position, which is very dominant, is the full mount. It is one of the most common positions in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. The full mount is a position in which you are on top of your opponent and they are on the bottom of you. You are sitting on their torso (midsection and chest). They are with their back on the mat, and you are facing their head. So this is how the full mount position looks.

• Full mount or mount is not a single position. Instead, it has some variation which you can implement in your grappling style, such as S mount, low mount, high mount, or half mount. So it is a very versatile position, and you can choose the variation based on the style you prefer, position you can do better, time, and situation of the match. Although all perform the same, you can find unique benefits in each type. Versatility gives you an advantage of selection, with you keeping in mind that you can get mostly the same benefits from all.

• Some of the best attacks that you can do from the full mount position include the joint lock and the chokeholds. You can do the joint lock by extending their joint beyond their normal range of motion. This will quickly cause extreme pain in them, forcing them to tap out. The other one is the chokehold. In this hold, you are grabbing your opponent’s neck and applying pressure on it, causing them to submit to you. Because it restricts their breathing, they cannot breathe normally, and this forces them to tap out. This is very dangerous submission technique.

• This dominant position is also common in mixed martial arts (MMA) too. So, if you are in MMA, after you have taken your opponent to the full mount position, you can just start hitting or striking their face and head. This is also very dangerous if you do this accruately.

• When we think about the dominant position in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, the first thing that comes to mind is the top position. We have made up our minds that the only solution to be dominant over your opponent is to secure the top position. But this is a complete misconception, and there is no reality about it. Let’s take an example for understanding it further. The closed guard is a very good example of it.

• The closed guard is a position in which a grappler is on the mat with their back. The grappler is at the bottom, and their opponent is on the top. The grappler for controlling their opponent’s body wraps their legs around them, particularly the upper part of their body. After this, they cross their legs around their opponent and then get their feet locked together. This is a very good control position in which the opponent, particularly their upper part of the body, is in complete control of the grappler.

• The closed guard is a very common position in BJJ, and white belts start with a few techniques in which the guard is one. So you can expect that everyone knows this technique. There are two main objectives of the BJJ players for getting their opponent in the closed guard. The first aim is to break their opponent’s posture, and the second aim is to unbalance them. Both almost produce the same result, and that is your opponent becomes unable to make attacks, sweeps, transitions, and submissions. At the same time, it is making it easy for you to take your opponent through a variety of attacks, submissions, and other techniques.

• The closed guard comes with a lot of options for attacks. One of them is armbar. Your opponent’s arm is very close to both of your hands. Grab them and then hyperextend them while slightly rotating, and you have the submission. Other options include the guillotine, chokes, collar chokes, sweeps, omoplata, and triangle chokes. All these are relatively easy to apply when you have taken your opponent to the closed guard.

• The knee on belly is the third dominant position, which you should learn. This is a little different from the previous two positions. In this position, you are using your knee, most probably the right knee, for controlling your opponent’s body and securing dominance over them. The knee is placed on the opponent’s upper body, particularly on the chest or abdomen. The shin and foot are also involved in the position. The grappler stabilizes their body using their shin, and the foot is used for hooking the side or hips of the opponent. So this is how the knee on belly works.

• In the knee on belly position, you use your weight to control your opponent’s body. You transfer your weight to your opponent through the knee. The heavier you are, the more weight will be transferred to your opponent. Also, the more force you are applying to your opponent with your knee, the more weight your opponent will feel. The heavier they feel or experience, the more dominance you will achieve. So this dominant position is often most useful for the heavy grapplers.

• With the knee on belly position, you can take your opponent to the north south, mount, or side control position. All three of these positions are also dominant positions, and you can take your opponent to the submission after this. Moreover, to make the technique even more dominant, you can grab the lapel, collar, or any other upper part of your opponent’s Gi. This will make them even more submissive, giving you an advantage.

• The side control is one of the most common and best positions to secure dominance over opponents. In this position, both grapplers are lying perpendicular to each other. The dominance is achieved by the one who is lying on top, and the one who is lying with their back on the mat is submissive.

• You can achieve this position by passing the guard of your opponent. So it can be called a good outcome for guard passing. In this position, you lie on them with your chest touching their chest. Moreover, you control their upper body with your arms. So basically, you are controlling their upper body with your arms and chest, ensuring a dominant control over your opponent’s body.

• It is undoubtedly the most difficult position for the submissive grappler to escape from. You form a T shape with your opponent in this side control position. You are free to move while still maintaining control over them. You can move around, apply force with varying pressure on them to keep them submissive, and also you can take them to other positions like north-south, knee on belly, and mount.

• With side control position, you can also apply the armlocks and chokes on your opponent. In arm locks, you extend the elbow joint of your opponent beyond the normal range of motion, and in chokes, you are executing techniques which interrupt with the normal flow of blood or air to the brain of the opponent. It causes your opponent to lose consciousness, and they immediately tap out.

• Moreover, you should also learn the kesa gatame and reverse kesa gatame. It will further establish your dominance over your opponent.

• The back mount is also the common dominant position in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. In this position, as the name indicates, the grappler grabs their opponent from behind and wraps their legs around them. The chest of the grappler is connected to the back of the opponent. The legs are crossed around and then locked usually.

• The back mount provides very good control over the opponent’s body. With the back mount, you can make the chokes on your opponent, such as the bow and arrow choke and rare naked choke. These two chokes are very powerful chokes in the art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. If you manage to apply these two chokes, these are sufficient for you to give you the submission.

• Back mount gives you two advantages over your opponent. The first advantage is that you can you can effectively control your opponent with your whole body. Another advantage is that you can execute many different techniques or attacks, and your opponent cannot guess that.

Dominance is a very important concept in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Every beginner should start learning it from the start of their career because this is not like a technique that you can memorize or learn, or master within a few days. You need to learn different strategies, tricks, positions, and techniques to dominate over your opponent. If you are keeping yourself dominant over your opponent throughout your match, then you can easily take the lead and win the match. Moreover, you should also learn in the reverse manner. This means that you should try to escape from the dominant positions and situations in your sparring. So dominance is a very important tool which you should be able to use in both ways.

Dominance is the ultimate goal of every grappler whenever they start the match, training, or sparring. Being dominant in the art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, you are in a position where you have complete control over your opponent’s body. When you have their body in your control, it means that you are controlling their arms, legs, head, and movement.

The following are the top five positions in BJJ, which provide you with dominance over your opponent:

• Full Mount or Mount

• Closed Guard

• Knee On Belly

• Side Control

• Back Mount

• You get many opportunities for submitting them through applying various submission techniques.

• You get the strategic advantage over your opponent.

• Your grappling improves a lot, and you are always at an advantage over your opponent.

• You are not taking any pressure because you are already doing better than them.

• Dominance allows you to execute your moves and techniques strategically.