Jiu-jitsu, as a map

Every position in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and what you can do from it, from standing to the submission: the takedowns and throws, the guards and what they sweep to, the passes and where they land, the pins and what they finish with, and the leg entanglements in between. Every option is a named technique, from the double leg and uchi mata to the waiter sweep, the berimbolo and the cow catcher. Pick a position to light up its options, then follow the chain.

Hover or tap a position. Lines run from a position to what it leads to: solid for the bottom player's options, dashed for the top player's. One line can carry several techniques; the panel lists them all.

Inside and outside

Inside position. Your knees and shins are between their legs or arms, nearer their hips and the centre line than theirs are to yours. You can push, lift and off-balance; they can only reach around. Butterfly, knee shield, X-guard, single-leg X, shin-to-shin, K-guard, reverse De La Riva, deep half and collar-and-sleeve with a foot on the hip are all inside guards. On top, the knee cut, body lock, over-under and double-under pass through the inside.

Outside position. Your leg wraps around the outside of one of their limbs instead: a De La Riva hook behind the knee, a lasso around the arm, feet on the biceps in spider, a lapel fed around the leg. You give up the centre line for leverage on one limb, which spins them, stands them up or drags them, and which the gi makes stick. Passing around the outside, the torreando, leg drag and long step, is the mirror image. Closed guard, half guard, the lockdown and rubber guard do neither: they wrap the whole body or a whole leg and control by closure.

The rule of thumb from the modern game: whoever has inside position is winning the exchange, and most of a round is spent fighting for it. An outside guard is not wrong, it is a trade, and it works best when a grip (a sleeve, a collar, a lapel) does the holding that your knee would otherwise do.

The ladder, and what it scores

A match climbs a ladder: standing, then one player is on the bottom in guard and the other on top trying to pass; a pass earns a pin, the pins lead to mount and the back, and the back leads to the choke. The IBJJF points follow the ladder exactly; sweeps and takedowns are each worth 2 because each puts you on top, and mount and back control are worth the most because they end fights. Every position must be held for three seconds to score, and the back scores only with both hooks in and the feet uncrossed: a body triangle or crossed feet earns an advantage, not the four points.

IBJJF points
Action	Points
Takedown	2
Sweep (bottom to top from guard)	2
Knee on belly	2
Guard pass	3
Mount	4
Back control (both hooks in, feet uncrossed)	4

Who may do what (IBJJF, adults)
Technique	Allowed
Straight ankle lock	Every belt, gi and no-gi; white to purple must turn away from the knee, brown and black may turn either way (since 2024)
Wrist lock	Blue belt and up
Kneebar, toe hold, calf slicer	Brown and black
Heel hook, knee reaping	Brown and black, no-gi only (since 2021); never in the gi
Twister and other spinal locks	Never

ADCC, the biggest no-gi event, allows heel hooks, reaping and the twister in every adult division, awards no positive points in the first half of a match, takes a point off for pulling guard, scores mount at only 2 and the back at 3 (body triangle included), and pays 4 for a takedown or sweep that lands past the guard. That is why the no-gi game is built around wrestling and the leg entanglements in the middle of this map, and the gi game around the guards on the left.

Positions and options as taught in modern sport and self-defence jiu-jitsu, drawn from the positional hierarchy of the Gracie curriculum and the leg-entanglement systems of the modern no-gi game; rules as in the IBJJF rulebook, November 2026. Not exhaustive: every position has more options than are drawn, and every option has counters that are not.