BJJ Terms Glossary: What Everyone in Class Is Saying
Jiu-jitsu vocabulary is a mix of English shorthand, Portuguese and Japanese, and most of it is never explained. Here is the working set, defined the way it is used in class.
Nobody explains the vocabulary, and asking mid-class feels like admitting you were lost, which you were. Here is the working set, grouped by when you will hear it.
Positions
Guard — any bottom position where your legs are between you and your opponent. The only bottom position that is not losing.
Closed guard — legs wrapped around their waist, ankles crossed behind them.
Open guard — any guard where your legs are not locked. De la Riva, spider, butterfly and many others are open guards.
Half guard — you have trapped one of their legs between yours. Contested position, not a bad one.
Side control — chest to chest, perpendicular, no legs involved. Top position, common place to be stuck as a beginner.
Mount — sitting on their torso. Strong top position, and worse for the bottom player the higher the knees climb.
Back control — behind them, chest to their back, usually with hooks or a body triangle. The strongest position in the sport.
Turtle — on knees and elbows, protecting your front. Defensive and precarious.
Knee on belly — one knee across their stomach, mobile and uncomfortable to be under.
The value order between these is worth knowing before the vocabulary, and it is covered in BJJ positions explained.
Actions
Sweep — reversing from bottom to top from a guard position.
Pass — getting past someone's legs from standing or on your knees, into side control or mount.
Escape — getting out of a bad position back to a neutral one.
Submission — a choke or a joint lock that forces a tap.
Tap — signalling that you concede, by hitting your partner twice, hitting the mat, or saying "tap". Not optional, not a failure.
Scramble — the chaotic transition where neither person has position and both are fighting for it.
Shrimp — the hip escape movement, pushing your hips away while on your side. Half of every warm-up.
Bridge (upa) — driving your hips up off the mat, usually to move someone's weight.
Post — putting a hand or foot on the mat for base.
Base — your stability. "Good base" means hard to sweep or off-balance.
Grips and control
Frame — bone structure between you and their weight, usually forearms. Not a push. Frames are what create space.
Underhook — your arm under their armpit. Usually the key to escapes, sweeps and coming up.
Overhook — your arm over theirs, from the outside.
Whizzer — an overhook used specifically to defend a takedown or a coming-up movement.
Grip fighting — the exchange over who gets the controlling grips first. Most of gi jiu-jitsu.
Hooks — your feet inside their thighs from back control.
Body triangle — locking your legs figure-four around their torso from the back.
Crossface — pressure from the shoulder or forearm across their jaw and neck. Deeply unpleasant, entirely legal.
Collar tie — a grip behind their neck, usually from standing or from guard.
Class vocabulary
Oss — a general purpose acknowledgement, borrowed from Japanese martial arts culture. Means yes, understood, thank you, hello, and several other things depending on tone. Some gyms use it constantly, some never. Follow the room.
Rolling — live training, sparring.
Drilling — practising a technique with a cooperative partner. The difference between the two is covered in drilling vs rolling.
Positional sparring — live training that starts from a fixed position and resets.
Open mat — unstructured session, usually a weekend, where people train what they want.
Professor — a black belt instructor. Also "coach" in many gyms.
Gi / kimono — the uniform. No-gi is training in a rash guard and shorts.
Rash guard — the tight top worn for no-gi, or under a gi.
Spazzing — moving explosively and unpredictably with no control, usually a beginner. The main way people get hurt.
Portuguese you will hear
Jiu-jitsu — the sport. Also "jits" informally.
Kimono — the gi, used interchangeably in Brazilian-influenced gyms.
Faixa — belt.
Mata leão — literally "lion killer", the rear naked choke.
Berimbolo — an inverted sweep sequence, named after a Brazilian dance-like movement. You will not need it for years.
Baiana — a double leg takedown.
The one that matters most
Tap. Two clear taps, on your partner or the mat, or the word out loud. Early rather than late.
Everything else in this glossary is convenience. Tapping is the mechanism that makes it possible to practise chokes and joint locks on a stranger twice a week for decades, and the practitioners who take it seriously are the ones still training in ten years.
BJJ terminology questions
What does "Oss" mean in BJJ?
It is a general acknowledgement borrowed from Japanese martial arts, used to mean anything from "yes" to "thank you" to "understood". Usage varies enormously between gyms, and there is no obligation to say it if your room does not.
What is a frame in BJJ?
A structure made of bone rather than muscle, usually a forearm placed against a hip or a neck with the elbow connected to your body. Frames hold space without burning energy, and they are the foundation of nearly every escape.
What is the difference between a sweep and a takedown?
A sweep reverses the position from the bottom, usually from guard, so you end up on top. A takedown starts from standing and puts your opponent on the ground.
What does "shrimping" mean?
The hip escape: lying on your side and pushing your hips backwards to create space between you and your opponent. It is in every warm-up because it appears in almost every escape.
Do I need to learn Portuguese terms for BJJ?
No. A handful of words appear regularly, and every gym uses English for the rest. Learning the position names in whatever language your room uses is far more useful than vocabulary breadth.