How to choose your game (and why it pays to do it early)
Trying everything looks like the open choice. In practice it is the most efficient way to end up with thirty things that do not work instead of three that do.
BJJ Square · Updated on 08/11/2026
In jiu-jitsu your “game” is the set of positions and sequences you go for first, the ones you have built answers around. Somebody with a game is not somebody who knows fewer techniques: they are somebody who has decided which route they take.
Why narrowing down helps
Jiu-jitsu has an enormous number of positions, and each one needs a lot of repetitions before it works against somebody who resists. Spreading your attention across all of it means never reaching the threshold where something starts to come off. Narrowing down is how you get there on something.
Note This is not an invitation to ignore the rest: the positions you do not train you will end up in anyway, and knowing them matters. The difference is between what you go looking for and what you can handle.
How to choose
- Look at what already works for you, not at what you enjoy watching. The game that suits you emerges from sparring, not from YouTube.
- Take your build into account. Long arms and long legs make different things natural; if you are compact and strong, other routes open up. It is not destiny, but it is a starting point.
- Start from a position, not a submission. A guard or a passing style gives you territory; a submission on its own is a piece of luck waiting to happen.
- Ask your coach. They are the person who watches you roll, and the most underused source of information in any gym.
When
Not in your first week: you need a good year of exposure to everything first, otherwise you are choosing without knowing what you are discarding. The point at which the choice becomes useful is when general progress slows down — which is, as it happens, around blue belt.
A warning
⚠️ A game that gets too narrow too early leaves gaps that cost you dearly later: somebody who spends three years only playing guard has no idea what to do the day they end up on top. The practical rule is to narrow what you go for, not what you train.
And to know what to go for, you need to know what is not working: taking notes.
Frequently asked questions
- What does it mean to have a game in BJJ?
- It means you have chosen the set of positions and sequences you go for first, the ones you have built answers around. It does not mean knowing fewer techniques, but having decided which route your jiu-jitsu takes.
- When is the right time to choose a game?
- Not at the start: you need a good year of exposure to everything first. The moment the choice becomes useful is when general progress slows down, typically around blue belt.
- How do you work out which game suits you?
- By looking at what already works in sparring rather than at what you enjoy watching, taking your build into account, and starting from a position — a guard or a passing style — instead of a single submission.
- Is specialising early risky?
- Yes, if you also narrow what you train: people who spend years only playing guard find themselves without answers when they have to be on top. It is better to narrow what you go for, not what you practise.
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