19 Best Rolling Tips For Both Gi and No Gi Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Training is the most essential for leading in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. However, training will not be helpful for you in gaining victory over your opponent if you are not training in the right direction. But what does the right direction mean?

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training in the right direction means doing exactly what you should do. If you have been learning precisely one move for the past five months or if, rather than training for advanced moves and techniques, you are focusing on basic moves, then this training will not benefit you.

Also, if you are not concentrating on submission techniques, then you can't win.

Before starting your next Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training, follow the best rolling tips discussed in this article. These tips will help you train yourself to confidently win in your next Brazilian jiu-jitsu match.

Training yourself increases your chances of winning in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu matches. The more you train, the better it will be for you to submit your opponent.

BJJ rolling is a form of training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in which BJJ fighters practice and train themselves by playing against each other. It is also termed as BJJ sparring or BJJ free rolling.

In Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, there are various forms of training.

In some forms, BJJ fighters train themselves by learning BJJ moves and BJJ techniques in the presence of a BJJ coach.

Other forms of BJJ training involve two fighters who train by playing and throwing BJJ moves and BJJ techniques against each other. It is not a fighting match, but they play like a real match and use all those moves and techniques they will apply in their upcoming professional BJJ matches.

BJJ rolling can be of different types and forms depending on the context. 

Foam rolling refers to massaging yourself to increase your mobility and flexibility.

Flow rolling is the general type of rolling in which you train yourself against other BJJ fighters.

BJJ hard rolling and BJJ light rolling refer to how hard you roll yourself against your teammates. 

It refers to rolling in the forward direction.

It refers to rolling in the backward direction.

It refers to rolling in the sideways direction.

It refers to rolling involving Inversion.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu matches are played in two forms.

The form of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in which BJJ fighters wear a uniform for fighting in the professional Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu match is termed Gi BJJ. This uniform is called Gi. It is a Japanese word that means “ uniform .” 

It comes in various color ranges, such as blue, black, white, gray, yellow, etc.  BJJ Gi fighters also wear a belt, the color of which ranges from white to black depending on the rank of BJJ fighter.

The form of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in which BJJ fighters do not wear any uniform for fighting in the profession of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu match is termed as No Gi BJJ. In this type of BJJ, fighters wear different clothes, polyester being the most common. Some wear accessories such as rashguards, shorts, spat pants, etc.

Gi and No Gi BJJ have different rules and techniques, as well as how you attack and defend during the BJJ match. All these rules are governed by the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation ( IBJJF ).

Following are some  differences between Gi and No Gi BJJ:

Following are some of the best rolling tips for both Gi and No Gi BJJ:

• In  Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu , you spend most of your time in the  BJJ guard position . You should be in a BJJ guard position to grab your opponent’s collar, sleeve, or anything else to submit him. The first rule to take grips in a guard position is; “Don't lay yourself in a BJJ guard position.” 

• When you are on your back in the BJJ guard position, you cannot  grip your opponent because it is hard to reach. You should try to stay in a sitting position to take grips. 

• If you are sitting, you can easily take a grip when your opponent  approaches 

• So, while he approaches you, take hold of his collar, sleeve, or both. After this, lie down and gradually transition to the  BJJ lasso grip.

• You cannot take a lasso grip if lying in a BJJ guard position. Grab the collar and sleeve, fall to your back, and transition to the lasso grip. These grips would have been hard to get if you were on your back at the start. You also have the option to place a sit-up guard instead of falling to your back once you have gripped your opponent’s collar or sleeve .

•  Side control  is a BJJ move in which you grab your opponent, controlling him by being in a perpendicular position. This is a difficult move, and after making this move, you should try to take him down. 

• To do this effectively, don't keep your toes  in the air . Keep them on the ground and try to transition into some submissive position. 

• Having your toes in the air makes it easier for your opponent to  transition  you into a submissive position. Also, he can escape easily.

• So always keep your toes  on the ground .

• Have you ever thought about what exactly  stops  you when you try to grip your opponent or take him down? In most cases, the answer is your opponent’s  hands . 

• If you try to push and  keep  your opponent's hands out of the fight in the first step, your match will become much easier than you can imagine.

• Keeping hands  out of the fight  means holding the opponent's hand aside and not letting his hands stop you from making any BJJ move. 

• People use their hands to defend and prevent submissions. You should always keep their hands out of the equation to make offense and defense easier for yourself.

• Suppose you are in a paper cutter choke. The first thing you should do is to hold your opponent’s hands with your foot. After this, you can secure your grip over your opponent. In most cases, it will be your feet or legs that block their grips.

• Make Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu an unfair game. Block their hands or arms and make any move.

• You may have knocked your opponent down somewhere in your Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu career, but he still got up after being knocked. Have you ever thought about why it happened?

• The reason is you did not control the legs of your opponent.

• Next time you make a sweep, try to keep your opponent’s legs in control . Don't allow them to touch their feet on the ground.

• If you succeed, your opponent can't get up again, and you can sweep quickly.

• It will become impossible for them to stand back up. Can you stand without your feet on the mat? It is a prerequisite to standing. 

• So make sure next time you sweep someone, control the legs. It should become muscle memory and instinctual for you.

• You should learn and practice as much as you can to give yourself the ability to break the grips of your opponent. This will provide an edge over your opponent in winning the match.

• Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a grip battle. 

• You need to get used to breaking grips.  Don't pressure yourself for this because it is challenging to do. You do not need to practice breaking all grips. Just try learning to break those grips that stop you from doing what you want. 

• After this, you can practice breaking other grips. 

• Once you have broken your opponent's grip, you can make any BJJ move or technique, allowing you to submit your opponent.

• The one thing that can instantly make you have control over your opponent is griping. If you have learned gripping and practiced as hard as possible, you can easily submit your opponent by making any BJJ  submission move.

• It is critical to have grips so you can control your opponent. What happens when your opponent does not have a grip on you? It will be an easy sweep or any other  BJJ submission move or technique because you are not being controlled.

• You need grips whether you are at the top or bottom of your opponent. 

• But the question is, how can you learn gripping? Various ways will help you to improve and increase your BJJ grip strength  and endurance, such as:

• Using hand grippers.

• Squeezing tennis balls.

• Plate pinches.

• Deadlifting.

• Rock and rope climbing.

• Towel pull-ups.

• Practicing how to clear the knee line will help you escape most of the submission moves. One of those submission moves is leg locks.

• In leg locks, you trap and entangle your opponent’s legs, allowing you to do the submission. So, escaping from leg locks is vital if you are submissive; otherwise, you will lose the match.

• To escape leg locks, you should clear the knee line. Once the knee line is cleared, you are 99% out of danger. This is the only real thing you should think about when defending leglocks. It is how you can get their hips below your knee instead of above. 

• The same concept applies throughout all leg entanglements. If you can do it effectively, you can use this concept to escape many other  BJJ submission moves, such as arm bars, kimura, and Americana. 

• If you focus on clearing your elbow past their hips or point of control, it will be much easier for you to escape.

• You should always keep your hands free and in a position ready to hold and grip your opponent. You need to keep your hands off the mat for two reasons. First, your hand won't control your opponent if it is on the mat. Second, you leave yourself vulnerable to attack. 

• If you accidentally put your hand on the mat, you need to get it off of there right away.

• Suppose you keep your hand on the mat to stop the sweep and bring it back inside after the move as soon as possible because you can be a triangle.

• While making the BJJ  triangle move, force your opponent's hand to the mat because it will separate his arm from his body and leave him vulnerable to the triangle.

• This rule should always be on your mind, particularly during a professional  BJJ fight. Go into any BJJ fight with the mindset that you won't accept a defeat at any cost. 

• You should fight as hard as you can. Continue trying to escape if you are in submission, and continue trying to hold and grip him to submit him. 

• You cannot accept getting taken down or swept. You must fight hard to get back on top if knocked down in a tournament.

• They won't get their two points if you get back up immediately. It is much better to always be on top. It is not over until it is over.

• One thing you should always protect is your head. You can't allow your opponent to grab your head. Protect your head at all costs. If your head gets grabbed, you can't do anything. In that case, your first objective should be getting your head free from your opponent’s hands.

• The reason is that you can do things easily if your head is not grabbed. Once your head is grabbed, your body must follow your head.

• This one tip will 100% improve your Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu game.

• It works in this way also that you should grab your opponent’s head while protecting your head. If you succeed in grabbing your opponent’s head, you can easily submit him.

• So, your priority should be to grab your opponent’s head and protect your head. That is what you will do throughout the game.

• The inside position is another excellent option to take your opponent to submission. You should always defend your inside position and try to control and dominate your opponent’s inside position.

• This will give you an advantage over your opponent.

• But what exactly is the inside position? The inside position is, most importantly, the space between your armpit to your knee and your shoulder to your neck. But it's your arms and legs, too. You cannot let people have control of these spaces.

• How can you acquire the inside position of your opponent? Your one leg should take an inside position between your opponent's shoulder and neck and the other leg between your opponent's armpit and knee.

• Acquiring an inside position can make applying the BJJ armbar easy. If you continuously defend your inside position, you can stop many BJJ submission moves made by your opponent. Meanwhile, it allows you to apply many BJJ submission moves on your opponent.

• Let's discuss some examples to understand this better.

Defending a turtle is an excellent example to understand this rule. If your opponent can gain control of your inside position, then he/she can attack chokes and back tanks. 

• Let's discuss another example. How can you defend the guillotine attempt? Yes, of course, by protecting your inside position. You keep your shoulders glued to your neck. This stops your opponent from getting under your neck to take control of your inside position.

• Always try to keep your inside position in your control and dominate your opponent’s inside position. This will take you to a victory in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu match.

• T-Rex arms mean that you are standing where you bend your arms at a 90-degree angle, and your arms are in front of you. In this position, your elbows are touching your body, and your forearms are not touching; they are in front of you.

• Although not a familiar concept, T-Rex arms are super essential for you in a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu match. You need to keep your elbows glued to your body. This prevents inside positions like getting your head grabbed or your partner taking an underhook.

• Suppose you are in a BJJ guard position. As you pass your opponent's guard, he will get his T-Rex arms in immediately. This will make it hard for you to control him because you can't grab his head.

• If your head is grabbed, your T-Rex arms will prevent the underhook. You can use one frame on the hip and the other to get underhook.

• T-Rex arms make escaping so much easier. Ignoring T-Rex arms and letting someone get the underhook is the worst case, making it difficult for you to escape.

• Don't get your elbows close to you. Applying T-Rexes is a much safer and easier way to escape any BJJ submission move or technique. These were only a few examples .

•  Underhook is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu submission move and technique in which you hold your opponent with one or both hands. You hold your opponent so that your arms pass under the arms of your BJJ opponent. In underhooks, you hold the upper body of your opponent.

• Holding your opponent with one hand will be called a single underhook; holding your opponent with both hands will be called a double underhook . To apply underhooks, you must first understand how to do it properly and correctly to avoid your BJJ opponent escaping.

• Underhooks are an underrated BJJ technique. BJJ experts don't often talk about BJJ underhooks. But they can help you defeat your opponent in many ways.

• Underhooks are almost always a good idea. They can be used for a variety of offenses:

• Backtake.

• To get on top of your opponent and keep him in control.

• To make sweeps.

• For takedowns.

• Underhooks are very versatile, and you can make a lot of other BJJ moves and techniques to help you take down your opponent.

• Always try to find the  easy way to do anything, whether making a BJJ submission move or escaping any move. This will increase your chances of successfully making or escaping the BJJ submission move.

• You should go through the path of least  resistance as much as possible. Just like  Bruce Lee says,

• You become more technical over time. 

• When making moves or escapes, always make the move in a way that is easy to make. Choose the move based on two things only. First, it is easy to make; second, it is the one you have trained and practiced harder over a long time. 

• This is the path of least resistance you should always seek in the game.

• That is why when Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu white belts start in the BJJ, they are often advised to always start their training with easy moves.

• As they train enough for easy BJJ moves, they should go for complex moves to make them experts in BJJ.

•  Getting choked is the worst thing you can imagine in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. When choked, it becomes very difficult to escape. 

• Remember the classic match between Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov? How did Khabib win? He choked Conor, and Conor was left with no option other than tapping out. 

• So, it is very crucial to find and learn a way to escape after being choked. Otherwise, you are only going to lose the BJJ fight. 

• When getting choked with any type of choke, you need to protect your neck. Prioritize it over all other things. Fight the hands of a BJJ  opponent choking you. You cannot reach down for the hooks unless your neck is protected. 

• If you went for the hooks instead of the hands, it would be useless. Reaching down for the hook is okay if you have control of your opponent’s choking hands. If he escapes, you can retake his back with the kimura grip. 

• There are thousands of escape options, but you cannot memorize all those thousands of escapes. You can just fight the hands. Concepts are way more important than individual techniques. 

• Winning scrambles in a professional Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu match is very crucial for you. Scrambles mean that you can change your position in the BJJ match to any other position quickly and easily.

• You change your position before your opponent changes his position. If you cannot change your position earlier, you cannot apply any BJJ move or technique on your opponent.

• He will escape even if you have applied because that will not be a proper move or technique.

• You must keep your hips higher than your opponent's to win scrambles. If you are getting your arm dragged, you should focus on keeping your hips higher, which keeps your opponent's hips down and unable to come up for the back take.

• You can use your butterfly hook to lift your opponent's leg in the air, which will stop his hips from lifting. Once you get your hips higher, you have won the positional battle.

• If you get swept, your only focus should be getting your hips higher. Once you do this, you will get back to your feet. 

• You should keep your hips down to have a low center of gravity. Once your hips come up and off your heels, you are much lighter and easier to sweep. 

• It can also be very good, although it's all the way up with your hips engaged. If your opponent approaches with their hips up, you can get their weight loaded perfectly above your hips using your feet.  Loading the hips means getting their weight on top of your hips.

• This makes the sweep very easy, even on the much larger opponent. 

• People's hips above yours make them light, so you want them on or past your center line. The more your opponent passes your center line, the lighter he becomes.

• Just think about this concept, and your sweeps will improve. If you pull the sword out of the stone, you must use your feet as wedges. 

• The same rule applies in the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu match. You must use a wedge to pry when stuck in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. 

• You can use your left foot to pry your opponent's grip off your pants. Then, you can move freely because your opponent’s grip is not controlling you. 

• Break the posture in your guard, which means keeping your opponent's head down. It limits your opponent's mobility and makes it hard for them to escape or do anything. 

• Meanwhile, you can attack from a broken posture or use them to posture against them to set up an attack. 

• These were some of the best rolling tips for Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. You should use these tips before going for your next BJJ or free rolling. These tips cover everything from basic moves to those uncommon and unfamiliar moves or things you should not ignore, such as making full use of T-Rex arms.

• Some of these tips are so versatile and beneficial that if you master them by practicing, you can make various moves that will take you to submit your opponent.

• Moreover, the position of your hips matters a lot, whether it is below or above your opponent’s hips or if it is on the ground. This is the thing that most BJJ fighters ignore. So, take this advantage and always focus on your hip position.