Money-Jiu Jitsu (Part 5): Lower Percentage BJJ

We’ve spent a lot of time these last few weeks breaking down the 2012 Pan Ams. We shared how matches were being won, the highest percentage strategies, the most beneficial positions, and the  most successful submissions. Now we are going to take a few minutes to breakdown the lowest percentage movements and least prevalent techniques.

It’s important to note that this research includes only 63 matches from this years Pan Ams, so it’s a relatively small sample size to be making a full judgment on whether a technique is effective or not. However, it is worth noting that in all those matches we were able to see some strong prevalence in many techniques we had discussed in Part 3 and 4, so I think it’s fair to make some assessments about techniques that were not proven successful this year.

In terms of sweeps, the least successful sweep position was butterfly guard. Butterfly guard only accounted for 2% of all sweep in this years competition. In fact, close range sweep attacks in general were unsuccessful in the tape we viewed. Sweeps like the scissor sweep, hook sweep, and tomanagi were the least prevalent. Those sweeps only accounted for approximately 8% of all specific sweeps that were executed.

What about passing? Most passes occurred from half-guard or standing as we previously discussed; however, there were a decent amount of passes executed from a kneeling position. These kneeling passes were less prevalent than the others though, they only accounted for about 23% of all successful passes. So it would appear that passing from a kneeling position is a lower percentage place to to attempt guard passes. By and large the most unsuccessful type of pass was the double-under or single-under pass. These accounted for only 1 successful attempt in 62 matches, less than 1%. To me, regardless of sample size, this says a lot about the current state of the game. If this is your type of pass, then you better be developing a plan B.

I won’t spend a lot of time on this part, but competitors were much more likely to take the back from top than bottom. The player on top accounts for roughly 64% of all back takes recorded, and the least common position to take the back from was bottom half-guard (obviously excluding detrimental positions). Bottom half-guard accounted for only 5% of all back-takes.

Finally, we will close the discussion talking about submissions. The least common submission recorded (there were obviously submissions that did not occur, i.e. gogoplatas, etc.) was the loop choke and variations of leg locks. Both accounted for only 9% each (18% total). I’m not sure this gives us a great sampling of what submissions we should not to use, as much as submissions that did not occur might; such as the americana or wrist lock ( to name a few). I think the more important part of this research comes form where these submissions occurred from. Of all the submissions only 31% occurred from a bottom position, so it is more likely to submit your opponent from the back or on top than the bottom. From the bottom, surprisingly, De La Riva offered the least amount of submissions offering only 14% of bottom submissions, compared to 36% from spider, and 23% from closed guard.

I won’t spend any more time on the unsuccessful elements of the 2012 Pan Ams, because all you have to really do is go back and look at the past 4 parts where we outline what was successful and apply reverse-knowledge to draw your own conclusions. I thought the elements above might be of some use, as it helps us see what elements of our game we might want to steer away from in competition.

This concludes our 5 part series on breaking down the 2012 Pan Ams. The next part of the Money-Jiu Jitsu series will focus on how to apply these principles in real life settings. We will be posting some videos of drills, techniques, and training that is geared toward bringing these numbers to life.

Please let us know what you think about the Money-Jiu Jitsu series so far, and continue to share and follow us on Facebook and Twitter (@tylerbishop and @Jena_Rae22).

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God Bless,

Tyler and Jena Bishop