Jiu jitsu has its own language. If you’ve ever watched a class or read about training and felt lost by the terminology, this glossary covers the words you’ll hear on the mat. Every term below is defined the way we use it at 10th Planet Airlock in Bastrop, TX. Book a free class if you want to hear them in person.
Positions
Guard: A position where you are on your back with your opponent held at bay by your legs. You use your legs, hips, and arms to control them from the bottom. Guard is one of the most fundamental positions in jiu jitsu and has many variations.
Closed Guard: A specific type of guard where your legs are wrapped around your opponent’s waist with your ankles locked behind their back. This controls their posture and limits their movement.
Open Guard: Any guard position where your legs are not locked around your opponent. Your feet and knees create frames and hooks to control distance and set up sweeps or submissions.
Half Guard: A position where you have one of your opponent’s legs trapped between yours. It’s a middle ground between full guard and being passed.
Mount: A dominant position where you are sitting on top of your opponent’s torso with both knees on the mat. Being in mount gives you strong control and access to submissions. Being under mount means you need to escape.
Side Control: A dominant position where you are chest-to-chest with your opponent, perpendicular to their body, with your weight pinning them to the mat. One of the most common positions you’ll find yourself in during rolling.
Back Mount or Rear Mount (Back Control): A dominant position where you are behind your opponent with your hooks (feet) controlling their hips. Considered the strongest position in jiu jitsu because your opponent cannot see or effectively attack you.
Turtle: A defensive position where a person is on their hands and knees, tucked in to protect themselves. Common when someone is trying to avoid giving up side control or back mount.
Techniques and Movements
Submission: A technique that forces your opponent to tap out. Submissions include chokes or strangulation (restricting blood flow or air) and joint locks (applying pressure to a joint beyond its normal range). Essentially, the goal of jiu jitsu.
Sweep: A technique used from the bottom (usually from guard) to reverse your opponent’s position, putting yourself on top. A successful sweep changes who is in the dominant position.
Pass (Guard Pass): Moving past your opponent’s legs and hips to establish a dominant position like side control or mount. Passing someone’s guard is one of the core skills in jiu jitsu.
Escape: A technique used to get out of a bad position. Escaping mount, side control, or back control is one of the first things beginners learn.
Takedown: A technique that brings your opponent from standing to the ground. Takedowns come from wrestling, judo, and jiu jitsu and are how most grappling exchanges begin.
Pulling guard: The opposite of a takedown. Getting grips and purposely sitting to engage a sweep from standing.
Shrimp (Hip Escape): A fundamental movement where you push off the mat with your feet and scoot your hips away from your opponent. One of the most important movements in jiu jitsu and used in almost every escape.
Bridge: Driving your hips upward off the mat using your feet and shoulders. Bridging is used to create space, off-balance your opponent, and escape from bottom positions like mount.
Frame: Using your arms, elbows, or knees to create a rigid structure between you and your opponent. Frames create space and prevent your opponent from applying pressure. Good framing is one of the most important defensive skills in jiu jitsu.
Underhook: Reaching under your opponent’s arm to control their body from the inside. Underhooks give you leverage and positional advantage in many grappling situations.
Overhook: Wrapping your arm over your opponent’s arm from the outside. Used for control, to set up submissions, and to neutralize your opponent’s underhooks.
Training Terms
Rolling: Live sparring in jiu jitsu. Two training partners grapple at varying intensity, applying what they’ve learned in real time. Rolling is how you develop timing, reactions, and the ability to use techniques against a resisting opponent.
Flow Rolling: A lighter, more cooperative style of rolling focused on movement and transitions rather than winning. Partners trade positions and techniques at a relaxed pace. Good for skill development and recovery days.
Positional Sparring: Rolling that starts from a specific position (like guard or mount) with a specific goal (escape, pass, sweep). More structured than open rolling and commonly used for beginners.
Drilling: Practicing a specific technique repeatedly with a partner. Drilling builds the muscle memory that makes techniques work during live rolling.
Open Mat: An unstructured training session where members can roll, drill, or work on whatever they want. There is no coached instruction during open mat.
Tap (Tapping Out): The universal signal to stop. When you’re caught in a submission or feel uncomfortable, you tap your partner’s body once or twice or say “tap” and they release immediately. Tapping is how you train safely. Everyone taps. Every class. Every belt level.
Mat Time: The total amount of time you’ve spent training on the mat. Mat time is the single most important factor in getting better at jiu jitsu. There are no shortcuts.
10th Planet Specific Terms
The 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu system developed its own set of techniques and positions for no-gi grappling. Here are a few you’ll hear at 10th Planet Airlock:
Rubber Guard: A guard position where you control your opponent’s posture by bringing your shin across their shoulder and holding your own foot with your hands. Developed by Eddie Bravo specifically for no-gi grappling, rubber guard eliminates the need for collar grips and creates tight control from the bottom.
Lockdown: A half guard control where you weave your legs around your opponent’s trapped leg and lock your feet together in a specific configuration. Lockdown immobilizes your opponent’s base and sets up sweeps and transitions.
Truck: A back control variation where you control your opponent’s hips and legs in a way that exposes them to submissions like the twister. A signature 10th Planet position.
Twister: A spinal lock/crank submission set up from the truck position. One of the most recognizable techniques in the 10th Planet system.
Gear
Gi: The traditional jiu jitsu uniform, a heavy cotton jacket and pants with a belt. Used in gi jiu jitsu. At 10th Planet Airlock, we train no-gi exclusively, so you will never need a gi to train here.
No-Gi: Training without a gi uniform. You wear a rash guard and shorts or spats. All techniques are based on body mechanics rather than fabric grips. 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu is a no-gi only system.
Rash Guard: A tight-fitting athletic shirt made of quick-drying, flexible fabric. Worn in no-gi jiu jitsu to protect the skin, improve hygiene, and prevent mat burn. Available in short sleeve and long sleeve.
Spats: Tight-fitting leggings worn under shorts during no-gi training. Spats protect your legs from mat burn and improve hygiene during close-contact grappling.
Mouth Guard: A protective device worn over your teeth during training. Recommended for live rolling to protect against accidental contact.
Culture and Etiquette
Oss (Osu): A term used in jiu jitsu and other martial arts as a greeting, sign of respect, or acknowledgment. You’ll hear it before and after class and between training partners… but not at Airlock. It’s so overused in martial arts that it’s now just a joke. Say it often to annoy your coach and for humor points. Its exact origin is debated, but in jiu jitsu culture it broadly means “respect” or “I understand.”
Belt Ranks: The jiu jitsu belt progression for adults is white, blue, purple, brown, and black, with stripes marking progress within each belt. A black belt typically takes 10 or more years to achieve. At 10th Planet Airlock, our head instructor Rei Villa is a 10th Planet Black Belt and IBJJF First Degree Black Belt. As is our Coach Chris Bennett, a 10th Planet Black Belt from 10th Planet Tucson.
Organizations
IBJJF (International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation): The largest organizing body for competitive jiu jitsu, running tournaments worldwide in both gi and no-gi divisions.
ADCC (Abu Dhabi Combat Club): The most prestigious no-gi submission grappling tournament in the world. Held every two years, ADCC is considered the pinnacle of no-gi competition.
NAGA (North American Grappling Association): A major tournament circuit in the United States for both gi and no-gi jiu jitsu at all belt levels. And it’s the competition we like doing for both adults and kids here in the Austin area.
Keep Learning
This glossary covers the basics. The deeper you get into jiu jitsu, the more language you’ll pick up naturally from training. If you want to see these terms in action, your first class at 10th Planet Airlock is free. You can also read our beginner’s guide to starting jiu jitsu in Bastrop for the bigger picture.
Book your free trial class at 10th Planet Airlock →
Or call us: (512) 271-5260
Or email: airlockbjj@gmail.com
10th Planet Airlock | 303 Martin Luther King Dr, Bastrop, TX 78602 | Inside Bastrop Fitness Project | Voted #1 Best Martial Arts Gym in Bastrop County 2025 | We Defy Foundation Partner
