Specialization

The other day I said to myself that grappling and BJJ in particular has become a game of placing your adversary into the most niche position you can, and then seeing if they can find their way out. It can also be seen as who can get to the most obscure control position first. With something like striking there is a very immediate risk involved in straying too far from convention. In submission oriented grappling, primarily no gi and gi jiu jitsu, there are whole matches contested over hand placement where both people are in a seated position. I don’t feel that this is the case in other grappling sports, and I’m not really sure whether it is detrimental to BJJ’s effectiveness. It does seem that without a pin or knockout type immediacy to finishing a match, the repertoire  of what’s possible opens tremendously.