TY - JOUR AU - Spanias, Charalampos AU - Kirk, Christopher AU - Øvretveit, Karsten PY - 2022/12/20 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Position before submission? Techniques and tactics in competitive no-gi Brazilian jiu-jitsu JF - Revista de Artes Marciales Asiáticas JA - Rev. artes marciales asiát. VL - 17 IS - 2 SE - Articles DO - 10.18002/rama.v17i2.7410 UR - https://revpubli.unileon.es/ojs/index.php/artesmarciales/article/view/7410 SP - 130-139 AB - <p>Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) is a grappling-based combat sport performed either with a traditional uniform, the <em>gi</em>, or without, known as <em>no-gi</em>. Differences between the two when it comes to gripping, pace, and ruleset can affect match characteristics, which has implications for how athletes approach competition. The present study investigated time-motion and technical-tactical characteristics in matches from official <em>no-gi</em> submission-only BJJ tournaments. The analysis included 26 regional and 26 international athletes from the light-feather to super-heavy weight class. Match characteristics did not differ between competition levels, style (guard or pass player), or weight (<em>p</em> &gt; 0.05). The duration of positional dominance was similar between competition levels and styles (<em>p</em> &gt; 0.05), but significantly different between winners and losers (<em>p</em> &lt; 0.05; effect size (ES) = 0.39). Positional dominance also correlated with upper-body submissions (<em>r</em> = 0.50; <em>p</em> &lt; 0.05). Interestingly, positional dominance appeared inconsequential in matches determined by lower-body submissions. In fact, athletes winning by lower-body submissions, in most cases a heel hook, exerted no positional control prior to their victory. The high- to low-intensity ratio was 1:2 and 1:1, for regional and international athletes, respectively. The standing to ground time ratio was 1:2 for both groups. In addition to the novel competition characteristics of competitive <em>no-gi</em> BJJ, these findings indicate that there are strategical discrepancies that precede distinctly different submission holds.</p> ER -