Every technique in jiu-jitsu, which ones actually matter, and what to learn first

Walk into any gym and you’ll see the same thing: people collecting techniques like trading cards. A new pass from YouTube on Monday, a fancy guard from a reel on Wednesday, a leg lock entry someone showed them on Friday. None of it sticks, because none of it connects to anything.

Here’s what that actually costs you:

• You forget techniques a week after you drill them, because they don’t fit into a game.
• The stuff you do remember doesn’t work in sparring, because half of it doesn’t work on beginners in the first place (more on that next, it’s the whole point).
• You feel like you’re not getting better fast enough, and you’re right. It’s not that you’re untalented. It’s that nobody ever handed you a plan.

The market is no help. There are more than 3,000 instructionals out there now and thousands of hours of footage (GrappleDB, State of BJJ Instructionals 2026). More material than any human could watch, and almost none of it tells you the one thing you need: what to learn, in what order, and what to ignore for now.

That’s not an instructional problem. That’s a map problem.

Most BJJ techniques don’t work on beginners.

I don’t mean they’re too hard for you. I mean a lot of them need the other person to react a certain way, and a beginner just doesn’t. They’re not defending the right thing, they’re not framing, they’re not posturing up, so the move has nothing to bite on. Half the stuff you see online is built to beat a competent opponent who fights back correctly. Across the table from a fellow white belt, that same move falls apart and you have no idea why.

Here’s the part that probably stings: if your ‘good’ submissions keep dying on beginners, you most likely picked moves that need a reaction. You drill them, they work in the videos, they fail in sparring, and you quietly decide you’re just bad at them. You’re not. You’re attacking the wrong things against this particular opponent.

It took me years to work this out. It’s a big reason I was a white belt for almost four years. So let me save you the time. For every technique, you want to know which side of this line it sits on:

Those are three examples out of a whole sport’s worth. The leg drag, reverse de la riva and arm triangle aren’t bad techniques. They’re just the wrong ones to lean on this year. The toreando, single X and guillotine aren’t ‘basic’ in some embarrassing way. They’re the ones that pay off now.

So the real question isn’t ‘is this a good move.’ It’s ‘does this move work against the people I actually train with, today.’ For every technique in jiu-jitsu, you should know the answer, so you spend your limited mat time on the handful that pay off now and leave the rest for when you’re ready for them.

That’s exactly what the Map is.

The Map is a learning plan. Not a highlight reel, not a match strategy. It takes every technique in jiu-jitsu and answers three questions for each one:

1. Does it matter? Some techniques carry your whole game. Some are situational. Some are traps that look essential and aren’t. The Map sorts them.
2. What do you learn first? There’s a right order, and most people get it backwards. The Map gives you the order, with a realistic “how long until this works in sparring” estimate next to each technique.
3. Who do you learn it from? Thousands of instructionals, a handful of teachers actually worth your study time. The Map names them and tells you how to use each one.

It’s text, checklists, and flowcharts. You read the whole thing in an afternoon, then keep it as a reference for years. It won’t drill the moves for you. It tells you what to point your limited mat time at.

These aren’t teasers. Each one is a real decision the Map makes, with the reasoning, so you can judge it before you buy.

1. The best black belts in the world win with about five submissions, not fifty. The checklist in the back of the Map has 57 entries. The Map flags the nine that matter most and shows why the rest can wait years.

2. The arm triangle looks like a beginner submission. It is not. Arm-in chokes are roughly ten times harder to land than a triangle and take about three months to get reliable. A guillotine takes about a week. If your arm triangle never finishes, that’s not you failing. You’re attacking one of the hardest submissions in the sport too early.

3. Build your guard before you learn escapes. Most white belts burn their first year drilling escapes, because getting smashed feels urgent. Wrong order. To escape, you need a safe place to escape toward, and that place is your guard. The Map’s 40/40/20 split (40% guard, 40% top game, 20% escapes) fixes how most beginners waste their mat time. Getting this order right early saves you a wasted first year.

4. Which guard to learn first, ranked, with a clock on each one. Single X is usable in live sparring after about two weeks. Knee shield half guard is hard to pass even for blue and purple belts. Reverse de la riva is a hard no for beginners, no matter how cool it looks. All fourteen guards, ranked, each with a realistic time-to-learn.

5. The teachers actually worth your study time, with honest notes on each. Lachlan Giles, John Danaher, Gordon Ryan, Craig Jones, and a few more. The Map tells you how to use each one, not just that they’re good. Example: only buy Danaher instructionals on topics you know almost nothing about, because his depth is wasted (and confusing) on something you already understand. That’s the kind of call that saves you a few hundred dollars and a lot of wasted hours.

Nothing magic happens. You still do the work. But the work starts paying off, because it’s pointed in the right direction:

• You walk into class knowing what you’re there to drill, instead of hoping today’s random technique turns out to be useful.
• You stop buying instructionals you’re not ready for, and the ones you do buy actually stick, because you know where they fit.
• The white belts who used to give you trouble start getting predictable, because you’re finally hitting the toreando and single X that actually work on them instead of forcing a leg drag that was never going to land.
• You start feeling real progress again instead of lying awake wondering whether you’ve plateaued.

That’s the difference between training hard and training the right things.

• The honest learning plan up front: the core habits that get you good faster, the 40/40/20 split, the gi vs no-gi answer, and the trusted-teacher list with notes on how to use each one.
• Every position, ranked, with a time-to-learn clock: all 14 guards, the 12 guard passes worth knowing, the 5 pins, the 4 leg entanglements, and the submissions, each sorted by what to learn first and what can wait.
• The complete technique checklists: the full inventory of jiu-jitsu in one place, including all 57 submissions with the 9 that actually matter flagged, and the beginner moves marked, so you always know where any technique sits on the map.
• Your first game plan: a five-move white belt game plan simple enough you can’t forget it under pressure, drawn out step by step.
• Chapter quizzes so the ideas actually stick instead of washing over you.

Two things come with it, free

• Legendary Game Plans (bonus, included). Eleven complete game plans from the best grapplers alive (Gordon Ryan, Roger Gracie, Marcelo Garcia, Craig Jones, John Danaher, Lachlan Giles and more), each broken into the steps and drills to build it. For when you’ve run the white belt game plan and you’re ready to study how champions actually win. It used to sell on its own.
• The BJJ Skill Tracker (free app on bjjmore.com). It turns the checklists in the back of the Map into an interactive app: score yourself 1 to 5 across the skill areas, see your weak spots on a chart, and get pointed at what to work on next.

The Map is for you if:

• You’re a white or blue belt who feels like you’re collecting techniques instead of building a game.
• You train two to four times a week and you can’t afford to waste those sessions on the wrong things.
• You want an honest opinion from someone who’s been the slow learner, not a highlight reel from someone who was always talented.
• You’ve bought instructionals before and felt buried by them, and you want a map of the whole landscape before you spend another cent.

It’s probably not for you if:

• You’re a competitive brown or black belt looking for a specific advanced system. This is a foundation, not a deep study of one position.
• You want video. The Map is text, checklists and flowcharts on purpose, so you can read it in an afternoon and keep it as a reference. The recommended instructors cover the video.
• You’re looking for a magic shortcut. There isn’t one. The Map saves you from training the wrong things. You still do the work.

The BJJ Map is $47. One payment, instant download, yours to keep.

And it comes with Legendary Game Plans included, free: eleven complete game plans from the best grapplers alive (Gordon Ryan, Roger Gracie, Marcelo Garcia, Craig Jones, John Danaher, Lachlan Giles and more), each broken into the exact steps and drills to build it. Yours at no extra cost with the Map.

Get the Map for $47

Read the Map, use it for a month, point your training at what it tells you to. If you don’t feel like you finally have a plan and you’re training smarter than you were, email me at max@bjjmore.com within 30 days and I’ll refund you. No questions, no form, no hoops.

I rarely get refund requests. But the offer is real.

Some people want to be sure before they spend anything. If that’s you, here’s the honest version.

I was the slowest learner in my gym. Almost four years to get my blue belt, and I was training plenty, three to five sessions a week, so it wasn’t for lack of mat time. It took that long because I trained the wrong things, the same wrong things I’ve spent this whole page describing. I drilled escapes before I had a guard. I kept hunting arm-in chokes that need a reaction beginners never give you, instead of the toreando, single X into a straight footlock, and the guillotine that just works. Then I figured out the map, and I picked up my purple and brown belts in about two and a half years combined. I’ve been a black belt under Checkmat since 2024. I have two young kids, a full-time job and a reconstructed elbow, so I can’t outgrind anybody. I out-study them instead. That’s the entire idea behind this guide.

The full Map is $47, and Legendary Game Plans (eleven complete champion game plans, broken down) comes with it free. You’ve got 30 days to change your mind, so the risk sits with me, not you. If it doesn’t give you a real plan, email me and I’ll refund you. That’s the deal.

Get the Map for $47

Still want to test the thinking first? Read the opening chapters free, just below.