Lately I’ve been thinking about offense and defense in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and this is what I’ve come up with: There is a definite line that divides what you are doing into either an offensive or a defensive move.
I know there is nuance in this, there are aggressive-defensive moves and defensive-aggressive moves, but at some point you have to chose to defend or attack.
The nice thing about BJJ is that when you are defending, it is really hard to attack. So if you can keep pressure on, keep blitzing your opponent the entire time. It is easier to setup other attacks.
For example, if you are going for a person’s arm and then you are having trouble getting them to stop defending it, you can apply a weak choke attack to get them to free their arm so you can revert to your first attack.
This is what I am calling Binary BJJ, if you are defending (0) then you cannot attack (1).
The pressure that attacks cause is what separates this sport from chess. It is a lot harder to relax and think about what would be the most efficient attack you could make when you have a forearm cutting off the blood to your brain. The defense is a lot more urgent, and there isn’t as much time to mull over your next move.
