Essential no-gi terms every beginner should know
The must-know vocabulary of no-gi grappling — the positions, actions, and submissions you'll hear on day one — each defined and linked so you can follow along.
Adapted from InGrappling, Essential no-gi terms every beginner should know. System Games did not invent this curriculum.
Beginner listGetting startedParent-safeEvery sport has its own language, and grappling has more than most. You do not need to memorise any of it — you will absorb it on the mat — but knowing the handful of words below means a coach’s instructions make sense from your first session. This is the beginner’s shortlist; the full glossary defines every term in the sport, mechanically.
The tap — the signal that you give up: a clear tap on your partner (or the mat, or a verbal “tap”), after which they release immediately. It is the safety mechanism the whole sport runs on. Read tapping culture before anything else.
Rolling — live sparring. “Want to roll?” means “want to spar?” It is training at resistance, not a fight.
Submission — a choke or joint lock that forces the tap. Finishing the match is “getting the submission” or “the finish.”
Guard — when you are on your back (or seated) with your legs between you and your opponent. In no-gi the guard is an attacking position, not a losing one. The common ones: closed guard, half guard, open guard, and butterfly guard.
Mount — sitting on your opponent’s torso; a highly dominant top position.
Side control — pinning your opponent from the side, chest to chest.
Back control / the back — chest to your opponent’s back with a seatbelt grip and hooks; the most dominant position in the sport.
Takedown — getting the fight from standing to the ground.
Sprawl — the core defence to a takedown: hips drop, legs back.
Passing — getting past your opponent’s legs from the top into a pin.
Sweep — reversing from the bottom so you end up on top.
Collar tie and wrist control — two of the body-based grips that replace the fabric grips of the gi.