Strategy games and Jiu Jitsu.

A comparison made and something commonly heard in the sport is - 'Jiu Jitsu is like human chess' in regards to the strategic element but how do stategy games compare to Jiu Jitsu?

Having been an avid gamer all of my life I’ve always been attracted to strategy games which have taken some level of skill and logical thinking to beat an opponent.

(I have a guest blog from a chess a master and fellow bjj team mate coming up so keep posted!)

Board games such as risk and chess, card games like Magic the gathering and Hearthstone to computer games such as Starcraft or Age of empires.

Playing games like this this can certainly improve your thought process for Bjj by involving problem solving, creating combos of moves, thinking contrary to the norm, visualising the possibilities and having the skill to think ahead while under pressure and within a limited time frame.

I will speak about what I know most of trading card games!

Magic and Hearthstone are card games which I still play keep me entertained while off the mats and that challenge me mentally via problem solving, planning, calculating and using logical thinking to come out the victor all be it over a table or online.


Magic the gathering has a ‘‘deck’’ which comprises from 60 or more cards. You can select from 5 colour classes which you can mix, selecting your cards from thousands available. Decks can be full of creatures, spells, enchantments, architects which make the possibilities endless and planning ahead essential with set plays and combinations.

Compare this to Jiu Jitsu in a certain sense with ‘’styles’’. You have unlimited movements but will find people tend to stick to particular game which suits them mentally and physically. Your style will be comprised of guards, passes, submissions, counters and transitions.

Piecing together Jiu Jitsu chains is one of the most fun aspects of Jiu Jitsu as your opponent is constantly resisting and you have to visualise a clear path, counters to your opponents movements all while setting traps for them to fall in to. It is certainly a mental game and usually the first one to tire is the first one to make a mistake which can be fatal!

I mainly play black colour decks as I prefer hard removal spells, making your opponent discard cards, losing your own life for benefits such as card advantage all while going straight for the win.

And I guess I see this in my Jiu Jitsu with my game being a pretty straight forward submission based style, pressure passing making my opponents spend energy and move in ways they would not necessarily want to go and then taking advantage of this with something nasty!


                      NEXT UP - Chess Master Andrew Greet's guest blog on Jiu Jitsu and Chess!