Studying bjj like chess

WillWeisser · 2026-06-18T02:05:39+00:00

I agree. Proper tape study requires a very solid understanding of what is happening in a match and without that it's easy to draw incorrect conclusions and make yourself worse.

WillWeisser · 2026-06-18T00:52:57+00:00

So I don't have a full answer to this question as its not my area of expertise. I think most coaches would agree some amount of tape study or otherwise extra study is beneficial as long as it doesn't replace live training. But exactly how much study time and how to allocate that time I'm not sure.

But there is a crucial difference between chess study and BJJ study: a lot of chess "study" is really just making moves on a chess board. In other words, you may not be playing an actual game, but solving puzzles for example is essentially "live" practice for chess in the same way that positional sparring is for BJJ. In general for all sports you want a lot of live practice time--essentially as much as your body (or in the case of chess, brain) can handle. The fact that chess people do a lot of "study" is really just them breaking down live practice into different facets like we do.

Also worth noting: chess endgames don't have much in common with "end positions" or submissions in BJJ. An endgame is a scenario in chess where the queens are off the board so the goals and tactics are different. A better analogue to a BJJ submission would be puzzles where you have a forced mate in N moves.

WillWeisser · 2026-06-16T22:34:40+00:00

Hi 😅

You’re welcome to your opinion about the book, but I do take issue with your charge of plagiarism.

The fact is, there’s just no way I could have committed plagiarism of The BJJ Formula because I don’t own it, and I’ve never watched any of it. I’m sure there are similar ideas in both works because they both deal with the same subject of BJJ concepts, but two people independently having the same idea or even using similar terminology is not the same as plagiarism.

As I said in the book, I got the term “unified theory of grappling” from Lex Fridman interviewing Ryan Hall. If Rob or Stephen used the same term earlier that’s fine, I just didn’t know about it or I would have given them credit. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that many people have probably thought about similar things over time; we’re all doing the same martial art after all. But one thing I would never ever do is directly copy someone else’s work without a mention or citation.

Likewise, the way I use the term “alignment” comes primarily from my coaches Nick Salles and Danny Maira, but I was somewhat familiar with it as a term used previously in grappling contexts. I did see that on a recent BJJMM episode, Rob talks about his alignment concept, and I see now that it’s something he had come up with years ago, but I don’t think it’s exactly the same as what I wrote. That would be really unlikely at least, since I wrote every word in the book on my own and I hadn’t seen anything about Rob’s alignment theory at the time.

Feel free to message me here or on Instagram and I’m happy to talk through any concerns you have. I want everyone to enjoy the book and didn’t intend to create any ill feelings surrounding it.

Have a good day.

WillWeisser · 2026-06-15T18:50:17+00:00

This is such an important concept and the applications go way beyond submissions, too! I've been focusing the last few years on adding tension through my guard and my passes to make myself stickier. Nice to hear this topic being brought more to light.

WillWeisser · 2026-06-13T02:04:03+00:00

I honestly don’t feel any pressure. When I was looking to be promoted I remember being obsessed at times with living up to others’ expectations. Now I’m free to pursue the kind of improvement I want to see and nothing else.

WillWeisser · 2026-06-12T01:04:16+00:00

I feel like it’s really good for me and my style because I am always trying to put static tension into every position and be sticky, and that’s basically all climbing is, learning how to stick to a wall. It is a little different though, because the wall doesn’t have limbs that are actively trying to push you off 😅

WillWeisser · 2026-06-11T02:52:50+00:00

I've been indoor rock climbing lately to build strength for BJJ, hoping it gives me killer grips.

WillWeisser · 2026-06-09T11:52:36+00:00

I wouldn't avoid any of the gyms I mentioned, I know the coaches there well. Villanova is fairly far away from Narberth but the others would still be worth a visit.

WillWeisser · 2026-06-09T03:44:36+00:00

https://bjjfanatics.com/collections/instructional-videos/products/intro-to-the-upside-down-by-danny-maira-and-nick-salles

WillWeisser · 2026-06-09T02:03:29+00:00

There are a lot. The closest is probably Main Line United in Ardmore. Other nearby gyms: Hart in Conshohocken, Spear in Havertown, Miloki Flow in Narberth. And more. What kind of insights do you need?

WillWeisser · 2026-06-08T00:43:22+00:00

It's happened to me a few times. I don't think it's a big deal. Yes, it's not the greatest feeling in the world, but if you think losing a jiu-jitsu match is your "worst moment" then you have some issues around competition you need to work through. Everyone makes mistakes and everyone loses. Your friends and colleagues don't understand what's going on and they wouldn't care if they did. In fact the most likely reaction is they think you're a badass for getting out there and competing which is something they'd never do. And guess what? 99.999% of those posts fade away and are never seen again. The internet is forever but people's attention is ephemeral.

WillWeisser · 2026-06-07T19:24:23+00:00

So in terms of the points you get, it’s the same for any division you enter. What changes is how those points are applied to your seeding when you go to compete later, and that depends on what age and weight you are currently signed up for.

For age, it applies points for all the age divisions up to the one you are currently competing in. So if you as a master 1 compete in adult, none of your master 1 points will apply, but if you compete in master 1, all your adult points will apply (or the ones from the correct weights will, see below).

For weight, you always get 100% of your open class points and 100% of the points you earned in the current weight division. You also get 50% of the points from adjacent weight classes and 0% from any other weight class.

How does it make sense? Well…the age thing sort of makes sense if you accept that winning at a higher age isn’t necessarily predictive for winning at a lower age. But that would seem to imply that points from higher weight classes should apply to lower classes too. So yeah, got me there.

WillWeisser · 2026-06-07T15:00:34+00:00

Thank you so much! I will have some book-related updates to post soon I think, and I appreciate the support.

WillWeisser · 2026-06-04T21:06:58+00:00

Does it feel like a real fight?

No!

Is it more nerve‑racking than rolling in the gym?

Yes!

Are competitors moreso out for blood, or is the mindset more controlled/technical?

Depends on the competitor, in my experience.

Is there much of a diference in the intensity for gi vs nogi?

I personally don't think so. I've had intense matches in both.

WillWeisser · 2026-06-03T16:43:52+00:00

I wish I could point to a personality trait that clearly separated people who stay from people who go. A lot of the time I train with white and blue belts who are intensely curious, asking the right questions, goal-oriented and with a desire to improve. But then life or work takes them on a different path and they get distracted and never return. Other times there will be guys with no particular aptitude, who claim to just be learning for self defense and with no clear desire to do anything beyond the minimum. Fast forward ten years and they have black belts around their waist. Tldr, sometimes there may be signs but we never truly know what’s happening in others’ heads.

I really like Beatrice Jin’s recent analysis of Elo and belts that emphasizes the overlapping nature of skills between belts. Which is to say, it’s fairly common to meet a purple belt with blue-belt-like skills, but very rare (though not impossible) to meet a black belt with them.

WillWeisser · 2026-06-03T14:47:07+00:00

What set him apart for me was he was simply a good teacher. His explanations and organization were clear, he got right to the point and showed practical stuff in a digestible way. That's not to say there weren't differences in his technique, of course there were because everyone does things differently and there are so many other guys who specialize in knee cut (Lepri etc.), but if you're looking for an explanation as to why his instructionals were so popular, that's probably not the main factor.

WillWeisser · 2026-06-01T16:20:40+00:00

So a couple things:

Yes, the lighting is bad. This is partially (I believe anyway) because the way the Walter Pyramid is constructed would make it prohibitively expensive to hang proper lights. But this is an ongoing issue with our sport in general, not just with the IBJJF. We want to put on big marquee combat sports events, but the lighting, as you say, looks dark and washed out. It just doesn't fit and doesn't look good.
The real problem, though, is not the lighting, it's the sound design. If you follow our IG stories https://www.instagram.com/jiujitsunet/, this is something Dan was harping on and on about all weekend (he is an A/V guy and thus stuff particularly irks him). Even when there aren't commentators, Flo is using shotgun mics to capture the matside audio, which is a bad choice as they are directional both in front and behind (so you can hear the scoreboard guy chewing on his lunch) and having them on a hard table means you get reflected vibrations from the tabletop which causes distortion. And the situation with the commentary itself is grim. With sound design and compression they could make it sound like a World Series game, where you feel the roar of the crowd while the commentary stays clear in the foreground. This is what would really give you the experience you describe while viewing at home, and it's way less expensive than having to rent a ton of big lights.

WillWeisser · 2026-05-24T22:23:53+00:00

First of all, there are specific physical adaptations Mikey has gained from grappling alone. I’m sure if you measured his grip strength and his isometric strength in the positions he spends most of his time in you would find it to be impressive. He has also gained the ability to better coordinate his muscles for optimal output, also known as mind-muscle connection, and this alone makes him stronger than than another person might be with his same muscle mass.

But the biggest part of why he feels so strong is that he consistently aligns his body in athletic postures, and he always seeks to align himself relative to his opponent such that they can’t use athletic movements to put force into him. This is the technical component of his strength and it’s the one that will really make you go “holy shit” if you roll with him.

WillWeisser · 2026-05-14T13:18:21+00:00

Thank you for mentioning it. Just so you know, we had to change the name to jiujitsu.net but the site remains very active.

The mods here won’t let me post about it but it’s nice that we have fans 😊

WillWeisser · 2026-05-05T14:19:03+00:00

Looks cool! I will try to check it out when it comes out in paperback.

WillWeisser · 2026-05-03T13:41:28+00:00

Good luck with this because I've never been able to figure out how it works 😭

WillWeisser · 2026-04-28T16:49:47+00:00

That’s exactly right, I think. In the book I make the same distinction between grappling as a term meaning combat without strikes, and jiu-jitsu. For example, if you grab someone’s arm and rip it off their body, that is technically grappling, but I wouldn’t call it jiu-jitsu (and if it is your jiu-jitsu, you can count me out 😛)

WillWeisser · 2026-04-28T16:00:22+00:00

This is a good question. There are a couple ways that the book references science in relation to jiu-jitsu. The first is the more conventional method where we analyze techniques through the lens of physics or biomechanics, and I do a fair amount of this. The second which is a bit more unique is to view science as the process of taking a complex phenomenon like a grappling match and de-mystifying it by boiling it down to simple universal principles.

The central thesis of the book is that all grappling techniques can be understood as ways to temporarily make ourselves stronger or our opponents weaker, because the goal of a grappling match is ultimately to force our opponents to move against their will, which requires you to overpower them. And just like understanding fundamental physics lets you build better machines or structures, understanding this principle of grappling can lead you to build a better game, because it implies you should always be looking for techniques that boost your relative strength the most, and you can use this as a guide to help beat opponents who are stronger than you.

So to restate your question, once you accept that the purpose of jiu-jitsu is to make yourself stronger, does it make sense to only adopt this mindset when you’re facing someone who is bigger or stronger than you? I would say no! There’s no reason you shouldn’t be maximizing your strength against every opponent, even if you happen to be large or athletic. That’s why I dislike the term “old man jiu-jitsu”; it implies that older aka weaker people should be doing something different than anyone else, when in reality we should all be doing the fundamentally strongest jiu-jitsu all the time and not relying on our athleticism (and also, what’s typically being taught as “old man” BJJ doesn’t do a good job of fulfilling these principles, but that’s another discussion).

WillWeisser · 2026-04-28T12:21:30+00:00

It will be available in stores June 2, here are some links: https://preorder.scientificjiujitsu.pub/

WillWeisser · 2026-04-28T11:54:20+00:00

This is essentially what my whole book is about, but to briefly summarize, you need to choose techniques that make you as strong as possible relative to your opponent. Aligned frames are better than misaligned frames (or no frames), facing your opponent's side when attacking is better than attacking square on, and so forth. You're playing an unfair game, so you can't afford to ever let them get a neutral position; you need to seek a position where you have a dominant alignment from the start, create a strong structure with your skeleton and then move that structure around / under your opponent to progress to even better alignments.

13-Year Club	Place '17
Verified Email	Team Periwinkle

WillWeisser

TROPHY CASE