BJJ Games : Tag Team Rolling

Do you play BJJ games at your gym? If not, maybe you think it’s kind of a pointless thing. While others who do might tell you about how fun they can be.

As a coach I’m always trying to come up with new drills, moments, situational rolling exercises, technique combinations, etc to keep the training new and exciting. I know that from personal experience. The worse thing that can happen with your training is if you become complacent and things take on too much a familiar routine and pattern. Shaking things up helps keep people sharp and helps keep my students, and myself, growing and improving.

So where do BJJ games come into the mix?

Well over the years I’ve come up with over a hundred different BJJ related games. Most of them I use with my kids on a regular basis to trick the youngsters into learning good habits and technique. I bring them over from time to time with the adults too.

The adults can sometimes be a tough sell. It’s interesting though. I’ll watch a guy who is a big shot at some corporate business come into the gym during a game day. Sometime they’ll have a face that just screams, “I’m not doing this shit.” Then, a few minutes later, I’ll see them even more engaged than everyone else. It’s fun.

BJJ games can also be a fun way to build the team atmosphere. I’ve been a head coach since 2009 and I’ll tell you that the more different things you do together as a team, the better. Whether it’s BJJ games, getting dinner after training, watching the fights together, etc. The more things you do together as a group the better the atmosphere in the gym will be.

Also, at their core, BJJ games should contain a transferrable value to regular training. In the case of the Tag Team rolling, it’s defense, body control and mat awareness. Defense because you have to defend against multiple people and different angles. Mat awareness and body control because you have to ensure that you are keeping the person where you want them. If they are able to position their body where they can tag, you’ll lose your opportunity to win.

Setup For Tag Team Rolling

You make lines on the mat. If you have zebra style mats then it should be a problem. If you have the big massed vinyl then you can use tape, jump rope, or use your imagination.
Divide people into teams. We typically keep teams in groups of 2-4. When you have more than that, people end up not getting any time on the mat.

Rules Of The Game (The Way We Do It)

To tag a partner you must make hand to hand contact.
Knees must remain behind the team line in order to tag.
After the tag, there will be a 5 second period that the opponent can be double teamed. Afterwards the person who was originally in must return behind the team line.
Scoring can be done a few different ways. You can give 1 point per submission and allow the person to stay in the game after a reset, or go till team elimination. In elimination mode you submit and then the person is out. Most often we will do a 10 minute period with 5 minute overtimes if no one is submitted.
We take out leg locks and certain twisting locks because people get caught up sometimes. But again, use your discretion.

That’s about the jest of it.At my gym we typically play these games on days right before the holidays or during times where there are no competitions coming up. Sometimes we do it just to take a day off from hard gritty training.

So give BJJ games like the tag team rolling a try. It’s fun and has a value to training. You’ll be exhausted from defending and have a great time with your team.

-Chewy