The ADCC World Championships completely changes the strategies utilized by no-gi athletes the world over. ADCC is the highest level for no-gi competition; what works there gets studied, analyzed, and broken down until it is the standard gameplan for the next two years. The different ruleset at ADCC makes it harder to strategize for than most tournaments, with a no points period taking up the first half and the rules changing to a points match halfway through.

I’ve watched every point scored at ADCC last weekend in Anaheim, and there are definitely some trends. I’ve ignored takedowns, sweeps, and passes scored before the points period begins, as athletes clearly don’t resist those as much in many cases and it’s not indicative of what is working at ADCC.

Chase Smith already analyzed the subs and wrote about them earlier, so I will stick to the points. Here are the numbers for the scores throughout 93 weight class matches, 16 absolute matches, and one superfight.

27 back takes x 3 = 81 points

17 takedowns x 2 (4 for 1 clean takedown) = 36 points

14 passes x 3 = 42 points

13 sweeps x 2 = 26 points

7 mounts x 2 = 14 points

3 knee on stomach x 2 = 6 points

Most back takes: Gordon Ryan and Pablo Mantovani three each

Most takedowns: Matheus Diniz and Patrick Gaudio two each

Most sweeps: Paulo Miyao with four

Most passes: Four athletes with two (Buchecha, Ffion, Gaudio and Diniz)

Most mounts: Ffion Davies with two

Most common takedown: double leg (7 of 17)

Most common sweep: single leg (7 of 13)

Most common pass: knee slide (6 of 14)

More Passes Than Sweeps? Yup

One thing that stands out to me is the fact that more passes happen than sweeps. If you follow jiu-jitsu tournaments, you know that passes are typically hard to come by at the highest level and sweeps are a dime a dozen. 50/50 sweeps usually make up a big chunk of IBJJF sweeps; the fear of heelhooks here negates that position as a viable sweeping strategy for the most part. Paulo Miyao hit the only two 50/50 sweeps of the tournament, and he is obviously one of the harder people to heelhook on the scene.

Traditional jiu-jitsu sweeps weren’t happening very often, as eight out of 13 sweeps at the tournament were wrestling-based. There were the typical coming up to a single or double out of your guard takedowns, but most of them are hard to even give a name to. Simply catching your opponent off balance and then hitting them with a knee tap, body lock, or grabbing their heel and standing up was how people were often getting their two. 

Sweeps associated with no-gi competition like from butterfly or X-guard just weren’t happening. Arges hit a berimbolo in his first match, and Buchecha bridged from half guard to roll Braga Neto. I already felt this way going into ADCC, but it is beyond obvious looking at the numbers that you need to wrestle from your guard here. 

The Guard Is Leglock Or Wrestle

Observing the tournament, I felt that guard pulling is not the smartest strategy if you can’t get to a leglock, and the fact that passes outnumber sweeps really backs that up. Not only does pulling and playing guard not look good in the eyes of judges if it comes to a referee decision, the fact that you are more likely to get passed than hit a sweep yourself backs up the superiority of top position at ADCC. 

Many athletes are successful in attacking heelhooks at ADCC, but athletes who pulled with the intent of sweeping were repeatedly shut out in their sweep attempts. Submissions from guard besides leglocks were rare; the only triangle of the tournament came from the top position. Ffion also set up her armlock of Bia Mesquita while passing. 

Attack The Takedown, Expose The Back

Back takes tended to come off of wrestling scrambles. Dante Leon took Lepri’s back while attempting a single leg from guard. Gordon went to Hulk’s back by using a crotch lift to get to the twister. Tanquinho took Kennedy’s back off a duck under. The winning strategy from the guard at ADCC appears to be simple: Attack leg locks if you can get the entry, try to wrestle up for sweeps, and take the back in the scrambles those takedown attempts create.

There was not a single torreando-style pass or leg drag hit successfully for points at ADCC. The knee slide was the top pass, followed by getting a cross face and underhook from half guard and then doing a different variation of the knee slide. Looking at the numbers, you would think that going around the outside of the guard is nearly impossible at this tournament. Ten out of 14 passes were either version of the knee slide, with two body lock passes, a back step and a stack pass. Passing was the style of scoring most dominated by one type of technique.

Double Legs The Most Successful

The takedown scoring was spread out a little more evenly. The double leg reigned supreme, most likely because the hip control allows the attacker to better control the hips and score the two from back exposure under ADCC rules. The single leg was attacked commonly but rarely finished, just two of them ending up in points; the bodylock also scored twice. Trips, snapdowns, and plenty of scoring from counter wrestling also put points on the board.

If you want to be a threat for ADCC 2021, this appears to be the gameplan: Double legs from the feet, wrestling from the guard, taking the back in scrambles and getting to an RNC, passing with knee slide variations, and attacking guillotines and heelhooks. That is what worked most efficiently this time around.

Watch The 2019 ADCC World Championships On Demand On FloGrappling