In BJJ, how many moves can you pull off in a standing position?

Question

Are they all on the ground? Or can you work in some kind of move while standing? Aside from chokes

Answer 1

47 1/2. Trust me.

Answer 2

Actually I hear BJJ has quite a standup arsenal, although its not as big as Judo's or even Karate's ironically enough.  Believe it or not, Karate actually has more stand up grappling moves than BJJ.  The Karateka that encountered the Gracies were generally beated for precisely the reason Okinawan traditionalists cited; tournaments create bad habits.  A skilled Karateka, also needs to be a skilled grappler.

You can learn stances and moves from books, and maybe even learn them well if you are obsessive enough, but to outright learn Karate and consider yourself a Karateka, you also need to learn the grappling, which is actually pretty extensive.  In addition to the grappling repertoire he brought from Okinawa, master Funakoshi also picked up techniques from Jigoro Kano, thus, the Shotokan style of Karate has both the joint locks inherent to Okinawan systems, as well as a little bit of Judo.

As far as BJJ is concerned, yes, it does have a stand up game, but to give you an idea on how limited it is, martial arts like Karate and Tae Kwan Do actually have more stand up grappling.  Of course because BJJ is a grappling art it has way more grappling moves than Karate and TKD, thing is most of them are indeed on the ground.

To answer your question directly, but generalizing grossly;

BJJ has, easily, more ground moves than catch and Judo combined, but, less stand up grappling moves than either Karate or TKD, but still more grappling moves than Karate, TKD, and Judo put together.  BJJ's arsenal in fact, is almost too extensive, and it has been criticized by Judoka in its limited stand up game because, yeah, all Judoka acknowledge the importance of ground techniques, I mean part of Judo training is "newaza," I think that's what its called.  However how the h**l are you supposed to work proper newaza without atemi waza?

The thinking in Judo, is generally this; if you can work on the ground, its good, but if you can prevent from going to the ground, that's even better.  Judo treats ground fighting as a last resort thing, but it does not emphasize it because of the danger that street fighters will kick you in the head.  The reason that in Judo, an "ippon" or "fall," is an automatic "pin," of sorts, is because once on the ground the guy who threw you can kick you.

Indeed, BJJ has almost no throw defense whatsoever, at least nothing you can properly call a throw defense compared to what Judo's got.  Although, both arts are not without their weaknesses.

BJJ's weakness, is its underdeveloped stand up game, without the boxing it incorporated, using traditional BJJ on its own leaves them almost powerless standing up.  Judo's weakness is that it relies too much on the gi; people's clothes change over time, and a grappling style should assume your opponent is naked.  Now, while I do not condone wrestling ancient Greek style, they did have a point; a form of wrestling should assume the opponent is not wearing any clothes.  That is, a truly effective form of grappling has to rely entirely in the assumption, that there are no clothes to use as a weapon.  A martial art reliant on gi techniques, as Gracie demonstrated against Yoshida, all a grappler has to do, is remove their gi.  A grappling art reliant only on the human body can bring you down no matter what you're wearing.

Myself personally I would love to learn Shuia Jiao; its got everything catch, Judo and BJJ have, but without any of the weaknesses inherent in those grappling styles.  Like Judo, it makes simple, efficient use of leverage and limited strength but unlike Judo it does not assume an opponent is wearing a gi.  Like catch, it recognizes the need for strength conditioning, and it has quite a well developed strength training program from what I've seen on youtube.  Like BJJ, it does have quite an assortment of ground techniques, although, throws are emphasized more than any other moves.

Sorry for overanswering.

peace out.

Answer 3

You can do all kinds of moves from standing.  There aren't a set number, as there are different styles with different techniques on their boards.  You can also do some of the ground moves while standing, which is a slight variation.  You can do armbars, wrist locks, shoulder locks, finger locks, neck locks, and that sort of stuff while standing and while on the ground at the same time.  Hey, check this site out.  It should prove interesting:

www.jujitsustudies.com

Answer 4

Jujitsu in general has a lot of standup grappling such as waki gatame arm bars, ude garami key locks, arresting techniques, "come-along" restraining holds, and of course, many many chokes: arm triangle, RNC, guillotine, collar chokes.

This is not to mention the transitional techniques such as closing the distance and shooting, the clinching and gripping, the dominant position angling, and of course, the Judo takedowns.

The BJJ you see on TV is strictly for the ring and the ground, what you don't see is that BJJ academies, especially the gracie academy, has MANY self-defense techniques which pull from Japanese jujitsu's kime no kata. These deal with attacks against weapons as well.