The inaugural Craig Jones Invitational took place in 2024 and CJI rules have taken the world by storm, so it’s important to understand the best tactics to use in that format. The ruleset isn’t all that common just yet, although it has been adopted by a handful of other promotions. Finishers Sub-Only are probably the most notable example but there are a few others who have made the move to adopt the new format. Although the use of the rectangular pit was revolutionary, the actual round-format and judging used in CJI is a big point of focus for other promoters looking to create exciting events.
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What Are The Best Tactics For CJI Rules?
The CJI rules don’t award points for specific positions or transitions like most other BJJ rulesets, and that has a huge impact on determining the best tactics for it. Another huge difference is the use of rounds, as each match is split up into either three or five 5-minute increments with a rest in between each one. The judges simply score the winner of each round using the 10-point must system that has been popularised in boxing and MMA, and if the score is tied then the winner of the final round is declared the winner of the match without the need for any overtime.
How Do You Win Rounds Under CJI Rules?
With no points awarded for specific transitions or positions, CJI rules instead focuses on initiating action as the top criteria when judging. Actually landing sweeps, takedowns, passes, and deep submission attempts all come second to initiating action. This is not only a great way to eliminate stalling as a path to victory, but it also changes the way a match looks completely as a result. Athletes are incentivised to throw more caution to the wind and rather than engaging only when certain of winning the exchange, it’s preferable to engage multiple times even if none of them end in success.
Engaging recklessly can lead to the opponent landing sweeps or takedowns instead and although initiating action is preferred, it won’t completely outweigh several successful techniques and the positional dominance it might lead to. It’s a very fine line to walk, but the tactics to win any round under CJI rules is to push the pace right from the start without losing exchanges. Maintaining a high level of output with plenty of offense will win rounds and that has to be the main goal, although there’s no preference whether this is done while standing or from top or bottom position as all areas of the sort are rewarded equally.
The First Round
With so few rounds available, winning the first round is incredibly important. Boxing matches often have ten or twelve rounds and the ten-point must scoring system allows fighters to almost throw away a few rounds in the beginning if they are confident they can win the later ones. That isn’t the case with CJI rules though and the ideal tactics are to pursue victory right from the start, particularly in three-round matches. A unanimous 10-9 or even 10-8 score in the opening round is incredibly hard to overcome in just two more rounds and putting an opponent on the back foot like that only increases the number of mistakes they will make.
Even in a five-round match, it will take either two winning rounds or one dominating round in order to overcome just a 10-9 deficit from round one. By winning the first round, an opponent is forced to engage even more than they normally would be by the rules themselves. This means that reckless behaviour increases and the competitor who is ahead on the scorecards will find more opportunities to land sweeps and takedowns, or potentially even the finish. To that end, it doesn’t make sense to budget energy for the later rounds in a three-round match and it becomes only marginally more important in a five-round match.
The Second Round
Under a three-round match, the second round is where the leading competitor can really put the nail in the coffin for the opponent. A 10-9 lead can become 20-8 after this round and it becomes incredibly unlikely that anyone will overcome that deficit, as it requires a dominant final round at the very least. If even one of those first two rounds have been a 10-8 round instead, that lead gets bigger and it becomes almost impossible for anyone to make a comeback in the final round. This is where the leading competitor should give it everything they have, in an attempt to seal the victory before the final round takes place.
The competitor who lost the first round in a three-round match needs to take a similar approach, because it really is now or never at this point. Going into the final round at 19-19 with you having won the most recent round is a great psychological advantage that can be built off of to finish the comeback. Even if you lost the first round convincingly, going into the third round at 18-19 is a narrow enough margin that it can be overturned. Finally, winning a dominant round in the second after a narrow loss in the third would take you to 19-18 and all of a sudden the match looks dramatically different.
A five-round match is a little different at this point, because you’re not even halfway through by the time the second round is over. Even losing both of these rounds is not a surefire loss, and there’s still time left for a comeback if things don’t go according to plan. The key here is to make sure that early losses don’t compound and although winning the round is always the goal, it’s imperative to not suffer dominant losses this early on in the match. Even losing close 10-9 rounds is better than a 10-8 when there are so many rounds left, so there’s still not enough reason to be completely reckless just yet.
The Third Round
This is where it all comes to a head in a three-round match under CJI rules and if your tactics have worked, you will now be riding at least a 20-18 scorecard into the final round. That lead is almost hard to lose at this point and the focus here should be on bringing the match home, even a close loss and a 10-9 scorecard against you can’t take it out of your hands. As long as you don’t lose decisively in the third round then you’ve already won the match and if the lead is any bigger than that, the opponent would need to be going for the submission from the start to come anywhere near winning.
If the score is tied at 19-19 then it becomes a little trickier because it all comes down to the final round, and it must be won at all costs because nothing that happened before matters any more. If you’re actually losing by a small margin at 19-18 then the goal is just to win the round, because pulling level is enough to get you the win in the final round. If the margin is any bigger than a single point then the optimal tactics for CJI rules becomes simply to hunt for the finish at all costs. That’s the only way you’re going to get the dominant round needed to win the match against what appears to be a better opponent, or finish it instead.
If it’s a five-round match then this is the key turning point where action is needed. If you’re winning the match by any margin then another winning round here puts the opponent in a very tough position. A margin of two points or more going into the fourth round puts a ton of pressure on the opponent and if this is up above four points, it becomes an almost impossible mountain to climb. Likewise, if you’re already in a deficit then it’s imperative that you pull level or bring that deficit to within one point by the time this round is over. That’s the most likely way that your comeback will actually begin, and leaving it any later than the third round is a recipe for disaster.
Championship Rounds
Cardio will always become a factor at this point in a match under CJI rules and although managing that is an element of tactics too, the points on the scoreboard are the ultimate deciding factor. A competitor who is more tired will still be more likely to win the match if they’ve built up a points-margin of two or more. If that’s where you find yourself then the fourth round represents an opportunity to recover ahead of the final round, where a big push will be needed to win. Even losing the round 10-9 isn’t a big problem at that point, as long as you’ve recovered enough to seal the victory in round five.
A margin of one point in your favor going into the third round is not really something you can really risk losing in order to recover unfortunately. Failing cardio might dictate that you need to take your foot off the gas, but losing this round decisively will put you back into a losing position and that simply isn’t acceptable. The best course of action in that case might be too slow a little over both rounds in an attempt to make them close enough to win 10-9 on at least one, rather than giving up one round and risking losing the whole match as a result. If cardio isn’t an issue for the leading competitor at this point in the match then goal should be to simply increase the lead, making for a comfortable final round.
If the match is drawn heading into the fourth round then the idea will always be to win it, putting the pressure on the opponent for the final five minutes. Even if you end up dropping a close round in the fourth, winning another close round in the fifth is enough to win the entire match. Losing by either one or two points coming into the fourth round presents you with a similar goal, but with slightly more pressure on the importance of winning both rounds. A pair of 10-9 rounds is enough to win a match at that point, and that should be doable if the match has been that close up to that point.
When you’re losing by a margin of three or four points coming into round four, you’ll know by the end of the round whether it’s realistically possible to make a comeback on the judge’s scorecards. A 10-8 round is the only viable path at this point because a 10-7 is incredibly rare even if it is possible, especially if you’ve already been losing up to this point. The goal in the fourth is to secure that dominant round, bringing yourself within a point or two in the final round. Bringing the deficit down to one for round five means that a 10-9 is good enough to win, but two points or more makes relentlessly hunting the submission the best path to victory from there.
If you’re at a deficit of five points or more when round four begins, winning on the judge’s scorecards becomes a statistical improbability. At that point it’s better to refocus priorities on winning by submission instead of considering anything else, and at the very least there’s still plenty of time left to do so. Acting first no longer really matters at this point because 10-7 and 10-8 rounds are needed, and that can only be done if the opponent is basically just surviving. Hunt for the submission from the moment that round four starts and feel free to be reckless, at this point you’re likely going to lose anyway and risky attacks suddenly become much more appealing.
How Do You Prepare For CJI Rules In Training?
The most obvious way to prepare for CJI rules in training is to conduct full-length matches where you can make use of the correct tactics over time. The problem is that each one of these takes up 20 to 30 minutes of hard sparring in one session and although it’s possible, it shouldn’t be the main focus. Instead, relegate this to either a weekly event or at absolute most it should be something that you do twice a week. This will form part of your hardest day, as the idea is to replicate the conditions on the day as best as possible.
It’s important to replicate the round-structure in training repeatedly, and even the less challenging days should still include sparring for five-minute intervals with short breaks in between. By lowering the rest period to less than a minute, it can also put pressure on you and increase your ability to recover with nothing but a short break between rounds. Obviously any of these rounds should still replicate the conditions of the match and the primary focus should be pushing the pace, initiating the action yourself. It’s also important to evaluate whether or not you truly would have won each round, allowing you to make adjustments as training progresses.
Taking things to an even smaller level, developing the right tactics to succeed under CJI rules involves working on that aspect of initiating the action. This can be worked on in small bursts, almost like sprint-training that runners and other athletes in team sports might do. Set up a specific scenario you expect to encounter, like two men standing or one seated and the other passing. Then spend just 30 seconds with both people having the goal of initiating action and either winning the exchange or coming out neutral. There isn’t a specific winning condition like normal positional sparring; instead both people are looking to act first and not lose rather than act when advantageous and win.
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