Advice for Judo clubs wishing to compete in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu tournaments:

We at HSMA think that open BJJ tourneys are an excellent additional competitive outlet for judoka. The open tourneys are also often called "grappling" tournaments. There are typically two types of competition: gi and no-gi. For a typical judo club, the gi variety is the one to compete in, since judoka train primarily in the gi.

We'll assume you have already read the above sections on rules, so we'll stick to how to train up for the BJJ tourneys.

• First of all, when doing newaza randori (groundfighting) do NOT stop at pins. In fact, only look upon the pins as means to an end, the end being the submission. So, stop just holding a pin a long time and going no further. Hold the pin, instead, so that you can work towards a submission technique. Don't worry about your pinning skills getting weaker, because you have to pin first before you can apply most of the submissions anyways. In fact, your pins will become stronger because you will get good at pinning while also fishing for subs. And your judo newaza skills will improve because you will be able to pull off more submissions in tourneys, which are instant victories as opposed to pins which take more time.
• Secondly, you need to train fighting from certain positions that are most common in BJJ. Since you already know all the moves that are common in BJJ due to judo having the same ones, you just need to focus on training for specific phases of the match that most commonly come up, and take up much more match time in BJJ than in judo tourneys. They are the following, ranked in order of importance:

1. In full guard: the bottom player tries to submit or sweep to a top position (worth 2 points,) and the top player tries to pass the guard to any legitimate judo pin (worth 3 points.) [It is alright if the top player tries for submissions a little too, but in spite of there being a few possible ones, such as the sleeve choke (sode guruma jime,) they are extremely hard to pull off in a real match against a fairly matched adversary.] Stop the action whenever any of the above objectives is attained. This forces you to focus on this extremely important phase of the BJJ match. In judo the guard often ends up in a restart due to the no-progress rule, but in BJJ they let in go on and on and on :) since it is pretty much the distinctive signature position of the whole system. If you do not do this drill a lot, there is no way you will be prepared for BJJ fighting. If you end up in half guard while doing this drill, then continue to fight until one of the objectives is reached.
2. In half guard: the same objectives as for the full guard, but now there are some good submissions available to the top player. Of course, do this one on both sides. Without doubt, you will end up in this position a lot when you are doing the full guard drill, but you should still train to start from this position just to force yourselves to focus on it, since it is so important.
3. In butterfly guard: again, the same objectives as for full guard. Many competitors favour this guard, so be ready for it, and learn to use it too!
4. In turtle: the top player tries to get both heels into the inner thighs and to apply the rear naked choke or other choke (this is called "back control" and is worth 4 points - it doesn't matter whether you both end up face up or face down,) or even other submissions from there. So there are two steps for the top player: back control first and then a submission. The bottom player's objectives are first of all to stop both heels from getting into the inner thigh area, and second of all, if the back control position is established in spite of trying to stop it, which is much more than likely :) to escape from it - and get to top in guard, top in half guard, or into any judo pin, even to get to bottom in guard is better than waiting for your back to be taken with hooks in! It is highly recommended to escape from turtle position as fast as possible in order to pull guard!  Unlike in judo tourneys you can't wait for matte. The ref will let this position continue on for a long time, possibly the whole match time, in BJJ tourneys.
5. Triangle Choke Position: start in the triangle choke position from guard. The top player tries to escape from this choke and pass guard while the bottom player tries to finish the choke or apply another submission like the triangle armlock, or a sweep to a top position. This is an extension of the full guard drill. Submissions from this position are very common in BJJ tourneys. You need focused practice in handling them.
   
6. Back Control Position: start in this position face-up. Fight it out until a submission is scored or you end up in guard. This is an extension of the turtle drill. Submissions from this position, primarily chokes, are also extremely common in BJJ tourneys.

Keep in mind that there is no stipulation against standing up in BJJ tourneys. Don't worry about standing up, the ref will not restart the match. You just keep fighting. So, if you wish to stand up to pass the guard or attack the turtle, feel free to do so in these drills.

Once you have done these drills a lot, there is no need to continue doing them forever. After a few months of these, you will be able to incorporate what you learned from them into your submissions-oriented newaza randori (submissions groundfighting.) From this point on you can simply fight for submissions when you do newaza randori, and not do anything else particularly special to keep ready for BJJ matches. However, when a BJJ tourney is approaching, make sure you do some full match-type randori sessions, starting from standing up and continuing on the ground until submission. Do try to incorporate the point scoring moves into your fighting where applicable but don't get hung up on them to the point of becoming distracted from scoring the submission. 

Advice for BJJ clubs wishing to compete in Judo tournaments:

The biggest difficulties for BJJ exponents wishing to fight in judo tourneys are:

• an ippon throw can end the match outright
• periods of inactivity in guard lead to referee stoppage and a restart in the centre of the mat.

To overcome these limitations it is important for BJJers to work on how to apply their pinning and submission skills while transitioning from standing to ground in the combat. In typical club standing randori sessions, where the objective is to gain a good throw, it is often overlooked how one player might not actually score on the other but will land in an advantageous position for groundwork. In actual fact, if it were a real tourney, the fighter who has the advantageous position on the ground will often win the match by following it up with a pin or submission. So, for BJJers wishing to fight in judo tourneys, it is important to train to fight going from standing to a position of dominance on the ground. So, try the following randori (fighting) objectives at your club while doing practice fighting:

• start standing
• try to throw each other or take each other down in any safe way
• continue to fight until one of you is on top of the other on the ground for an amount of time that shows solid control; for at least 10 seconds, for example. This will be in one of three positions:

1. turtle
2. a form of guard
3. a legitimate pin (North-South, Side Control, Scarf Hold, Top Mount. Note: Knee on Belly is not a pin in judo, it is a strong position of control to set up a submission but it is not a scoring pin.)

Assume that the top person is the winner for the sake of this drill. Here are the rationales:

• On top of the turtle means that you were almost certainly not thrown for a score AND that you were able to begin to take your opponent's back.
• On top in guard often means that you probably scored at least a small score with a throw to get there, and again it means that you yourself were not thrown to your back, since you are on top. You have nothing to fear from the bottom fighter, given the limited time allowed for being stuck in guard, and if anything, you have the potential to pass the guard and win the match with a pin or submission.
• If you manage to land on top of your opponent in a legitimate pin, you will likely win the match with the pin, and even with a possible submission if you choose to go for one from the pin to win the match sooner.