Gui Mendes: Top BJJ Game Concepts
Some of the best lessons in BJJ don't come from a flashy new technique — they come from listening to one of the greats explain how they actually think on the mat. Gui Mendes is one of those…
Words: Jiu Jitsu Style
Some of the best lessons in BJJ don't come from a flashy new technique — they come from listening to one of the greats explain how they actually think on the mat. Gui Mendes is one of those people. A multiple-time world champion and, alongside his brother Rafa, the man behind the Art of Jiu Jitsu academy, Gui built his reputation on a game that looks deceptively simple: clean, relentless, and built on a handful of concepts he returns to again and again. Years on, those concepts have aged about as well as anything in this sport.
The first one is the easiest to say and the hardest to live by: fundamentals win. Gui's game has never been about hoarding moves. It's about doing the basic ones so well, and so often, that they hold up against anyone. That message lands even harder in 2026, when a beginner can scroll past a hundred highlight finishes before breakfast. The temptation to collect techniques has never been stronger — and the antidote has never been simpler. Pick a few things and get very, very good at them.
The second concept is grip fighting as the real battle. Before the pass, before the sweep, there's a quiet war over who controls what. Win the grips and you've usually won the Jiu Jitsu exchange before it visibly starts; lose them and the cleanest technique in the world falls apart. It's the least glamorous part of a roll and the part that most often decides it.
Pressure and connection — the heart of Gui's Jiu Jitsu
The third is pressure and connection. Gui's passing isn't about speed for its own sake — it's about staying heavy, staying connected, and making your opponent carry your weight until the position simply gives way. You see the same idea running through the top passers of this generation of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, from Gordon Ryan to the Ruotolo brothers, just dressed in different styles. Pressure is patient. It doesn't chase; it arrives.
And underneath all of it is the idea that your guard and your passing are the same conversation. Understand why a guard holds and you understand how to take it apart — and the reverse. The players with the most complete BJJ games, Mikey Musumeci and Ffion Davies among them, tend to be the ones who studied both ends of that exchange rather than picking a side.
None of this requires a seminar flight or a magazine subscription anymore. Gui and Rafa put their entire jiu-jitsu system online, and between that, the instructional apps, and the endless free footage on YouTube, the concepts are a tap away. The work, as always, is on you. Watch how the best move, borrow the thinking and not just the techniques, and put in the honest mat hours. The concepts are timeless — your reps are what bring them to life. See you on the mat.
Originally published in Jiu Jitsu Style. Refreshed for 2026.