YR Sports Lab
The moment you hit submit on the registration form, the thing that makes you nervous usually is not your conditioning but knowing exactly what you are allowed and not allowed to do out there: how many points is a guard pass? What happens on a tie? Can I hit a leg lock as a white belt? Miss those details and six months of hard training can unravel on the mat over a single rule you never read. ASJJF (Asian Sport Jiu-Jitsu Federation) is the SJJIF system's arm in Asia, with a dense event calendar and a friendly barrier to entry, which makes it one of the easiest first competitions to enter. This article breaks down the SJJIF 2026 rulebook that ASJJF uses: the scoring system shared by every belt, the full list of what counts as a foul, and a belt-by-belt table of legal and banned techniques. Everything here follows the official rulebook, checked in July 2026.
Three things to memorise first
1. Scoring is the same at every belt: white through black use one scale, 3 points for a guard pass, 4 each for mount and back control, 2 each for a takedown, sweep or knee on belly, and every position must be held under stable control for a full 3 seconds.
2. There are no advantages: this is the biggest departure from IBJJF. SJJIF does not record advantages; a tie goes straight to sudden death overtime, and the first to score or submit wins.
3. Whether a technique is legal depends on your belt: the straight ankle lock is open from white belt, but the kneebar and toehold require brown belt or above, while heel hooks and twisting leg locks are banned at every belt.
1. What ASJJF is, and why it is a good starting point
ASJJF is the Asian arm of the Sport Jiu-Jitsu International Federation (SJJIF), and its events run on the unified SJJIF rulebook. SJJIF was founded in 2012 with the stated goal of standardising jiu-jitsu rules and pushing the sport toward Olympic-level international recognition, which is why the rulebook is unusually thorough and written clause by clause. For a beginner, the appeal of ASJJF is that the Asian calendar is busy, divisions are finely split by age, belt and weight, and entry fees are relatively approachable, all of which make it a good place to bank early competition experience.
Keep in mind that several rule systems coexist in jiu-jitsu: IBJJF (the most mainstream, with advantages), ASJJF / SJJIF (the subject of this article, no advantages), AJP (the Abu Dhabi professional system, with a different point structure again), and the no-gi-specific ADCC / EBI (which open up heel hooks and other twisting leg locks). The same move can be legal in one system and grounds for disqualification in another, so always confirm which rulebook an event uses before you register. This article covers only the SJJIF 2026 rules as applied by ASJJF.
2. The scoring system (identical for every belt)
The core logic of a jiu-jitsu match: you win by scoring through progressively more dominant positions, or by forcing your opponent to tap (submission). Points are simply positional dominance expressed as a number, and the higher the value, the stronger the control that position represents. This scale is exactly the same from white belt to black belt, so learn it by heart:
| Points | Technique / position | In plain terms |
|---|---|---|
| 2 points | Takedown | From standing, putting your opponent down on their side, hip or back, or forcing them to both knees or chest and taking top position or the back. |
| 2 points | Sweep | From bottom with a guard established, reversing your opponent underneath you and coming up on top. |
| 2 points | Knee on Belly | From side control on top, driving one knee onto your opponent's abdomen with the other foot posted, while maintaining a grip. |
| 3 points | Pass Guard | Getting through your opponent's legs into a side or lengthwise pinning position where their legs no longer control you. |
| 4 points | Mount | Sitting on your opponent's torso facing their head, with neither knee nor foot trapped on their legs. |
| 4 points | Back Control | Chest to your opponent's back, an arm around the neck or shoulder, and both heels hooked inside their thighs (both hooks in). |
| −1 point | Penalty | A minor foul or stalling that continues after a warning; 1 point deducted each time. |
Three refereeing details that cost beginners points
The 3-second rule: guard passes, mount, back control, knee on belly and sweeps all require stable control for a full 3 seconds to score. Sweep and get reversed straight back, or climb to mount and lose it after a second, and nothing is awarded. The takedown is the one action scored on completion.
No positional points while caught in a submission: if you take mount but your opponent has a guillotine locked in, those 4 points are held until you fully clear the submission and are still in mount.
Re-entering the same position does not score again: repeatedly stepping in and out of knee on belly will not stack up points.
3. How a winner is decided: no advantages, ties go to sudden death
The SJJIF rules explicitly do not use advantages, on the stated reasoning that a nearly-completed action is not a completed action and that advantages actually degrade the quality of the match. A match can therefore only be decided in one of the following ways:
- Submission: the opponent taps or verbally submits, and a cry of pain counts as a tap; the match ends immediately regardless of score.
- Points: whoever is ahead when time expires.
- Opponent unable to continue: injury, loss of consciousness from a legal technique, or a medical ruling that they cannot continue.
- Disqualification: the opponent commits a serious foul or accumulates three penalty points.
- Sudden death overtime: entered when the score is level at the end of regulation.
How sudden death overtime works
The first competitor to score or submit wins instantly. If the score is tied when time runs out, the referee resets both athletes to the starting position and restarts the match with no set clock; the first point or submission ends it.
Overtime punishes passivity harder: stalling or pulling guard without attacking will draw a penalty quickly, and a single penalty point in overtime hands the win to your opponent immediately. The only sound overtime policy is to attack and never turtle up.
4. What is allowed and what counts as a foul
Fouls come in two flavours: progressively punished minor fouls and stalling, and serious fouls that end the match on the spot. Start with the common minor fouls, most of which amount to trying to rest, escape or run down the clock:
- Kneeling, sitting or lying down before making contact with your opponent.
- Running toward the edge, rolling or crawling out of the area while grounded, or standing up and deliberately walking out of bounds to avoid engaging.
- Breaking the opponent's grip after they pull guard and then not returning to the ground to keep fighting.
- Deliberately removing the gi jacket or loosening the belt to force a break and rest.
- Inserting fingers inside the sleeve or pant cuffs.
- Disobeying the referee, or placing a hand or foot on the opponent's face.
- Gripping any clothing in a no-gi match.
Progressive penalties for minor fouls and stalling
White through purple belt: 1st offence a verbal warning → 2nd offence minus 1 point → 3rd offence a second penalty point and a restart from standing → 4th offence disqualification.
Brown and black belt: a minor foul draws a verbal warning plus a 1-point deduction on the very first offence (stalling is exempt from this stricter treatment and still follows the white belt sequence).
Stalling: holding a position for more than 15 seconds without trying to advance or finish, or preventing your opponent from advancing, prompts the referee to call "Lute!" and start a countdown, with the same escalating penalties. Three penalty points means disqualification, and penalties from minor fouls and stalling are counted together.
The second category is serious fouls, which the referee can punish with immediate disqualification, with no warning sequence:
Gouging the eyes or nose, striking with fists, feet, knees, elbows or the head, biting, hair pulling, pressing on the genitals or eyes; slamming an opponent to the mat, suplexing them onto the head or neck, or slamming out of a guard; using the belt to help choke, or in no-gi squeezing the throat with the hand or crushing the windpipe, or covering the opponent's mouth and nose to block their breathing; throwing an opponent into the scoring table or a display screen, deliberately faking a movement to trap them in an illegal position, or intentionally fleeing the area to escape a submission; applying oil, lotion or any slippery substance to the body so the gi cannot be gripped; and using any technique banned for your belt or division.
Put differently, jiu-jitsu is a sport won through control and submission: striking, slamming, throat squeezing and banned techniques, the whole family of actions that either aim to hurt or take a shortcut, are hard red lines. Keep to the principle of winning with position and leverage rather than brute force, and you will never stumble into a serious foul.
5. Legal and banned techniques belt by belt
This is the part beginners most often get wrong, and the part most worth learning properly: the same submission can be perfectly legal at one belt and a disqualification at another. The SJJIF 2026 rules sort techniques into three tiers by risk. The table below applies to adult belts (including juveniles aged 16 and over):
| Technique | White | Blue | Purple | Brown | Black |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Straight Ankle Lock | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Front Guillotine | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Wrist Lock | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Frontal Ezekiel | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Do-Jime (legs squeezing torso / head) | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Omoplata, triangle with head pull | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Kneebar | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Toehold (legal inward direction) | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Calf Slicer | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Bicep Slicer | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Scissor Takedown | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Heel Hook | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
| Reaping the Knee | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
| Twisting leg locks, bent-knee locks, inward foot locks compressing the knee | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
| Neck Crank / spine lock / cervical twist | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
| Suplex onto the head or neck, Slam | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ | ✘ |
The table boils down to three sentences:
- Open from white belt: straight ankle lock, guillotine, wrist lock, Ezekiel, do-jime, omoplata and triangle. In other words, most submissions that do not twist the knee.
- Brown belt and above only: kneebar, toehold, calf slicer, bicep slicer and scissor takedown. These load joints and muscle hard enough that the rules wait for more mature control.
- Banned at every belt, black included: heel hooks, knee reaping and all twisting leg locks, neck cranks and spine locks, and any suplex or slam that drives the head or neck into the mat. This is where SJJIF is comparatively conservative.
SJJIF applies the same restrictions on dangerous leg locks in both gi and no-gi, using one shared table, which differs sharply from no-gi-specific events such as ADCC and EBI, where heel hooks are permitted at black belt and often lower. If you play with heel hooks in no-gi rounds at your gym, put them away for an ASJJF event. (Children's divisions under 16 carry stricter limits still, with the youngest brackets banning all submissions below the waist; this table covers adults.)
6. Match times, age groups and belts
Match length depends on age division and belt, and among adults the higher the belt, the longer the match. The following are the single-match times in minutes under the SJJIF 2026 rules; finals run double the listed time:
| Belt | Juvenile 16–17 | Adult | Master 30 | Master 36+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| White | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Blue | 5 | 6 | 5 | 5 |
| Purple | 5 | 7 | 6 | 5 |
| Brown | — | 8 | 6 | 5 |
| Black | — | 8 | 6 | 5 |
Children's divisions (Kid 1 through Kid 6, based on age in the registration year) run 2 to 4 minutes per match: 2 minutes for Kid 1 and 2, 3 minutes for Kid 3, and 4 minutes for Kid 4 through 6. Adult belts run white, blue, purple, brown and black, each subdivided into four stripes; juveniles go no higher than purple, grey, yellow, orange and green belts convert automatically to blue in the year the athlete turns 16, and black belt requires an athlete to be at least 19. SJJIF has zero tolerance for sandbagging: anyone who has held a judo or jiu-jitsu black belt, or who has wrestled at collegiate level or above, competed in Olympic wrestling or sambo, or fought professional or amateur MMA, may not register as a white belt; a white belt who has trained for a year and won a world title, two continental titles, five event titles or a year-end number one ranking can no longer compete at white belt either.
7. Your pre-competition checklist
Beyond the rules themselves, a few administrative details decide whether you get to compete at all:
- Weigh-in: you weigh in wearing your competition gi or rash guard, and being over can mean instant disqualification; SJJIF explicitly discourages dehydration-based cuts, and recommends children compete at their natural weight.
- Gi inspection: colour, size and wear are all checked; a gi that fails is usually given 5 minutes for a change, and missing that window means disqualification.
- Belt: it must be the correct colour and tied tight. During the match one athlete wears an additional competition belt to distinguish the two competitors; it has nothing to do with rank.
- Report on time: once your name is called you get up to 3 calls and 5 minutes to reach the designated area, and failing to appear means disqualification; if your opponent fails to appear, the win goes to whoever showed up.
The whole rulebook compresses into one competition mindset: score with position (3 for the pass, 4 for mount and the back), hunt clean submissions, avoid stalling and banned techniques, and attack from the first second of overtime. The ASJJF rules are written clearly enough that, once you have read them, you realise the match is never decided by whether you know the rules but by whether you can execute what you know for a stable 3 seconds. Good luck with your first tournament.
FAQ
What is the difference between ASJJF and IBJJF rules?
The biggest difference is that ASJJF (which uses the SJJIF rulebook) has no advantages. IBJJF breaks a tie on advantage points, while SJJIF goes straight to sudden death overtime, where the first competitor to score or submit wins. The positional point values are almost identical (3 for a guard pass, 4 each for mount and back control), but SJJIF holds that advantages hurt the quality of the match, so only actual points and submissions count.
Can white belts use leg locks?
Only the straight ankle lock. Under the 2026 SJJIF rules, adult white belts and above may use the straight ankle lock, but the kneebar, toehold and calf slicer are legal only from brown belt up; the heel hook, knee reap and every twisting leg lock are banned at all belts, black belt included.
What happens if an ASJJF match is tied?
It goes to sudden death overtime. If the score is level when regulation time ends, the match restarts and the first competitor to score or force a submission wins immediately; if either athlete is given a penalty point during overtime, the referee awards the win to the opponent on the spot. Jiu-jitsu matches never end in a draw.
How many points is a guard pass and how many is mount?
A guard pass is 3 points, mount is 4 points and back control is 4 points. Takedowns, sweeps and knee on belly are worth 2 points each. Every position must be held under stable control for a full 3 seconds to score, and this scale is the same for every belt from white to black.
Will an illegal move get me disqualified?
It depends on whether it counts as a minor foul or a serious foul. Minor fouls (fleeing the mat, pulling guard and then refusing to engage) are punished progressively: white through purple belts get a verbal warning first, minus 1 point on the second offence, a second penalty point plus a stand-up restart on the third, and disqualification once three penalty points accumulate. Serious fouls (eye gouging, striking, slamming, using a technique banned for your belt) are an immediate disqualification called by the referee. Brown and black belts lose a point on their very first minor foul.
References
1. Sport Jiu-Jitsu International Federation (2026). 2026 SJJIF Rulebook (June Version). ASJJF official rules page (the source text for the scoring system, progressive penalties, belt-level technique restrictions, match times and age divisions cited in this article)
2. Asian Sport Jiu-Jitsu Federation. Official website. asjjf.org (the event structure, registration and weigh-in requirements, and the outlet where rule revisions are announced)
3. Sport Jiu-Jitsu International Federation. Official website. sjjif.com (the international parent body of ASJJF, and the basis for how the SJJIF and ASJJF rule systems relate in this article)
※ This is a rules article, so its sources are the organiser's official rule documents rather than academic literature. The rules may be revised annually; this article follows the 2026 SJJIF Rulebook (June Version) as retrieved in July 2026. On competition day, the on-site announcements and the latest official rulebook are the final authority.