How much does BJJ indirectly improve your wrestling ability

Prototype · Green Belt

Say we have a BJJ black belt who decides to join a wrestling gym, is he likely better than guys who have trained for a year or are the sports too different?

Tempest · Green Belt

Ahh... it depends?

Is he still healthy? Young enough to be competitive?

Does he have a wrestling background?
Is his game super guard focused or more traditional top game?
What kind of wrestling? Freestlye or Greco?

All of that said, he most likely has a serious advantage in grappling over most of the people at the gym as he likely has AT MINIMUM a decade of experience on many of them.
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TJ-Jitsu · Blue Belt

XtremeTrainer · Yellow Belt

The techniques and goals of BJJ and wrestling are different. In wrestling you're trying to pin your opponent and in BJJ you're trying to submit your opponent. Some of the moves in BJJ are illegal in wrestling. For instance choking is illegal in wrestling but a very effective technique for winning in BJJ. So somebody with a BJJ background who goes into wrestling will find they can't use many of the techniques in BJJ because they're banned in wrestling. A wrestler would have no problem pinning a BJJ practitioner and likewise a BJJ practitioner would have no problem submitting a wrestler.

tallgeese · Black Belt

bushido_man96 · KF Sensei

The problem is that Wrestling and BJJ are not the same. Sure, the BJJ person will likely pick up things quick, but picking up the nuances of the sport will take time, and those who have actively competed will have an advantage.

There are some other factors to consider, too. BJJers are comfortable working from their backs. Wrestlers aren't afforded that opportunity. If you hit your back, your pinned and the match is over. If a BJJ guy goes to his back and then decides he is going to "go to work" to reverse, he will find himself pinned. Therefore, Wrestlers tend to be very aggressive. That's an adaptation that a BJJer would have to make.

Another aspect of it is the takedown game. This tends to differ from school to school, so it will depend on if a BJJer is skilled at takedowns or not. If a BJJer gets taken down and tries to pull guard, he probably just gets pinned. Another adaptation to make.

Then there's learning to work from Referee's position...a whole other monster...

...and now that we've addressed all that, we haven't delved into what style of Wrestling we are even doing here. I'm assuming Folk Style, the style found throughout the US in Kids, Middle and High School, and Collegiate Wrestling. What if we are talking about Freestyle or Greco/Roman? More very different beasts to look at.

The biggest bugaboo I have with your question is the lopsidedness of it; only one year of experience for the Wrestler. Kid's Wrestling is huge in the US, and "Kid's" is a bit misleading...high schoolers still participate in Kid's Wrestling. It is very possible that by the time a kid gets to his or her freshman year in high school they already have 8 years of experience in Wrestling.

I'm not trying to discount a BJJer's knowledge at all. But its way different than Wrestling.

What if the question was asked this way: "Say we have a BJJ black belt join a Judo club. Is he likely way better than those Judoka that have been training for a year?"
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