Learning BJJ / MMA in Korean — A Glossary

One of the best things about martial arts is that you can use them to join sports clubs anywhere around the world and quickly get to know people. I really enjoyed doing MMA in Korean (or just BJJ in Korean) and so wanted to share the words and phrases I learned.

Of course, in Korea you can study Taekwondo, Hapkido, or a number of other popular global martial arts like Judo or Karate. But a few of the most popular martial arts that are growing massively these days are Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai, and related arts like grappling, striking, and boxing — and so I’m developing my vocabulary and related language in that regard.

Previously I spent around six months studying Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in francophone countries (Mauritius and French), and you can find that glossary here.

In Korea, I trained at an MMA gym. This means I didn’t do any gi training, and I also added some striking words to my vocabulary.

But here is my guide to learning BJJ in Korean — all the terminology I learned.

Disclaimer — I’m not fluent in Korean. I’m in the vast chasm of “intermediate”. These are the words and phrases I learned, which I’m sharing if it’s helpful to you. But I have much more to learn!

Also I’m not an expert in BJJ / MMA by any degree. I’m a “non-newb” at best. In Korea I got to the 500-hour mark of training.

Because MMA and BJJ are both pretty new sports, they attract a lot of amateurs who speak some English at least. But I’d say roughly 60% of people in my gym preferred to speak to me in Korean, even though I could only speak in short sentences.

Learning BJJ/MMA in Korean — In a Nutshell

If you’re learning a traditional Korean martial art, you’ll have to learn many of the words for moves and exercises in Korean.

But if you’re learning a foreign-derived martial art like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or mixed martial arts, you’re somewhat in luck. Many of the words for moves are the same as in English, but pronounced in a Korean accent. You can see this when watching videos on YouTube for example explaining an 암바 (am ba)… an “arm bar”.

This is in contrast with many other languages in which the words are translated (clé de bras in French, 十字固定 in Chinese). Not so in Korean. So, you might hear a lot of common words for Jiu-Jitsu terminology.

On top of that, many words in Korean that come from Japanese (Judo terminology) are also retained in Japanese pronunciation.

General words

Below are some general words and phrases that might come in useful when beginning to talk about BJJ or MMA in Korean.

General phrases

Below are some phrases I found useful for getting started at the gym, plus also training with new partners.

Warm ups / Drills / Exercises

These are some words I heard during warm-ups and drills, common to BJJ / MMA gyms in Korea, which sometimes also blend with Crossfit.

Most of these (and many others) are loan words apart from the very most common ones like push-ups and sit-ups. Even push-up and sit-up have common loan-word variations.

Words like sprawl, toes-to-bar, skipping, squat jumps, to… all of these were loan words in my gym.

Again, this is my experience at one gym doing MMA in Korean. I’m very interested to hear if you’ve trained in Korea in any gym (that might accept foreigners) and hear common Korean terms that aren’t loan-words.

We actually didn’t do a whole lot of drills in our gym, so I didn’t learn many more of these. But I got the impression they’re all loan words.

Body Parts

Here are the common body parts in Korean that you need to know when doing BJJ in Korean. You’ll hear convoluted descriptions of which part to hold onto and where to go, and knowing what body part the coach is referencing is critical.

Control positions

These are Jiu-Jitsu control positions. Most of these are loan words, but some are not.

If there’s one you commonly use, I can almost promise you it’s a loan word! The above should give you an indication of how to Korean-ify it.

BJJ / MMA Attacks / Submissions in Korean

Below are a bunch of common attacks and submissions in Korean.

Again, the vast majority of these are loan words from English, Japanese, and even French (Guillotine… ok French via English).

But some are interesting, e.g. Koreans prefer “keylock” to “Americana” (I’ve only been to half a dozen gyms, but haven’t heard “keylock” other than on YouTube… apart from clé de bras in French, with the same etymology). Also, “triangle” is the sole word that was translated to Korean!

Again, if there’s an attack you just learned, you need to learn to pronounce it in Korean.

Verbs / Movements

Here are some common verbs that I had to learn. Some are loan words, and some are not.

Injuries

Lastly, sometimes things hurt.

These are some common injuries and how to talk about them.

Basically, if you’re doing MMA in Korean and you hurt yourself badly enough, someone’s going to help you by translating from English. Or they’ll cart you away in an ambulance because you’re unconscious. But the above should get you started!