Training MMA / BJJ in Italian — Words / Vocabulary / Glossary
While staying in Florence, Italy, I trained almost daily (when I wasn’t on a touristy trip) at a gym called Dog Eat Dog, led by Marco Santi. I trained in mostly grappling / wrestling, with some striking (boxing / general “MMA striking”) on some days to mix things up and broaden my skillset.
Before going, I had learned a lot of MMA / BJJ vocabulary. But I also learned a bunch of words while I was there.
So here are all the words that I’ve learned form my direct experience in training in MMA / BJJ / Grappling / Striking in Italian. Good luck… In bocca al lupo!
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MMA / BJJ in Italian — Borrowed vs Translated Vocabulary, and Variations
Something I’ve noticed in all the languages in which I’ve trained is that there’s rarely a set way of saying things that extends everywhere.
For example, I thought I knew how to say “hip escapes” before going to my first classes in Italy. Or “forward rolls”. They turned out to be different to the phrases with which I had prepared myself.
There are instances where a gym might use
- A borrowed English term, like for “outside heel hook”
- A Japanese term, particularly for attacks like “juji gatame” (arm bar)
- A Portuguese word, like “omoplata” (a common attack)
- Or an Italian word, of course
The reason for the imported words is that the culture of mixed martial arts, fighting sports, and jiu jitsu is global. People watch clips or instructional videos from around the world and focus on techniques, not vocabulary.
And when the vocab is difficult, like in more specialised terminology full of neologisms even in the language of origin, it becomes distracting to translate everything.
Anyway, that said, there’s definitely a lot of Italian words that I had to learn to survive in a gym in Italy. Starting with the word “gym”. If you’re coming from another romance language background and expecting it to be something like “gymnasium”… well, guess again!
Useful Expressions
Here are a bunch of useful expressions that I often need to use on the mats.
| English | Italian |
|---|---|
| Warm-up first | Fate dei riscaldamenti prima |
| Let’s roll! | Giriamo! |
| Ready? | Sei pronto / pronta? |
| One second | Un attimo |
| Let’s start. | Iniziamo. |
| Good luck! | In bocca al lupo! |
| Another round? | Ancora un round? |
| Sorry! | Scusa! |
| Are you OK? | Va bene? Stai bene? |
| My xxx hurts | Mi fa male il / la … |
| Careful / Watch out | Attento! |
| Stop! | Fermo! / Fermate! |
| I’ll rest a round. | Mi riposerò un round. |
| I’m going to the bathroom. | Vado nel bagno. |
| I’m dead tired / exhausted | Sono esausto! Sono stanco morto / stanca morta! Sono cotto / cotta! |
| I’ve got to go. | Me ne devo andare. |
| Thanks for the training! | Grazie per l’allenamento! |
General BJJ / MMA Words in Italian
Below is a list of general words I’ve had to learn for places, equipment, and people. I’ll get more specific below.
| English | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Attacker / Fighter | Un combattente |
| Belt | La cintura E.g. la cintura blu è la cintura più desiderata |
| Change rooms / locker rooms | Gli spogliatoi Vado negli spogliatoi a cambiarmi. |
| Collar | Il bavero bisogna avere una buona presa al bavero |
| Equipment | Attrezzatura Ho tutta l’attrezzatura giusta |
| To escape / an escape | Sfuggire / Una fuga Come posso fare per sfuggire di questa posizione? Questa posizione è difficile da sfuggire |
| A feint / to feint | Una finta / fare una finta / fintare Finta a sinistra, poi colpisci a destra. |
| To grip / a grip | Aferrare / una presa |
| A gym | Una palestra |
| Opponent | L’avversario |
| Pants (Compression style) | Pantaloncini |
| Right-handed / Left-handed | Destro / mancino Il mancinismo non è un vantaggio |
| Mouthguard | Un paradenti (not a plural word) Cerco il mio paradenti |
| To pass the guard / a guard pass | Passare la guardia / un passaggio di guardia |
| Rash guard | Una maglia / magliette / rash guard |
| To roll | Lottare / Girare. (Have also read rotolare, rollare) |
| Sleeve (e.g. of jacket) | La manica, le maniche |
| To spar / sparring | La lotta / lottare Oggi si lotta! |
| To stretch / stretching | Stretching (borrowed) Facciamo un po di stretching |
| To submit | Sottomettere, una sottomissione |
| To take down / A take-down | Abbattere, un abbattimento, un take-down |
| To take off your shoes | Togliersi le scarpe Togliti le scarpe. |
| To tap | Toccare |
| To train I’d like to train here | Allenarsi Voglio allenarmi qua |
Warm-Ups
Here are a bunch of warm-ups (riscaldamenti) common in MMA / jiu jitsu.
(There’s not much here because I just do whatever the coach is doing!)
| English | Italian |
|---|---|
| Bridges / To bridge | (Fare) Ponti |
| To hip escape / shrimp | (Fare) Uscita / uscite di fianchi |
| To jump rope | Saltare alla corda |
| Pull-up(s) | Una trazione, trazioni |
| Push-up(s) | Una flessione, flessioni |
| Rolls (somersaults / forward rolls / Backward rolls) | Una capriola / capriole |
| Sit-ups | Una addominale / gli addominali |
| To warm up / a warm up | Riscaldarsi / riscaldamento Facciamo dei riscaldamenti |
Boxing Vocab
I was surprised to learn that the main word for boxing in Italian is “pugilato”, related to “pugilism” of course — but which is a much more infrequently heard word in English. Of course, la boxe is also used in Italian, and I hear it more often.
| English | Italian |
|---|---|
| Boxing | Il pugilato / la boxe |
| Boxing bag | Il sacco da boxe |
| Cross | Diretto di destra |
| To dodge / a dodge | Schivare / una schivata |
| Elbow (strike) | Un colpo di gomito, una gomitata |
| Front foot / Rear foot | Il piede davanti / il piede di dietro |
| Gloves MMA gloves | I guantoni (big gloves!) da boxe / i guanti Mezzi guanti |
| Hook Body hook | Un gancio Un gancio di corpo |
| A straight (jab or cross) | Un diretto |
| To kick / a kick | Calciare / Un calcio / una |
| Knee (strike) | Un colpo al ginocchio, una ginocchiata |
| Punch / strike / blow | Un colpo / un pugno |
| Shadow box | La boxe ombra |
| Shin guards | Un parastinchi / i parastinchi |
| Straight punches (Jabs, Crosses) | Diritti |
| Switch | Cambio de guardia |
| Uppercut | Un montante |
| (Boxing) Wraps | Le fasce da boxe / i bendaggi |
BJJ / Grappling Positions
| English | Italia |
|---|---|
| 50/50 | Cinquanta-cinquanta |
| The back | La schiena Prendere la schiena |
| Butterfly guard | Farfalla |
| Closed guard | Guardia chiusa |
| Crucifix | Il crocifisso |
| Half guard, deep half | Mezza guardia |
| Knee on belly | Ginocchio sulla pancia |
| Mount | La monta |
| Open guard | Guardia aperta |
| North-South | Il nord-sud |
| Side control / 100 kilos | Controllo laterale / Cento chili |
| Turtle | La tartaruga / il quattro poggi (four legs) |
| Axis | l’asse |
| X guard | Guardia X (iks) |
Grappling / BJJ Attacks
In Italian, more than in other major romance languages, I’ve noticed that a lot of attack names (submissions: sottomissioni are borrowed from English and Japanese. It could be because Italy is a smaller place, of course.
I spent days with my coach working on leg locks and we tended to use Japanese or standard Jiu Jitsu terms, like “outside ashi garami”, “inside sankaku”, “heel hook”, and so on, even when speaking Italian. He has a vast library of English-language training material which is untranslated, so the language carries over. With smaller languages, I’m sure this becomes more and more common.
Anyway, here are the ones I’ve seen most frequently used in Italian.
| English | Italian |
|---|---|
| Ankle lock | Una leva alla caviglia |
| Arm lock / arm bar | Una leva al braccio |
| Arm triangle | Soffocamento a triangolo |
| Carotid artery | l’arteria carotidea la carotide |
| Choke | Un soffocamento / uno strangolamento |
| Guillotine | Una ghigliottina |
| Kimura | La kimura (just to highlight it’s a “feminine” noun) |
| Rear-naked joke | Un mata leone / mata leão (from Portuguese.) |
| Triangle | Un triangolo |
Body parts
I had to learn a lot of body parts in Italian! Here are all the parts of the body (il corpo) that you’ll have to attack or defend in Italian.
Rather than make a bunch of tables, I’ve put this by section — head, torso, arms, and so on.
| English | Italian |
|---|---|
| Head | La testa |
| Neck | Il collo |
| Jaw | La mascella |
| Chin | Il mento |
| Nose | Il naso |
| Mouth | La bocca |
| Lips | Il labro, le labbra |
| Ear | Un orecchio, le orecchie |
| A tooth, teeth | Un dente, denti |
| Arm, arms | Il braccio, le braccia |
| Armpit | l’ascella |
| Bicep | Il bicipite |
| Elbow | Il gomito |
| Finger, fingers | Un dito/le dita (irregular plural) |
| Fingernails | Le unghie |
| Forearm | L’avambraccio |
| Hand / s | La mano / le mani(irregular plural) |
| Shoulder | La spalla, le spalle |
| Shoulder blade | La scapola, le scapole |
| Thumb | Il pollice |
| Wrist Grab the wrist | Il polso Aferra il polso |
| Torso | Il busto |
| Abdomen | L’addome |
| Chest | Il petto |
| Hips | I fianchi |
| Pelvis | Il bacino |
| Rib | la costola |
| Waist | La vita |
| Knee | Un ginocchio, le ginocchia |
| Leg | La gamba |
| Ankle | La caviglia, le caviglie |
| Ball of the foot | La punta del piede |
| Calf, shin | Il polpaccio, lo stinco |
| Foot | Il piede |
| Heel First the ball of the foot, then the heel | Il tallone Prima punta, poi tallone. |
| Thigh | La coscia, le cosce |
| Toes | Le dita dei piedi |
Injuries / First aid
Finally, stuff does tend to go wrong. In every roll or sparring session, I get hurt somewhere! Every damn day!
Here are a few things I’ve had to learn how to say in Italian for MMA / Boxing / Jiu Jitsu. Hopefully they help you.
| English | Italiano |
|---|---|
| Blood There’s blood on the mat | Il sangue C’è del sangue sul tappetto |
| Bleeding You’re bleeding | Sanguinare Stai sanguinando |
| Bruise I have a bruise on my rib | Un livido Ho un livido sulla costola |
| To be dizzy I’m dizzy after doing all those somersaults | Girare la testa Mi gira la testa dopo tutte quelle capriole |
| Hit You hit me in the nose / face / head | Colpire Mi hai colpito al naso/faccia/testa |
| To hurt My neck / arm / foot hurts I won’t hurt you | Fare del male Mi fa male il collo Non ti farò del male |
| Injury Do you have an injury? Are you injured? | Un infortunio Hai un infortunio? Sei ferito? |
| To pass out / to black out I think he has passed out | Svenire Penso che sia svenuto. |
| To be sick I can’t train, as I’m a bit sick | Essere malato / raffreddato (mildly ill) Non posso allenarmi, sono un po’ raffreddato |
| Sprain I have a sprained ankle | Una distorsione Ho una caviglia slogata / distorsione della caviglia |
Of course, you can just say “Wait a minute… OK, I’m fine”, which is Aspetta un attimo… OK sto bene, continuiamo. And keep going!
Find any errors? I make mistakes sometimes. If you find some, feel free to write in, or let me know in comments.
Thanks for this article! I’ve recently started MMA lessons and I want to be able to discuss them with my Italian conversation partners. Your lists will be very helpful!
A kindred spirit! So glad you found our page. All the best for your training and your Italian!!