Why Grip Sets are So Important.

I’ve been basing a lot of my jiu jitsu and the classes that I teach off of grip sets lately. By understanding why a hand serves a certain role depending on its gripping location, it can become more natural to set up a series of attacks and transitions. I believe that through this understanding one can begin to manipulate their opportunities at a much higher level of efficiency than someone that just shoots at the hip. This idea bridges off the same philosophy of training with a purpose.

Time and time again we are faced with new situations in our jiu jitsu game. Whether it’s a new look at a tournament or the same people you train with each day learning new pieces of the game, you have to always be on your toes. Never assume you know what your partner/opponent has in store from you and always be imposing your game on them. The sooner you realize that your attacking makes the other person more apt to making mistakes, the sooner you can capitalize on them and find your opening to set the hook. Setting up these opportunities is critical and choosing the right grips can make this whole journey make a lot more sense.

For example, a pretty traditional grip in the gi is a cross-collar grip and the same side sleeve. This grip controls a side of the opponent’s upper body and sets up for a good amount of sweeping opportunities due to the lack of ability of posting out that arm. With that same grip, you can force reactions from the opponent by pulling or pushing any which way, and set up new grips or even launch attacks from there.

 An example of this can be using this specific grip to break the opponent’s posture and quickly release the sleeve grip. From there we can loop the cross-collar gripping arm around the head and use the released sleeve gripping hand to assist by passing their head deeper into the choke. From there, we reinforce the choke by applying pressure to the back or the head/neck to finish. Boom. Loop choke.

With the same grip set as above, we use the cross-collar grip with our closed guard to extend the opponent away from us. Usually when we force an opponent to do a particular thing, they naturally want to do the opposite. In this case the opponent begins to fight back by driving their weight back into us. As they do, we can release the cross-collar grip and re-grip at their inside tricep. With the same side sleeve grip, the tricep grip and the opponent forcing themselves in, we can set up perfectly for the arm drag by timing the opening of our guard and shrimping away as we guide them to our desired location. Having the opponent pulled to your previous location, you are no set up to start taking their back.

In a third example, we have the same grip set while standing. Similar to before we push the opponent backward to cause them to want to come forward. As they step in, we immediately release the cross-collar grip and shoot for a cross-side underhook. In the same timing we are stepping in towards the opponent and turning in towards their controlled arm while dropping to our knees beneath them. Their weight is forced up and forward and their base gets taken out by our body. They continue to fall forward with the unexpected Drop Seo Nage.

The list can go on and on with the possibilities, but the fact of the matter is that something as simple of choosing the right grips and understanding what you can do with them is where the success comes into play. Take time to experiment with grips and you’ll move more effortlessly in the heat of the moment. They can help build up a stronger game for competition or help you in your leisurely roll in the academy.

Each time you develop options off of a particular grip set, you begin to see how it can get countered. As you discover the counters, you can start to combine other grip sets together or use the counter as a bait for an attack. The same applies when you are defending or breaking grips, you have to respect them or they can and will cause your demise. Become an expert in your gripping patterns and you’ll be one step closer to controlling the roll.