Grip Fighting - Your Jiu-Jitsu Will Suffer Without It

Posted by Fanatics Authors on December 12, 2018

Grip Fighting by The Best Judo Coach In The US History - Jimmy Pedro

Jimmy Pedro is considered by many to be one of the best judo coaches in US history. As such, it is safe to say he has excellent knowledge when it comes to grip fighting. Jimmy Pedro is world renowned for his judo expertise, coaching ability, and training methods. He is one of the most decorate judo players in American history. His is coach to Olympic Games Gold medalists Kayla Harrison and silver medalist Travis Stevens. Jim Pedro currently owns and operates Pedro’s Judo Center in Wakefield, MA.

Grip Fighting is one of those under taught skills in Jiu Jitsu. Most Jiu Jitsu martial artists just take grip fighting for granted. But it can be a HUGE game changer in regards to dominating your opponent or getting easily beaten.

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Many novice BJJ players do not truly realize the important of grip fighting. But grips are everything in any grappling martial art. Every roll starts with a grip fight. If you want to handle your opponent and stop them from passing you need to establish your grips. With that in mind let us take a look at what Olympic Judo Coach Jimmy Pedro has to stay about grip fighting. Watch the video below and then we will discuss his technique. Check it out now!

Grip fighting in Jiu Jitsu can be the difference between a win and a loss. How you grip your opponent is crucial for establishing entrances, take downs and submissions. Some times you do not even know how to have great Judo if you know how to control your opponent using only grips. It can also make a huge difference if you know how to break your training partner’s grips. Jimmy Pedro starts off with showing how to keep your hands up. You are always looking to attack an opponent’s hand. It is most effective to go two hands on one, grabbing your opponent’s sleeve and wrist, stopping him from effectively grabbing your gi lapel. If you control the wrist you control your opponent’s hand. Once you have the wrist you should push it down and away from your body. From here you secure the gi by taking away all the slack from around the elbow. Now you have control over your opponent’s hand, as he can’t bring that hand up to you. It is crucial here to take away all the slack from the gi in order to control your training partner’s hand. This allows you to dictate moving your opponent where you want, without allowing him a grip on your gi. If gets a grip it is hard to break but not impossible. But you want to avoid him from getting a grip so that he does not have control over your body.

By controlling the hand and wrist you can keep your opponent at a distance and determine where the fight goes from here. However if your opponent does get his grip you want to grab him at the wrist and break his grip by pushing down and away from your body. At the same time you should be moving your body away from your training partner. This act of pushing his arm down and pulling your shoulder away is what effectively breaks the grip. Once Jimmy Pedro breaks the grip he pushes his opponent’s arm across his body to protect while he controls the movement of the fight.

Control the grips, control the fight. These are wise words from legendary Judo Coach Jimmy Pedro. The grip fighting portion of any live roll determines who starts off in a more dominant position. Take your time here and really be careful to focus on exactly how your training partner is trying to grip you and what you are doing to defend yourself and control where their body moves.