BJJ is known to be one of the most intense martial arts variations. So far it is the only martial art that is ideal for people who are small in size, flexible and thin. Contrary to the common belief that most martial arts revolve around your body strength and the amount of effort you are ready to put in, you will have BJJ as the ideal combat game for women and kids who struggle to defend when their opponent is giant in size and more powerful. Another important thing is that BJJ focuses mainly on the way you acquire submission by using a technique more than your body power and grip. The idea is to focus mainly on the technique and then use the way your body moves to your advantage. This might seem a little tricky but with exercise, you will build muscle memory that will support your body movement on the mat.
Similarly, when you change BJJ from Gi to no-GI the basic idea is that you will struggle with the grip. Since there is no way you can establish a strong grip, the pace will be much faster and you need to know how you will be developing your grip. Establishing a dominant grip in BJJ is very important because this offers you better control so you can acquire dominance fast and easily. Your grip will help you know how dominant you will be and how you will be able to control your opponent. Starting right from the standup where you will start the match to the way you grapple your opponent and start the takedown process, every step will require you to have a very good and strong grip. Since there is no GI there is no way you will have the support of GI to establish the grip.
With the help of this article, we will mainly address how you can establish a strong grip when you are in a no-GI BJJ fight.
Learn to hold the body
When the cloth is involved in gripping you will be able to tug things closer very easily. On the contrary, when you don’t have any clothes of GI involved, you need to leverage the body parts. One of the main things is that people complain that body parts usually slip, especially if you are new and trying to grapple the wrist or the leg. The idea is to establish a grip closer to the neck area so you have better control over the body.
Practice fighting strategy
To make sure you don’t end up getting too close to offer yourself as the grip, you need to learn how to revolve around the body of the opponent so that you can avoid getting grappled. To make this possible, you need to practice your grip on a resistant opponent. Most people use a punching bag or sandbag because they are slippery, however, you will need someone who will continue to mimic an actual person trying to escape your grip. You can get details about the grip fighting from any online video.
Wrist grappling
When it comes to establishing a grip, your hands will play a very important role. This means that by establishing a strong grip over the hand and wrist of your opponent you are not only gaining dominance you will also be limiting their options for retaliation. When trying to establish a grip over the wrist of your opponent, start by focusing on the slimmest part. Most experts recommend gripping the ulna and then moving here the thumb connects with the middle finger. This is a great place to start the grip over the wrist and control your opponent.
Ankle grip
This is so far the most used and most common method of establishing a grip over your opponent. By using the ankle you will be not only controlling your opponent but you will also be able to sweep your opponent off their feet. To make this possible, start by handling the back of the heel that meets the leg and apply pressure. You will notice that your opponent will feel intense pressure and stop retaliating. However, if that doesn't work, you then have to get closer to the fingers and apply pressure near the thumb.
Bottom line
To sum it all up, you will need a method that will help you hook your fist somewhere so you can establish a strong grip. Usually, people use cloth for gripping but in some cases, especially in the case of NO-GI BJJ, you will see that your grip will slip very easily. The idea is to be more assertive and practice the grips. If you will have a better grip, your hands will automatically hold things tighter as compared to a normal grip. During later stages of n-gi practice, the gripping sessions become very hard so the ideal practice is to take time for the gripping exercise. Apart from this during the gripping fight, you will learn how to avoid offering a grip and how to strengthen your grip around your opponent
Ann Edwards - Elite Sports