The Art of Grip Fighting in Gi and No-Gi
- Todd Richards
- Dec 17, 2025
- 3 min read
Grip fighting is one of the most under rated skills for Jiu-jitsu in both Gi and No-Gi grappling. It also happens to be one that Jiu-jitsu practitioners ignore more than most other grapplers. Grip fighting can be the reason between victory and defeat as the person who gets their preferred grips first can act first.
When I am grip fighting I focus on a few little things that help me gain position and control of my opponent as I advance my position. These skills have helped me improve my grappling significantly over the years and have been incorporated into my primary strategy as I grapple.
The first thing I almost always try to do while I am grip fighting is to control the space between my partner and myself. I heard an analogy years ago that if you picture a beach ball between you and your partner it is your job to control that beach ball so your partner can’t steal it. With this in mind I try to use my grip fighting to control the space between my partner and myself. I like this being my primary concept because it is applicable to both Gi and No-Gi and also it applies regardless of what position we are in.
One of the things that I do I learned from a guy who was a Judo Black Belt and had trained with legendary student of Bruce Lee, Joe Cowles. Instead of focusing on grabbing my opponent first, I use my arms to block and re-direct my opponent's grip attempts to create openings for me to establish grips. This might seem like a silly concept, but it has been a very effective way for me to control the grip fighting game. Because people are expecting most Jiu-jitsu guys to fight grip to grip, this approach often confuses or misdirects my opponents and allows openings for me to establish dominant grips.
The second thing I focus on when grip fighting is prioritizing grips that allow me to affect my opponent’s body structure instead of limbs. I try to focus on getting grips where I can manipulate my opponent’s spine or other parts of their body to reduce their ability to fight against me. If I can utilize my grips to curve or misalign parts of my opponent’s body, this will affect their ability to utilize their full strength and make me proportionally stronger. In practice what this means is I do not grab arms, or legs as frequently and will bypass easier grips on sleeves or arms to try and get more dominant grips that affect structure. By combining that with the redirection principle mentioned above this can create a strong grip fighting game to help me grapple.
The third thing I try to do while grip fighting is to try and utilize my grip fighting to improve my body positioning and keep my opponent out of advantageous body positioning. Mainly I try to move my body into the space between my partner’s hip and armpit and keep my partner out of that space on my body. This concept helps me control and have a clear path for what I am doing with my grips and how I am trying to advance my position.
Grip fighting can be one of the most difficult skills to master in Jiu-jitsu but it can also be one of the skills that gets you the most return on your investment. Focusing on having a strong grip fighting game can strongly improve your overall grappling. I strongly recommend checking out the Grip Fighting Scorecard episode of BJJ Mental Models for a great breakdown of a grip fighting system.
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