Countering a certain grip

judoblackbelt - A training partner last class kept trying to get the over the back grip and when he tried I grabbed the gi near the arm pit area and turned my wrist inward and this prevented him from pulling me in and had to release his grip. this is one of the most effective ways to deal with this.


A guy in my club used to try this and as soon as he put his arm in my arm pit I would smash him with ouchi. If you can move in before the arm in the pit is straightened, the arm is bent and very weak.

My arm pit grip is just when Tori gets the over the shoulder/back grip. And when you get this arm pit grip you need to turn your wrist inward. This is defensive for me but is not my normal grip. Which is sleeve/lapel.

Its been sometime and I wanted to revisit this thread with news of what I have been doing.

First, thank you all again for your tips.

OK, so in this case here is what I have been doing to counter. Lets say he uses his right hand to get the grip over my shoulder/lapel. I will take my right hand and feed his high right lapel to my left hand. I then straighten my left arm (its under his right arm). This makes his grip ineffectual for the most part.

From there he will usually have to give up the grip or I'm able to break free as it is much weakened. He did give me some problems when he would grab my left arm (the one straightened out) with his left hand. From there my posture was very bad and I was open to being thrown. But, I would grab his lapel with my right hand and break him down and be able to regain posture.

Another, and probably the most important thing I realized was I approaching the match with a wrestling mentality and technique. Going in, in in, rather then staying away. I am no longer playing into my partners hands. I stay back, keep my posture, try to unbalance, and grip fight a lot more. Its like night and day.

why do you think that Judokas don't go "in, in, in" ...?

Judo is not about not being thrown. It is about throwing. if you are worried about being thrown and taking a stance where you are instead keeping distance and minimizing your opportunities to attack then you are making a serious mistake.

the idea of grip fighting is first and foremost offensive-- you do it to put yourself in an improved position to attack and be aggressive.

secondly it is defensive, but only momentary at that. if you are using grip-fighting to stay safe, but are not mounting a serious offense at the same time then you are not doing Judo-- you are just running away.

nobody here can tell you which one you are doing. no matter what you say, it is your biased opinion and is basically worthless. afterall, bobody ever thinks they are being obtusely defensive.

Well, hard to argue with that but since its a discussion forum I'll try my best to give my biased opinion as unbiased as I can.

By "in, in in" I meant leading with my head under his chin/on the side of his teple like I do when I wrestle. I found this got my thrown in the gi a lot.As far as stance goes, Its a pretty natural stance. Not overly defensive or bent over. I'm trying to work from there.While I'm not as aggressive as I would like yet, I'm not just using grip fighting for defense, but attacking when I get his grips off me.

yea... sounds like you just dont know what you are doing yet. give it time. you might get there.

Thanks for your advice and support.