Possibly the worst forum in JJ to ask this on?

[Brandon Mccaghren]

One of my students, Matt Skaff, said something to another student the other night that I thought was excellent. I'm paraphrasing here, so maybe he can correct me.

All grips are dangerous if you don't know what his intentions are. If you don't know what he wants with a particular grip, you have to address it.

[Matt Skaff]

I would recommend that you watch Ryan Hall's passing the guard DVD. A lot of great ideas about grip fighting that has helped me in my no-gi game. Brandon's quote above is essentially right. Ryan Hall believes as a beginner you should break every grip because you do not know when you are in trouble. Just remember the person who controls the grips essentially gets a chance to force their game on their opponent. As you progress in BJJ, you will learn the importance of grip fighting. I always stress the importance of addressing grips when rolling whenever guys are asking me questions about defense. If a guy graps your lapel get it off. I always try to reverse engineer offensive techniques for my defense. If guys are killing you with the bow and arrow choke. Drill it. Only with an understanding of the choke can you defend it.

[Josh Wilson]

Thanks for all the replies and it is mainly when in guard and side control, guess ive just got to get the reps in to know what each grip means and what can be done from it. Never really believed it before but its like im playing a completely different sport all of a sudden.

[Larry Williams, Jr.]

Until I trained at Gracie Barra I truly believed they were the "same sport". I believed you could play the same game. People at most schools I had trained at or visited did. Many teachers argued this point. In my opinion it is a corrosive and inncorect opinion. Even guys like Marcelo who use similar games themselves have to be aware of the differences.

If you think about this though, this is where 10p shines, because it's the most systematic approach to no gi.

Fact is as your level goes up, if you try to just play your game and ignore grips, it's done.