Grabbing YOUR shorts in tournaments - Allowed?!

[Mr Fantastic Shawn Murphy]

Hi guys,

I ran into someone that used to train at the Montreal moon and we were talking about gi, no-gi, grip strength and all that jazz.

He was absolutely convinced that in no-gi grappling competition a competitor is allowed to hold on to his own clothing.

Can anyone verify or disprove this?

Does NAGA, Grappler's Quest, or any other major tourney allow this?


Thanks,

[Justin W.]

I've heard from black belts that ref matches, that you can grab your own shorts and I've even heard that you can do it in MMA. Seems silly to me though. If you can't grab his shorts, why can you grab your own?

[Kevin Gibbs]

you are allowed to grab your own shorts in both MMA and BJJ, I have never seen rules that disallow it.

[Ehsan_Karam]

^^^Yup

[Daniel Valdez]

The stipulation that I have seen is that it can only be done to defend a submission and it has to be your own shorts.

[Jay Chow]

You can hold on to your own clothes to defend stuff like Kimura's, but sometimes you just add leverage to the lock if you do that

[Aab]

Man im so pissed my gym brothers say grabbing your shorts and t shirt isn't allowed in No Gi. So i stopped doing it. Guess I'll start grabbing again.

[Christopher Piper]

The stipulation that I have seen is that it can only be done to defend a submission and it has to be your own shorts.

I've seen Bj Penn grab his shorts when he's running his Damn Good Guard.

[Mr Fantastic Shawn Murphy]

Heh, and to think I've been holding on to my love handles this whole time
I guess I'll have to start incorporating that into my game.

[Jeff V]

In NAGA you can grab your own shorts for sure. I also read the rules revision and if you are wearing Gi pants in NOGI your opponent can grab your pants now. That's just NAGA though. Not sure about other tourneys.