--- title: Grip fighting description: Foundational Skill 1. Primary vs. secondary defensive hand, end of the lever, hands on top, glue partner's hands to your body. Verbatim from Volume 01. section: body tags: [bjj, skill, grip-fighting, front-headlock, turtle, rear-mount] genre: reference stability: stable lastUpdated: 2026-04-18 url: https://fardiniqbal.com/docs/body/mat/skills/grip-fighting --- **Source:** Volume 01, §6 —   ([full transcript](/docs/body/mat/sources/only-way-out/volume-01#6-foundational-skill-1--grip-fighting)) *** ## Verbatim from the transcript [#verbatim-from-the-transcript] One of the skills you need in order to feel comfortable from turtle, front headlock, and the back is your ability to **grip fight**. Understanding gripping and what you're trying to do is important for fundamental skill development in jiu-jitsu overall, but especially from these positions. When we're working from turtle and front headlock, the gripping strategy is very similar to when your partner is on your back. In fact, the best place to start learning these grips is from **rear mount** — because gravity isn't pulling you down, your partner's weight isn't on you, and you can focus more on what's happening. ### 6.1 Primary vs. secondary defensive hand [#61-primary-vs-secondary-defensive-hand] We have a **primary defensive hand** and a **secondary defensive hand**. * **The primary defensive hand is always opposite the strangle side.** If Chris's right arm is over my shoulder (the strangling arm), then my opposite hand (left) is the primary defensive hand. **Why the opposite side?** If I try to use the same side — his right, my right — to pull his arm down, he'll usually be able to **walk that hand up** to a point where it's no longer a functional defensive grip. On the other hand, when I place the opposite hand on his hand, now we've got a situation where we can physically move our partner's hand across our body. This becomes a kind of **closed circuit**: the power of my elbow and shoulder working against his arm. As he goes to walk his hand up, I can use more of my body — elbow and shoulder — to create separation. The **secondary hand** is four fingers to the inside, supporting the primary hand. ### 6.2 End of the lever [#62-end-of-the-lever] When you're working here, it's usually better to **go all the way to the end of the lever**. Given the choice between holding our partner's wrist/forearm and holding our partner's **knuckle line**, we hold the knuckles. You can't always do that — sometimes he'll clasp over such that you can't reach the knuckles — then you get as close as you can. So whenever we're gripping, three things together: 1. **Inside position with your thumb.** 2. **End of the lever** (knuckles). 3. **Primary defensive hand does most of the work**; secondary hand supports. ### 6.3 Hands on top [#63-hands-on-top] When we get this grip, our hands are **on top**. This is another very important thing to keep in mind. Whenever possible, we want our hands on top of our partner's hands. If his hands cover mine, it's very easy for him to strip off my hand. So what we're always looking for, whenever possible, is getting our hands on top of our partner's hands. ### 6.4 Glue your partner's hands to your body [#64-glue-your-partners-hands-to-your-body] When we're here, we're usually looking to emphasize a kind of retraction where we're **gluing our partner's hands to our body**. It's not usually a good idea to have your partner's arms floating out away from your body — there are too many directions they can go. Out there, he has almost unlimited range of motion. When we connect our partner's hands to our body, he only has a few directions he can go — up one way or down the other — but it's very difficult to pull the hands away when I'm gluing them, and, of course, he can't go further into the chest. So whenever possible, instead of grip-fighting from out here, we want to connect our partner's arms to our body. > \[!PRINCIPLE] **Gripping checklist** > > * **Inside position** with thumb. > * **End of the lever** (knuckles). > * **Primary hand does the work**, secondary hand supports. > * **Hands on top.** > * **Glue the partner's arms to your body** (don't fight out in space). > * **Head on the floor** (so both your hands are free for grip fighting, not supporting your head). ### 6.5 Applied to front headlock and turtle [#65-applied-to-front-headlock-and-turtle] **Front headlock.** Chris's right arm is the strangle arm. If left unchecked, he can take this hand and punch it through, and now we're at risk of strangles. So we always take our right to our partner's right — if I can get my hand all the way over his knuckle line, great; sometimes you can't, but that should be the goal. Second hand supports. **Critical:** in demonstration my head is up because I'm speaking to you, but usually this work takes place with your **head down on the floor**. The reason: you need to be able to use both hands, in sequence, to separate your partner's grips. If one of your hands is on the mat supporting your head, you lose a hand to grip with. **Keep the partner's hands connected to you.** If he gets this grip and his hands are locked, I want this to be the *only* grip he has. We don't want a situation where our partners can unlock and switch grips at will. If his hands are locked and I'm doing something other than monitoring his grips — even if I'm not getting strangled — Chris is free to switch grips to other attacks. For example, he could go to an **arm-drag grip** with his right arm on my arm — and now the threat of back-takes is much greater. So whenever we're underneath, we have both the idea of **defending the strangle** and **connecting our partner's arms to us**. This becomes really important: if Chris wants to switch his grip, there will be a moment where he goes from locked hands to unlocked hands — and once unlocked, we can start to separate and move ourselves out of that dangerous position. **Turtle.** Same things apply. If his hands are locked: right-to-right, left hand supportive. If you try to do this with your head up, you'll either face-plant or not be able to use this hand. So head down — hands active and defensive. When he goes to lock, we keep our partner's arms **connected**. We don't push his arms away unless there's an immediate threat of strangle — and even then, the goal is usually to move his arms *down the body*, not out and away. Pushing away is a relatively weak way of defending because he's using both arms — it takes a lot of effort for you to create enough space to pull your head out or anything like that. Keep the hands connected, and we'll see there are many ways to take advantage of trapped arms even in that position. **When hands are in a body lock (tight waist + post):** same idea — find a way to separate, start by covering your partner's hands. If our hands are on top, good. If his hands are on top of mine, harder to defend. Cover. Then, if we feel the strangle coming, bring our partner's hand down and pass it up to our **primary defensive arm**. If you've done any grip work at all defending the rear strangle and the back mount, the gripping strategies in this series are going to feel very similar — they follow the same principles: * If locked hands, **keep them where they are** and connected to our body. * Look for **inside position** whenever possible. * Get our hands **on top**. * This is true whether strangling at upper body or hands at lower body. If he locks his hands in a body lock down at the waist: our hands cover his, we look for inside position with our thumbs; if he starts to separate/unlock, we keep them separate; if they're down and not going anywhere, we keep them there. ### 6.6 A progressive drill sequence [#66-a-progressive-drill-sequence] A great way to build these skills: **Stage 1 — From rear mount.** No gravity pulling you down, no weight on you. Two hands come in: look to separate, cover. If he walks a hand up, bring it back down. Whenever possible, keep it tight. (When we get to back escapes in a later volume, we'll talk more about this.) Get comfortable with the function of primary/secondary defensive hands, keeping hands low, getting hands on top. **Stage 2 — From front headlock.** He keeps his hands here, not giving too much resistance; you work on creating separation, moving your head away, resetting. As a drill, then it's his turn — he separates hands, comes back through in front, head to floor, tries to separate. Once separated, we circle the head to the outside. From there, you can become even more dynamic in your gripping. **Stage 3 — From turtle.** Begin on two knees, partner may have hands locked at upper body. Because you're drilling and not worried about being finished, you can play from here: cover his hands, bring your arms inside, separate them, create distance. Then it's Chris's turn — whether from body lock (separating his hands, turning to face me), or from seat belt (defending the neck, creating separation, clearing his arm, facing him, standing up, elevating, etc.). > \[!DRILL] **Simple gripping-drill progression** > > 1. **Rear mount** — learn primary/secondary hands, hands on top, stay connected. > 2. **Front headlock** — same mechanics, head down on mat, partner progressively more active. > 3. **Turtle** — from both body-lock and seat-belt variations. > > Some of the seeds of this are probably already in your training. If you can develop this skill, the techniques in this video will be much easier to execute — because you'll have a very good understanding of how to grip. *** ## Connections [#connections] * **Principles enacted:** [Inside position](/docs/body/mat/principles/inside-position) (thumb inside the wrist is the micro-scale version). [Retract](/docs/body/mat/principles/retract) (glue the partner's hands to your body = retract to body, don't fight in space). * **Where this shows up:** every move that begins with a grip battle. In the schematic of almost any front-headlock or turtle escape, the first beat is some variant of separate / cover / get inside — which is this skill. * **Cross-position:** same grip-fighting rules apply from rear mount, front headlock, turtle, and any chest-to-back situation. The drill progression intentionally starts in rear mount because it's the lowest-pressure instance.