Does your Open Guard kinda suck? If so, then a huge reason behind that could be your lack of grip fighting skills. For, if you knew how to use your grips to set up favorable guards and attacks… You’d have a much better time being on the offense instead of being on the defense constantly.
Jon Thomas has some tips to share with you, that will greatly improve your grip fighting. Learn them now!

KEEP YOUR DISTANCE 

First and foremost, if you want to be on the offensive side, you need to keep your distance from the opponent! In other words: whenever they try to close the distance in order to pass your guard, you should be taking a “step” back and changing your angle.
This is done in order to always be one step ahead of the opponent. So that they have to deal with more problems than you do.

TAKE THE GRIP…

… Which is offered to you, not the one you want. This is so important that it needs to be repeated again: take the grip which your opponent offers to you, not the one you want.
If you always go for that which you previously “chose”, you’ll not only miss out on the numerous of opportunities that the opponent will offer to you; but your guard will also be much more susceptible to getting passed!

Sure, this will require from you to develop your Jiu-Jitsu game even more in width – so that you can use the grips offered. But that’s a good thing! It means that you’ll develop as a Jiujiteiro.

Take a look at more of Jon Thomas’s great grip fighting tips here:

Check Out Travis Stevens ‘Scientific Gripping Systems‘ , The Gripping Formula That Makes All The Difference No Matter Where You Start: By An Elite BJJ Blackbelt Who Is Also An Olympic Silver Medalist In Judo:

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