Power of Cross Collar BJJ grips

Power of Cross Collar BJJ grips

I am always amazed by the remarkable power of cross collar BJJ grips. There are no universal remedies for the myriad problems and scenarios of Jiu Jitsu. One must be able to be adaptable and look for individual solutions to every problem. Nonetheless, there are some moves and concepts that have incredibly wide applications and come as close to a remedy as we can get in this art. One of them is the cross collar grip. This is probably the single most effective and versatile grip we can employ from guard position and many top pin scenarios as well. It is a grip that gives excellent and immediate control of your opponents head, arguably the most important part of the body to control. Here at Savarese BJJ Academy (www.njbjj.com), we always preach that if you control the head, you control the body. In addition, it creates an immediate danger of choke attempts to harass, intimidate and even finish an opponent. It gives a bottom guard player good distance control for both offense and defense. Perhaps most important it enables a bottom player to constantly break their opponents posture and thus create strong action/reaction attacks as an opponent tries to resist and recover. Experiment with different ways of holding the grip based upon what end you want to achieve. Learn to switch hands and grip and re-grip side to side so as to lead actively into attacks rather than just holding on with a death grip without purpose. Create a sense of push/pull and action/reaction. This is the element that makes Jiu-Jitsu interesting and artful rather than a slogging match. There is a reason why so many great athletes made this simple yet devastating grip the basis of their attacking grip game. Professor Rafael Lovato has used the power of the cross collar grip quite effectively in his career. Make it part of yours too!