What's Your Gripping Mindset?
Have you heard the old adage, "The best defense is a good offense?" Have you ever thought about what it means and how it can be applied to your judo training? In the video below, multiple time Olympian and Coach of judokas like Kayla Harrison and Travis Stevens, Jimmy Pedro embodies the adage when sharing his approach to offensive gripping.
The adage is typically associated with times of war and how we should keep our enemies on their heels by using an aggressive and offensive approach that keeps them from launching any proactive attacks of their own. This is an important concept that we should employ in our judo competition and even practice. It is important to pull the opponent into our world and keep them guessing as we move through our sequences of controlling, offensive grips which will make them less likely to attack or throw us.
For Jimmy Pedro in this video, gripping must always be proactive and not reactive. Grips are not to be thought of as something defensive to simply hold on and prevent the opponent from progressing while we cower and wait.
Instead for Jimmy, the judoka must move through a systematic series of gripping sequences in an effort to keep the opponent reacting and susceptible to attacks.
Check out the video below.
Improving the mindset of our gripping will serve a number of purposes. It will help us develop sharper, offensive series and open up more opportunities to score. Paying attention to our grips in this way will also begin to pay dividends into other areas of our judo game as we look at thinks with more offensive eyes.
For more Olympic level gripping advice, check out Jimmy Pedro's Grip Like a World Champion 2.0. You can get your copy here or at the Buy Now link below.