Kumikata

• ›Sleeve at the elbow, lapel at the collarbone.
• ›Hold lightly, close hard at the last moment.
• ›Elbow in, hand above it.
• ›Pull with your trunk, not your arms.
• ›Break a grip with one hand and keep the other on.

• ✕Gripping hard too early. Fix: hold lightly until you attack; stiff arms telegraph your plan and cannot add power later.
• ✕Keeping your arms stiff and at full length. Fix: stay close with relaxed, bent arms and pull with your whole body.
• ✕Holding a grip without attacking. Fix: attack within the time limit, because the IJF penalizes negative holds, and non-classical grips are only allowed while you are attacking.
• ✕Gripping the sleeve too high or too low. Fix: hold around the elbow. Too high lets your partner turn out, and too low makes the pull reach the shoulder late.
• ✕Letting go with both hands after a break. Fix: keep one hand on, because breaking a grip with two hands and holding nothing is a shido.

• •Before every standing technique: in judo a grip is the usual way into a throw, and the current rules treat it as a prerequisite.
• •After "Hajime!" and every restart: the grip fight begins, and once you have a normal grip the clock on your attack starts.
• •When you want to shut down your partner's best throw: take or strip the grip they need.
• •On the ground in a jacket, where the collar grips are the start of chokes such as the cross collar choke.

• •Choose your approach: the Kodokan includes right or left approach, and natural or defensive posture, in kumikata.
• •Match the grip to the throw you want. Every grip has its own advantages and disadvantages, and the throw you attempt usually dictates where you hold.
• •Change your grip to suit your partner's size and attitude, in each class and each round.

• •Pull with both hands to break your partner's balance and fit in for the throw (kuzushi, tsukuri, kake).
• •Re-grip and go again if your first attack is blocked.
• •If the throw is not finished, follow it to the ground for a pin or a choke.

• •Your partner strips it with one hand, or with both hands as long as they keep at least one hold on you.
• •Your partner breaks it with a push and a pull: their lapel hand pushes your chest away while their sleeve hand pulls back, a "bow and arrow" motion taught by Olympic silver medallist Travis Stevens.

• •Break the grip early, before both hands are in, and use your hands only: breaking it with the knee or leg, hitting the arm, covering the lapel or blocking the hand all draw a shido.
• •Keep your posture while you break it. Stevens says a grip break should not break your own posture, so keep your chest and shoulders square.
• •Do not hide from the grip. The IJF tells referees to penalize strictly an athlete who tries not to be gripped.

Your right hand takes their left lapel at collarbone height and your left hand takes their right sleeve at the elbow. Left-handed judoka mirror it. A 2022 scoping review found collar-and-sleeve is the most used grip in competition.

When you and your partner grip with the same side forward, right against right or left against left, it is ai-yotsu. When your stances are a mirror image, it is kenka-yotsu, the position the same review found used most in competition.

The IJF names collar and lapel, one-side, cross, belt, pocket and pistol grips as allowed while you are attacking. You get time to prepare your attack, but the same grips used to force your partner to bend, or to defend or block, are penalized.

Gi jiu-jitsu players grip the collar, sleeves and pants; the IBJJF takedown-scoring rule even mentions a grip on the pants. Fingers inside the opening of a sleeve or pant leg are a foul, although judo allows gripping inside the sleeve.

Sambo is also fought in a jacket and belt, and the FIAS rules penalize rolling up the sleeves or untying the belt. In sport sambo, avoiding a grip in a standing position counts as passive conduct.

MMA fighters have no cloth to hold. Under the Unified Rules, controlling an opponent by holding their shorts or gloves is a foul, and so is using the fence to control position.

Hang a judogi from a pull-up bar or a post at chest height. Take the standard grip, then change to another legal grip, and back. Keep your elbows in and your hands light until you pull. Do three sets of twenty changes.

Start a pace apart, each trying to take the standard grip first. When one of you has both hands in, the other breaks it with one hand, keeps a hold with the other and takes the grip back. Do three rounds of thirty seconds.

Take the standard grip on a relaxed partner. As they step, pull with your trunk, feel their weight move, then stop and reset. Do ten reps, then swap.

We teach it in Throws. A coach will fix the details you can't see yourself. Join now and book your first class for $20, paid online.