
When I was a bluebelt in the late 90’s we had a visitor to class.
This guy was a purple belt, trained at a well-known school in California, and had a very tricky game.
One day I was in his spider guard and he caught me in a grip I had never seen before. All of a sudden, I had no use of my left hand. Then he secured the same grip on my right sleeve, and now I had no hands left to grip him with.
Try as I might, I was unable to escape, and I’ve never been so glad to have the time on a round run out as I was that afternoon.
The interesting thing is that, almost 30 years later, very few people know about this grip.
I call it the “sausage grip” because your fingers are trapped inside your gi sleeve like ground meat trapped inside a sausage casing.
Here are the steps…
Step 1: You notice that your opponent’s sleeve is riding a little bit low on his arm and is beginning to partially cover his hand…
Step 2: Taking advantage of the situation you pull his sleeve even further forward until his fingers are completely hidden…
Step 3: You grab the end of the sleeve to close off the opening, leaving his hand trapped inside.
Once you secure the sausage grip it’s SO frustrating for your opponent. He’ll likely stop all his offense, and focus completely on freeing his hand, so make sure to attack right away.
And if you manage to get both his hands trapped this way, well, fughetaboutit. He’s completely at your mercy. I mean, just imagine how powerful even the most basic spider guard sweep would be if you amplified it with this level of control!
The next time you’re training hunt for this grip and then give ’em hell!
Cheers,
Stephan Kesting
P.S. I showed the sausage grip as option number 5 at the end of a short video on sleeve grips in BJJ on my Youtube channel. Click play on the video below to check it out…