Shutting down grips: Every attack an opponent can every do to you in grappling starts with a grip of some kind. If you can control his ability to grip you then you can nullify most of the danger he presents to you. You don’t want to take this line of thinking too far and become an overly defensive gripper. Make sure you negate the opponent’s grip and then immediately go into your attacks so that you maintain a good spirit of offense in your game at all times. Nonetheless it’s important that you be able to stop an opponent getting to their favorite grips, because once he can impose them things can go quickly from bad to worse. If you can stop his hands - you’ll stop everything that follows.