Don't let opponents impose their grips upon you: All control in grappling begins with grip. Without grip and connection there is no grappling. Even a white belt on his first day can instinctively feel the danger of a powerful and well directed grip that allows an opponent to dictate his movement and will intuitively resist it. As you gain in expertise you will learn to distinguish between ineffective grips and highly effective ones – it's simple to tell the difference- any grip that gives his control over your ability to hold a stance and move is effective. Any grip that doesn't do this can be safely ignored or even exploited; but grips that DO feel effective cannot be ignored – in these cases it's usually wise to defend or negate such grips immediately, or if the danger is high, break them completely and start again. DON'T TOLERATE OR IGNORE GRIPS THAT PREVENT YOU HOLDING A STANCE OR MOVING AS YOU WANT – this is simply surrendering too much advantage to your opponent. Negate them or break them. You don't want to become an overly defensive player who simply breaks an opponents grips and continually disengages without ever playing a positive attacking game, but on the other hand, you don't want to be naive and get crushed because you tolerated grips that made it almost impossible to succeed. Finding the right middle ground between defending and opponents grips and imposing your own so you can get in with your attacks is a big part of your path to grappling maturity. Here, Georges St Pierre defends the dangerous grips of gordon ryan – one of the best grip players in the game – so that he can work effectively from open guard
