JITSGRIPS - www.jitsgrips.com
One product that I’ve been interested in testing out for a while now is the JitsGrips. Before we received this package in the mail, I’d heard nothing, but good things about the product and wanted to see if all the hubbub is warranted.
Improve Your
Game Anywhere
If you aren’t already familiar with the product, JitsGrips are known as a product used to improve your open, spider, De la Riva, lasso, and inverted guard games. The movements that can be performed with it do well to mimic the hand and foot motions you would typically drill with a partner or utilize in sparring. Other great aspects of it are that you need no partner; the package is compact and can easily travel anywhere. It immediately reminded me of the article, “Improving Mobility” in Issue 25, where our model demonstrated how to use a jiu-jitsu belt to improve one’s guard game.
It’s Better Than A…
…belt! Where you grab on the JitsGrips aren’t handles, nor are they the ends of a belt where you can wrap your hands around it. Instead, the handles are two sleeve ends made of high-quality gi material that give you (obviously) the same feeling as grabbing a gi sleeve. This allows you to perform either a pistol, four fingers or collar grip just as you normally would. So, the entire time you’re using the JitsGrips, you’ll be constantly working your hand grips and arms, thus improving them, rather than holding a wrapped belt, much more easily.
Also Better Than A…
…gi jacket! Here’s why: for starters, its minimal size won’t get in the way like an empty jacket flopping around. When you link the sleeve attachments to the latex resistance band, the resistance replicates the pressure of a mock partner/opponent who is fighting to pass your guard. YOUR LEGS HAVE TO WORK to keep the resistance band at a distance from you. If you don’t find the resistance of the single band tough enough, you can easily purchase additional bands from the website for $5.99 each to build it up how you like it.
Other Uses
Everyone immediately thinks “guard game” when seeing these things, but there’s so much more you can do with them. Practicing the grips and hand motions you’d use during throws, as well as arm drags, is another cool feature of the JitsGrips. By hooking the product to a stationary object or pulley system, this can be easily done.
You can also step up your conditioning program by attaching the gi sleeve pieces, along with the universal bar attachments, to any pull-up bar, barbell, dumbbells, kettlebells, pulley systems, etc. They are going to make any workout that much more difficult, and again, force you to work your entire body constantly.
Overall
Probably the only modification or addition I’d like to see is if there was an additional type of sleeve created with an open slit and a gi collar made of EVA foam material to grab. This product surprised me even more with its ability to train throws and arm drags as well. It’s an excellent product that can help anyone in terms of improving those above. You can work a variety of guard games, while simultaneously improving your conditioning, by forcing you to work your grips, arms, legs, and core. The complete set is $49.99 and is a great deal!
