small hands and wrists a hinderence to grappling?

[Tameus1]

Here's some advice. I'm 5'6" and 145 lbs. I also have small hands and thin wrists and forearms.

1. You will be grappling in survival mode for awhile. You should not be using strength or power, but focus on technique. (this will eventually make sense once your muscle-reflex memory sinks in). Just hang in there and get mat time.

2. Smaller guys need to roll loosely, especially against bigger guys. You are not going to be able to pin, dominate your position or power through submissions with a bigger guy unless that person is very inexperienced.

3. Small hands and wrists/forearms are NOT your weakness. In fact, they are tailor made for chokes. You should be feeding those under your opponents necks constantly. Practice gi chokes - especially bow and arrow variations and ezekiels. They are a major part of my game.

 

[esila]

Practice hand control drills from the clinch, focusing on breakaways and how to establish hand control of your own. One piece of advice a wrestler gave me was to always keep your elbows in close to your body (like t-rex arms) so you don't overextend. Overextending leads to your opponent having a much better chance of controlling your arms.

If you find yourself being taken down a lot and need to even the odds quickly, start investing many reps into your guard game, mainly escaping from the bottom to whatever guard you feel most comfortable with.

If you need inspiration, try watching this clip of a true "giant killer" / "little guy vs. the big guy" practioneer:

Marcelo Garcia

 

[omgitsrick]

It could actually help to slip into the GI for chokes and stuff. Just work on grip strength.

 

[mfgillia]

Here's some advice. I'm 5'6" and 145 lbs. I also have small hands and thin wrists and forearms.

3. Small hands and wrists/forearms are NOT your weakness. In fact, they are tailor made for chokes. You should be feeding those under your opponents necks constantly. Practice gi chokes - especially bow and arrow variations and ezekiels. They are a major part of my game.

Was wondering when someone was going to mention this versus those that keep recommending increasing your strength. There isn't anything wrong with small hands and wrists in bjj. Granted, I don't have them but we got several good small guys that can sneak their hands in for chokes from all sorts of positions and angles that the rest of us can't do quite so easily. You've only been grappling for a month so of course you are getting caught in submissions and prematurely wearing out your hand strength from gripping too tight when its not needed - just like most of us went through in the beginning. Keep rolling and have fun. The rest will come.

 

[Paige]

I have small hands and wrists. I can overlap my fingers on my wirsts.

In grappling I get controlled easily by bigger guys. Is there something I can do to prevent being so easily controlled (my hands and wrists.

I am the most vulnerable to a left armbar.

I have a tiny everything and I do just fine. Focus on grip fighting. don't let them grip you. Pay attention to where your handles are. I actually climb rope at home to build up the muscles in my hands.

I think tiny, bony wrists and hands are awsome for guilitines and alot of other chokes. there are advantages to every body type.

 

[mjfan12]

I just hit the gym for the first time in 8 months and did a few sets of grip work. I tried to start easy because of DOMS, muscle soreness, but I probably over did anyways.

 

[SuperSuperRambo]

Ok, any advice to a small guy in grappling against large guys who out power you?

See that's the thing, not your wrist/hand size, but the fact that you're smaller overall than your opponents. The solution is to keep training and develop better technique to deal with their size and strength advantage. Play top game on them and try and work non-triangle chokes.

 

[ozyabbas]

I have seen many smaller, excellent grapplers. The reason why they are so good is that they use technique obviously but they use a style that suits their body. Which is fast and fluid. They know they are never going to be strong enough to match strength with the bigger guys so they adapt.

You are most likely trying to play the same game that the bigger guys are playing which you will certainly lose.

 

[AzureNight**]

Focus on practicing your technique. I too am outweighed in my BJJ classes by everyone, and I am fairly lanky with small wrists. But I can still get submissions and hold my own. Thin arms are excellent for various chokes, like (especially!) arm triangles, rear naked chokes, guillotines, etc.

Just keep training. No one out grapples more experienced students until they have a few months experience. Every time you get submitted or dominated in a position, work hard to improve yourself in that position. ALWAYS keep your hands tucked in, especially if you are working someone's guard. Don't let them control your wrists. Work on your flexibility.

 

[Aethyr]

You don't understand BJJ. You might as well ask if small feet, ankles, waist, legs, arms and neck are a hindrance to grappling...you're a smaller guy, so everything about you is smaller than your 30lb heavier opponents.

The fact that you're focused on these physical attributes shows that you're still using physical attributes when rolling rather than technique.

Here's a bit of advice - develop your guard by using your legs. As a smaller guy, you will be able to slip in your legs to create space and opportunities that larger guys can't do. As a 155lber myself, I do this, as well as other smaller guys at my school. When training with new girls, I advise them this as well - there is no way they can beat guys using upper body strength, so why fight a losing battle.

 

[chetthejet**]

I have read alot of great advice just now and the only thing i didn't see mentioned is practice pommeling out of wrist control along with previously mentioned keep in your arms in tight to the body like t-rex arms and as a small guy 5' 7'' i will say practicing with bigger guys will help you in the long run in alot of ways . So relax stick with it and remember you have advantages to one your probably faster off the mat and quiker in a scramble and small wrists are easier to sink a deep choke with.

 

[muerteverde]

I am the same size as the thread starter and also have small wrists. I have done a lot of grip training and forewarm training in the past couple years and have effectively doubled the crushing strength in my hands. I use

• the Captains of Crush Grippers
• farmer carries
• deadlift and heavy pullups with a thick bar
• picking up the hex parts of dumbells
• levering sledgehammers
• using sledge hammers
• tossing + catching sledge hammers

All of that has helped my hands and forearms a lot, but my wrists have not grown any larger. Back when I did BJJ and high school wrestling, there were a couple of much larger guys with insane grip strength who, when they grabbed onto my wrists, where very difficult to get off. Sure I can grab on to someone else twice as hard now, but apart from increased forearm strength to twist away from them, I am still vulnerable to a simple wrist grab on the ground (standing is easier, obviously).

As far as I know, there really isn't a way to increase wrist size. My hands are thicker and stronger and my forearms are a lot bigger but my wrists stay small. I can wrap around my own wrists and overkap my fingers.

 

[ColdAsLife]

Small hands and thin wrists.. I feel sorry for your girlfriend..(had to be said)..

Now on a serious note.. Tie a rope around a hockey stick and tie it to a 15lb weight make sure you have about 4 feet of slack or so and roll the rope up so that it winds up. Lifting the weight of the ground.. Jeremy Roenick did these and its a hockey trick.. Keep doing these and youll have forearms from hell..

 

[PWR1982]

Man you just have to take it easy . If your having problems with basics, just get a friend of yours or somebody from your lessons and tell him what to do so you can try some things, then tell him to choke you from guard ( with gi ) or rape choke ( without choke ) and just go for armbars, or tell him to wrongly pass the guard with a bad single under and triangle him.

What some trainers do is they explain and learn you stuff in a way that tell you " and since the enemy is experienced, he wont offer your the hand/ blabla bla something", learn to do what to do if they make a basic mistake, and your reaction has to be second nature.

But since grappling is more complicated than lets say boxing, it will in my opinion be better for you just to be more calm and train some certain things so that your really profficient with them. I sucked with the normal straight choke with gi when I had a guy in my guard, coz we were just training submissions based on the fact that someone offers you something to defend the choke...

Just get some nice guy who wont mind to train with you and practise what you feel uncomfortable with and which needs to get better.. Keep tight and use your brain to think what you should do, dont just act all natural when your beggining.

 

[Wrestleben]

Ask Jean Jaques Machado if hand size matters.

 

[hurricanewally]

I have average hands and slim wrists and I don't think it matters that much I'm around 145 pounds. I think technique is a lot more important than hand and wrist size, it's a very small factor when it comes to grappling.

 

[RubberRyan]

JJ Machado has no fingers on one hand..he's a great grappler,

wtf which hand?


btw ask your instructor on grip breaking techniques when someone has control of your wrists/gi thers a bunch and some are even common sense moves,.... the key is to not let them get ahold of you or to break the grip as soon as they do

 

[Hit-N-Run]

im 5.9 and 155. everyone outweighs me by 30-50.

also Im new to grappling and in the heat of the moment I dont recall much technique and go in autopilot. Since im new, my auto pilot sucks and I lose.

how does it feel for experienced people? does the action slow down in your mind?

It's all about technique. I'm 5.6 and 140 and I constantly tap and control guys that out weigh me by 50-70 lbs. The other day I tapped a 265 pound college football player. Now if he could punch he probably would have smashed my head in but we were just grappling.

It takes a long time of getting your ass handed to you but that what it takes. Small guys with no experience get fucked up until they learn technique. It's just a fact of life. Since we have no strength or size we have to rely on technique, speed, and flexibility.

 

[Hit-N-Run]

im 5.9 and 155. everyone outweighs me by 30-50.

also Im new to grappling and in the heat of the moment I dont recall much technique and go in autopilot. Since im new, my auto pilot sucks and I lose.

how does it feel for experienced people? does the action slow down in your mind?

It's all about technique. I'm 5.6 and 140 and I constantly tap and control guys that out weigh me by 50-70 lbs. The other day I tapped a 265 pound college football player. Now if he could punch he probably would have smashed my head in but we were just grappling.

It takes a long time of getting your ass handed to you but that what it takes. Small guys with no experience get fucked up until they learn technique. It's just a fact of life. Since we have no strength or size we have to rely on technique, speed, and flexibility.

 

[BlastBeats]

Look up John Brookfield and be amazed