Using Clothing in Self-Defense: Grips, Strikes & Takedowns

Clothing changes what you can grab. The principles of control, posture, and balance still apply.

Filmed during a Fit to Fight® course at Forge Krav Maga in San Francisco, Ryan Hoover demonstrates how collar and sleeve grips connect to familiar clinch work, arm drags, striking, and takedowns.

Chapter:
0:00 Clothing grips: From pummeling to collar control
2:19 Connecting clothing grips to takedowns and striking

We cover:
• Using a pistol grip without wrapping your hand in the material
• Building clothing grips into pummeling and arm-drag drills
• Controlling posture and shifting weight to create opportunities
• Connecting striking and wrestling as the position changes

For self-defense coaches, the teaching point goes beyond adding another technique: help students recognize how familiar principles apply when the grips change.

Want to develop that approach to coaching? Join us for Coaching Self-Defense: Foundations, January 22–24, 2027, in Charlotte, NC.
@/coaching-self-defense-foundations-january-2027/

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