With the recent discussion on gi vs. no gi, I would like to bring something up involving sleeve grips and would love to hear any and all feedback. One thing I have been using in the gi that has proven very effective(particularly while working to pass guard) involves controlling both of the person on bottom's hands with pistol grips on their sleeves. After obtaining the pistol grips, I will twist the fabric slightly so that it tightens around their wrists as much as possible, allowing optimum control of what their hands can do. After doing this it then allows me to control their hands like I am gripping two joysticks. If I can get their hands close enough together, I can then transfer one of those pistol grips to my other hand so that I have control of both sleeves with a single pistol grip(if that makes sense). This ties up their hands completely as if they were wearing handcuffs. While in the gi this may only work for a few seconds before they escape, it has allowed me to pass guard many times including on those whose guards I normally could not pass with more traditional methods. However, when using this same approach while gun/knife grappling(particularly if they're wearing a hoodie), I find it to be that much more effective. This is especially true due to hoodies or other long sleeve garments having much stretchier material than a stiff gi.
This allows me to maintain that grip/position much longer or leaves their hands ompletely trapped. I find this very effective for landing ground and pound as they cannot protect their face due to the hands being bound up. This also allows very easy in fight weapons access and stops them from accessing theirs as well.
Another bonus if they have a hoodie on is that once I have that position, I can then wrap their hood around their neck completely, cinch it down and finish with a one handed choke while maintaining double sleeve grips with the other hand. This has proven to be VERY high percentage when rolling with training partners in plain clothes.
While I typically prefer cuff grips while playing guard in a gi, I like to use this too while playing guard in regular clothes. If they have stretchier material on such as a hoodie and I get cuff grips, they have the ability to step back and literally slip out of the hoodie so that I no longer have control. If I get pistol grips and tighten them with a slight twist, it wraps around their wrist and leaves them stuck in that hoodie or long sleeve shirt. I have been able to use that same double sleeve grip in that manner playing open guard which opens up in fight weapons access for me.
I am mainly curious if anyone has heard of this tactic and what the opinions on it were. It really helped me out in ECQC before as my training partner could not access any weapons while he was on the bottom due to his hands being bound up. Any and all feedback good or bad is much appreciated.