Greasing has been a hot topic in the grappling community lately. At the last WNO event, in a match between Nicky Rod and Felipe Pena, Pena accused Rod of greasing and being too slippery in their match. This situation is quite similar to the one at UFC Fight Pass Invitational, where Nicky Rod fought Gordon Ryan, and Gordon also claimed that Nicky was greasing and essentially cheating. In this article, we will discuss what greasing is, how it can help athletes win matches, and what are potential ways to stop it. Stay tuned and enjoy!
Greasing is using any substance that makes your skin slippery and hard to grab hold of. For example, you can put baby oil a couple of hours before your match, and once you start sweating and your pores open up, it will emerge on the surface, making you very slippery. Lubricants such as baby oil are quite different from regular sweat, making it nearly impossible for the person to hold you and try offensive techniques. Imagine that you are playing from a seated guard position, and your main offensive focus is establishing upper body grips and using pinch headlocks, shoulder crunches, and other holds to attack sweeps. Having a greasing opponent makes this extremely difficult because he can slip out of any grip you establish. In addition, you will quickly get frustrated, leading to mistakes that your opponent can capitalize on.
The main way people use greasing is to put lotion on their skin and let it dry a couple of hours before their match. After that, the pores will open once they start sweating, and the lotion will come out, making them slippery. In addition, Gordon Ryan says that another way people can grease is to soak their scalp in baby oil the night before the match. Once the match starts, the oil will move from their head to their body, making them slippery.
With greasing becoming a big problem in professional grappling, the question arises: How can we stop it? The first and easiest solution is to make athletes wear long-sleeve rashguards and spats during matches. As a result, athletes will have much less skin-to-skin contact, and more friction will exist. Another way to prevent this is to penalize athletes that are greasing. Penalties can be financial and disciplinary, meaning that an athlete can lose money if caught greasing or get disqualified from the match. In summary, greasing is unquestionably a problem in today’s grappling, and the jiu-jitsu community should penalize athletes who abuse it.
My name is Milos, and I am the head coach of Fort Jiu-Jitsu! Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you soon!
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