When a karateka gets into the clinch, what kind of options do they have? Whick kata, in your opinion, do you think has the best clinching techniques? What are those applications?

Sanchin has some
many others have them also if you but interpit the move to close range not long

When I get into the clinch, I mostly just fall back on my judo training. I know there is good stuff in my karate kata though. It's just a matter of isolating it and practicing it. I wonder how close it will come to judo...

Yeah if it's in close and you get into a clinch then if we're freestyle/mma training I too normally fall back to my judo/jujitsu training shifting to takedowns or submission. Otherwise depending on opportunity and closeness utilise a knee to the upper leg/torso or head/jaw. My karate is Okinawan goju ryu and I remember doing drills with a partner holding striking pads and going into a clinch coupled with knee attacks into the torso/solar plexus (one side/knee at a time and then alternating to one knee directly followed by the other knee) - but aside from that I can't think of a direct kata application??

Ian Abernathy has a DVD out on using Naihanchi/Tekki shodan in the clinch. I have not seen it though myself, so i can't recommend it either way, just a resource to point out.

I have seen drills also that involve shin kicks/sweeps from the clinch. Also, your basic uppercuts, knees, elbows and such

Naihanchi works well with all close in fighting in the clinch or on the ground... If you know the applications that is.

Mark Kline has a great DVD out for Naihanchi that covers close in fighting.

OK. Maybe I'm weird ... (alright, I'm most assuredly weird) ... but I kinda look at forms as combination grapple/strike/throw/ground thing. It's impossible for me to interpret kata in a free-fighting situation. For me, kata is up close ... touching distance. As I break down my Okinawan forms, it feels like the guy is already grabbing or touching me so I have to deal with his first touch then I have to deal with his ballistic threat then I have to sting him then I have to unbalance and throw him and maybe, finish him on the ground. Free fighting looks like a boxing match to me ... not like kata. Even my longer range kicks are thrown in close ... at my opponents back leg (knee, actually). Those funny looking kicks in Naihanchi look like sweeps that target Spleen 6 just above the ankle. Like I said, I could be weird...

there are a lot of kata that teach things for clinch range.. Chinto ... and others come to mind... and all the responses are not sport type ones either...

OK. Maybe I'm weird ... (alright, I'm most assuredly weird) ... but I kinda look at forms as combination grapple/strike/throw/ground thing. It's impossible for me to interpret kata in a free-fighting situation. For me, kata is up close ... touching distance. As I break down my Okinawan forms, it feels like the guy is already grabbing or touching me so I have to deal with his first touch then I have to deal with his ballistic threat then I have to sting him then I have to unbalance and throw him and maybe, finish him on the ground. Free fighting looks like a boxing match to me ... not like kata. Even my longer range kicks are thrown in close ... at my opponents back leg (knee, actually). Those funny looking kicks in Naihanchi look like sweeps that target Spleen 6 just above the ankle. Like I said, I could be weird...

This is exactly why focusing on sport fighting changed how karate looks in some styles, and why the kata became relegated to relics used for rankings instead of a fighting style. The traditional kata aren't applied that way, just like most traditional Chinese styles I know of. If the rules of a style prohibit grabbing, holding, sweeping and throwing, then there won't be much Okinawan karate in there.