'grasped at' is an acceptable form of written English, and it is often used to indicate a sense of reaching for something
For example: The child grasped at the balloon, trying to hold on to its fragile beauty.
Their defenders grasped at air.
Daniels grasped at that false straw.
The young man grasped at his abdomen with bloodied hands.
"We grasped at a straw and missed," Milbury said.
Emma said that she rides her bike at school a lot, so I grasped at that.
A ponderous electronic score accompanied her as, facing upstage, she grasped at something in the air.
For, as Shakespeare would have grasped at once, there is no explaining Trump.
Sometimes innocently, sometimes defiantly, they grasped at happiness, and were met with confinement.
And then straight through it, dropping agonisingly over the line as Akinfeev grasped at thin air.
So, Qin grasped at 27... Ne5 and was cashiered by 28 Re4! Kf6 28 Re5!
And I don't think that has been really sufficiently grasped at a senior level.
