28/11/2013 - Hit Fit (Chokes from the Back)

Class #536
Hit Fit, (BJJ), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 28/11/2013

Dharni's last lesson tonight, so it is sad to see her fly back to Kenya, but I'm sure she will be in Bristol again some time. :)

Chokes from the back tonight, beginning with the basic sliding choke. In back control, keep your knees in tight, don't splay them out. Clamp your seat belt grip on the chest, a grip where Donal does something a bit similar to Xande. He has one hand slightly curled into their sternum, the armpit hand over the top. Like Xande, this means you can swivel it straight under the chin for the choke.

Donal likes to open up the collar with the armpit hand, folding the lapel over itself, getting the choking hand thumb as deep as you can. Pull on the gi with the other hand to cinch it up if you need to tighten the hold. Reach your armpit hand lower down, then pull downwards with that one as you twist your choking wrist around.

That is often hard to get. Shifting to the one armed short choke is a good follow up, applied the same way as Donal discussed in our private while back. If you're having trouble, get their arm out of the way by pushing their wrist down with your armpit hand. That may be enough. If not, then try grabbing the meaty part of their hand with your fingers and twisting it outwards.

Drop towards you choking arm side, then bring your leg over their arm. Move the foot down their back to really lock that in place, while simultaneously sliding the single arm tight up into their neck for the choke.

In specific sparring, I got more chance to work on my poor back attack and defence. I wasn't bridging properly or wriggling my shoulders to the mat when defending, leaving me stuck in the middle. I was looking to then switch to grabbing their leg, without trapping their arm under the armpit and reaching across to grab their sleeve with the same hand. I need to refresh my memory by looking at the private lesson video on back defence. Somebody more experienced would have probably got the choke, as I was merely blocking with my arm rather sloppily.

On the back, I was trying Rickson's thing of attacking with one arm and clearing their grips with the other. That sort of worked, but I was failing to get under the chin. I just kept switching side to side without getting it in place. What I should have done was use it to grab the gi and go for a bow and arrow: I eventually did do that, but he's less experienced and is also mainly a nogi guy, so not used to collar chokes.

With another partner, I started under side control and attempted the Rickson escape, but a bit sloppy. On top, I wasn't looking for the side control attacks I should have been: with my lack of training at the moment I don't feel I'm retaining information well enough, so I'm looking forward to my training schedule getting back to normal once everything is settled.