18/03/2019 - Teaching | Back | Clock choke

Teaching #844
Artemis BJJ (Easton Road), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 18/03/2019

If I can't get the back from turtle and I haven't managed to move into a crucifix, I like to go for the clock choke. I use an 'elbow wedge' variation I learned from my instructor Kev Capel (and he in turn learned it from Felipe Souza, who we both used to train with at RGA HQ).

From the side ride, move from grabbing their arm to reaching through for a grip on their far collar. If the grip isn't quite right on the far collar, this can end up being an air choke rather than a blood choke: avoid being too shallow on that grip. To enhance your hold, there is the option of reaching under their arm with your far arm and opening up the collar, then feeding it to your other hand. Be aware that there is a danger of them reaching back to trap your elbow if you do that.

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Either way, once you have a deep grip, bring the arm that was by their far leg to the near side of their head. Use your elbow as a wedge against their skull, giving you a sort of 'backstop' to pull their collar through. Another potential reason it might turn into an air choke is the position of your wrist: if you're finding it's an air choke, try adjusting how much you bend your wrist.

Pressing that arm into their skull produces a fair bit of leverage in conjunction with your collar grip. Increase it by leaning back slightly, while walking your legs around towards their head. Make sure you maintain your weight on their shoulders, or you'll relieve the pressure: Saulo suggests keeping your ribs against their shoulder. This should eventually result in a choke.

Speaking of Saulo, his variation on BJJ Library doesn't bother with an elbow block. He simply leans heavily into the shoulder, locking off the choke by leaning his head across. His other hand is grabbing by their far hip. If he doesn't get it, he keeps walking around, turning them onto their side and circling his elbow over. The other arm goes behind to lock off the choke.
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Teaching Notes: Usual thing about keeping the ribs on the shoulder, weight down, stepping through with the leg. I introduced it as a method for getting the arm to move for the crucifix entry, which hopefully wasn't too confusing for people who haven't seen the crucifix. I think it was ok, but that's something to watch out for. Also, I didn't mention that you can do it with the crucifix configuration too (i.e., with the arm trapped), which also functions as a handy way of stopping that escape where they carefully time a shoulder shrug to move behind.

Definitely something to keep in mind for next time: the shoulder shrug escape that Matt mentioned Roger does is a good escape, but I think you can capture the arm in a crucifix if you're waiting for it. Combination attacks. I could even mention it in a later class? But maybe more something I'd highlight in drilling.

14/11/2016 - Teaching | Back | Clock Choke

Teaching #592
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 14/11/2016

If I can't get the back from turtle and I haven't managed to move into a crucifix, I like to go for the clock choke. I use an 'elbow wedge' variation I learned from my instructor Kev Capel (and he in turn learned it from Felipe Souza, who we both used to train with at RGA HQ).

From the side ride, move from grabbing their arm to reaching through for a grip on their far collar. If the grip isn't quite right on the far collar, this can end up being an air choke rather than a blood choke: avoid being too shallow on that grip. To enhance your hold, there is the option of reaching under their arm with your far arm and opening up the collar, then feeding it to your other hand. Be aware that there is a danger of them reaching back to trap your elbow if you do that.

A video posted by Artemis BJJ (@artemisbjj) on Nov 16, 2016 at 4:06am PST

Either way, once you have a deep grip, bring the arm that was by their far leg to the near side of their head. Use your elbow as a wedge against their skull, giving you a sort of 'backstop' to pull their collar through. Another potential reason it might turn into an air choke is the position of your wrist: if you're finding it's an air choke, try adjusting how much you bend your wrist.

Pressing that arm into their skull produces a fair bit of leverage in conjunction with your collar grip. Increase it by leaning back slightly, while walking your legs around towards their head. Make sure you maintain your weight on their shoulders, or you'll relieve the pressure: Saulo suggests keeping your ribs against their shoulder. This should eventually result in a choke.

Speaking of Saulo, his variation on BJJ Library doesn't bother with an elbow block. He simply leans heavily into the shoulder, locking off the choke by leaning his head across. His other hand is grabbing by their far hip. If he doesn't get it, he keeps walking around, turning them onto their side and circling his elbow over. The other arm goes behind to lock off the choke.
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Teaching & Sparring Notes: I'm happy with the lesson structure. I emphasised the same things as normal, particularly keeping your ribs against their shoulder. That seems to get people to distribute their weight in the right place. I also got in lots of good sparring today.

That's because I've finally instituted something I've wanted to get off the ground for a long time now: focused sparring where everyone takes turns, everything filmed. This solves several problems at once. Firstly, I can make sure I get in some good sparring, rather than just hoping it will be odd numbers so I get a partner. Secondly, I get to work on the weakest part of my game, which is open guard. Thirdly, I get a load of sparring footage I can analyse: not only my own, but also everybody else. That means I can see what the guys who have really good guard retention are doing.

The first session of that today, at the open mat after class, was useful. That's because three of the most experienced students were there today, each with their owns strengths I could analyse and experience. E.g., Sam and Hamza both have excellent (but quite different) passing and guard retention, whereas Chris has a game closer to mine (i.e., lots of steady, methodical pressure). Unfortunately I didn't think to show everybody how to use the camera on my phone, so some of the sparring I wanted to look at wasn't recorded, but that's a good lesson for future sessions.

Weirdly, when I look back at how my game has developed, I now feel more comfortable passing open guard than I do playing it. On top, I was having some success, testing out things like going from a knee cut into another pass by pulling the knees across. However, I think I was relying too much on force, as well as grips: I invariably rip the skin off two fingers on my left hand, plus I was out of breath. I'm not sure if the excessive energy expenditure is from passing, or from trying too hard to lift from open guard. Again, video analysis is going to help with all of that.

I'll talk more about this in my post for tomorrow, along with putting up a video, as that's where I did the bulk of my sparring. Tuesdays are going to be a good option for this ongoing, as I get a full hour. Downside is I'm doing it right after a kettlebells session, though on the other hand that could force me to rely less on strength. ;)

09/05/2016 - Teaching | The Back | Clock Choke

Teaching #507
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 09/05/2016

Moving on to attacks, I went with the simplest one I know from turtle, the clock choke. I use an 'elbow wedge' variation I learned from my instructor Kev Capel (and he in turn learned it from Felipe Souza, who we both used to train with at RGA HQ).

From the side ride, move from grabbing their arm to reaching through for a grip on their far collar. If the grip isn't quite right on the far collar, this can end up being an air choke rather than a blood choke: avoid being too shallow on that grip. To enhance your hold, there is the option of reaching under their arm with your far arm and opening up the collar, then feeding it to your other hand. Be aware that there is a danger of them reaching back to trap your elbow if you do that.

Either way, once you have a deep grip, bring the arm that was by their far leg to the near side of their head. Use your elbow as a wedge against their skull, giving you a sort of 'backstop' to pull their collar through. Another potential reason it might turn into an air choke is the position of your wrist: if you're finding it's an air choke, try adjusting how much you bend your wrist.

Pressing that arm into their skull produces a fair bit of leverage in conjunction with your collar grip. Increase it by leaning back slightly, while walking your legs around towards their head. Make sure you maintain your weight on their shoulders, or you'll relieve the pressure: Saulo suggests keeping your ribs against their shoulder. This should eventually result in a choke.

Speaking of Saulo, his variation on BJJ Library doesn't bother with an elbow block. He simply leans heavily into the shoulder, locking off the choke by leaning his head across. His other hand is grabbing by their far hip. If he doesn't get it, he keeps walking around, turning them onto their side and circling his elbow over. The other arm goes behind to lock off the choke.
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Teaching Notes: A few people were finding that they were pressing slightly into the windpipe, rather than smoothly hitting both sides of the neck for a blood choke. That could be down to adjusting the grip, but I need to look into that more, to make my own application as efficient as possible. I'll keep emphasising getting your ribs onto their shoulder (the useful way Saulo describes it), as that seems the best way to explain the weight distribution. I still can't spar properly, as my wrist isn't quite there yet, but I did get in a bit of lighter rolling today. Hopefully soon I'll be back to normal. :)

13/11/2015 - Teaching | The Back | Clock Choke

Teaching #421
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 13/11/2015

Moving on to attacks, I went with the simplest one I know from turtle, the clock choke. I use an 'elbow wedge' variation I learned from my instructor Kev Capel (and he in turn learned it from Felipe Souza, who we both used to train with at RGA HQ).

From the side ride, move from grabbing their arm to reaching through for a grip on their far collar. If the grip isn't quite right on the far collar, this can end up being an air choke rather than a blood choke: avoid being too shallow on that grip. To enhance your hold, there is the option of reaching under their arm with your far arm and opening up the collar, then feeding it to your other hand. Be aware that there is a danger of them reaching back to trap your elbow if you do that.

Either way, once you have a deep grip, bring the arm that was by their far leg to the near side of their head. Use your elbow as a wedge against their skull, giving you a sort of 'backstop' to pull their collar through. Another potential reason it might turn into an air choke is the position of your wrist: if you're finding it's an air choke, try adjusting how much you bend your wrist.

Pressing that arm into their skull produces a fair bit of leverage in conjunction with your collar grip. Increase it by leaning back slightly, while walking your legs around towards their head. Make sure you maintain your weight on their shoulders, or you'll relieve the pressure: Saulo suggests keeping your ribs against their shoulder. This should eventually result in a choke.

Speaking of Saulo, his variation on BJJ Library doesn't bother with an elbow block. He simply leans heavily into the shoulder, locking off the choke by leaning his head across. His other hand is grabbing by their far hip. If he doesn't get it, he keeps walking around, turning them onto their side and circling his elbow over. The other arm goes behind to lock off the choke.
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Teaching Notes: Good point raised by Mike, about what to do if they block your grip. For that, they are going to have to raise their arm, so my response would be to try and go for the crucifix. I've taught that before, but I think it needs several lessons to really make sense. This month I don't plan to teach it in class (which doesn't stop people asking me during open mat of course), but I'll keep an eye on how people are sparring from turtle, in case it becomes clear that the crucifix could plug a glaring gap.

I had a play with escapes during specific sparring, focusing largely on the shoulder roll (we did a drill at the start of class, which I think I either first saw taught by Jeff Rockwell or maybe Donal). Ending up under side control is relatively common, if you just shoulder roll. I'm wary of grabbing legs and arms, as that feels vulnerable, but it would probably make guard more likely than bottom side control.

Chris asked if he could try out some stuff for warm-down earlier, so I passed that over to him tonight. Good stuff, exploring ways to stretch out the fingers (as everybody who does BJJ, at least in the gi, will have sore fingers), breathing and various other useful drills. Should be a regular thing: good for me, as it means I get to learn some new stuff from a different perspective. :)

02/10/2014 - Teaching | The Back | Clock Choke & Crucifix Entry

Teaching #205
Artemis BJJ (PHNX Fitness), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 02/10/2014

We've now opened at our second venue! It's called PHNX Fitness and is over in Kingswood, down Two Mile Hill Road. I've got a map up on the Artemis BJJ website, so will be filling in the full directions once I get a chance to take some more pictures of the outside (so, probably Saturday before open mat). Classes are 20:00-21:15 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, along with a lovely two hour open mat on Saturdays from 10:00 to 12:00. Hope to see you there!

Tonight I was going to show some basic side control escapes, but as there were only a couple of people there and one of them was heavily pregnant, I deviated. Instead, I asked what they wanted to learn (and in particular, what my pregnant student would be comfortable with): turtle was the solution. I went with the simplest attack I know from turtle, the clock choke. Personally I have never had much luck with the standard version, so I use an 'elbow wedge' variation I learned from my instructor Kev Capel (and he in turn learned it from Felipe Souza, who we both used to train with at RGA HQ).

From the side ride, move from grabbing their arm to reaching through for a grip on their far collar. To enhance that grip, there is the option of reaching under their arm with your far arm and opening up the collar, then feeding it to your other hand. Be aware that there is a danger of them reaching back to trap your elbow if you do that. Either way, once you have a deep grip, bring the arm that was by their far leg to the near side of their head. Use your elbow as a wedge against their skull, giving you a sort of 'backstop' to pull their collar through.

Pressing that arm into their skull produces a fair bit of leverage in conjunction with your collar grip. Increase it by leaning back slightly, while walking your legs around towards their head (but maintain your weight on their shoulders, or you'll relieve the pressure). This should result in a choke.

I also went through the standard entry to the crucifix. Starting from the side ride, dig your near knee next to their hip. You're aiming to shove that as deep as you can behind their arm. Once it is in deep, flare the knee out towards you, which should make their arm available for your other heel to hook. Drag it back over your other leg and use your legs to lock that arm in place. At this point, you've already got a bunch of attacks available to you, but we want to get them face-up.

You'll probably be grabbing their wrist, their bicep, their sleeve or something else with your arm on the near side. With your other arm, reach under their far armpit and grab their shoulder. They could trap your elbow and try to roll you at this point, but that puts you where you want to be anyway. In the likely event they aren't foolish enough to do that, you have a few entries to the face-up crucifix available to you.

The one I prefer is from the Dave Jacobs seminar. Walk your feet back towards their bum, staying low and tight. Keep walking until you roll over their leg, putting them face-up. As you move into that position, make sure that your far arm is hooking back behind your head: otherwise, they can wriggle their arm free without too much trouble, enabling them to turn and escape.

You don't want their weight too far on top of you, as again that can help them escape: if that happens, shrimp your hips slightly to bring them down again. However, you don't want them to slip too far down to the mat, as there's another escape they can do in that situation. So, if they're too far down, scoop under them to prevent that escape.
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Teaching Notes: The main thing that would be useful to add is an approach to the turtle when they are being too tight for both the clock choke and the crucifix entry. I think Aesopian covers some options in Mastering the Crucifix, so I'll have another look at those before I teach it next time. I was a little less prepared than usual as I wasn't expected to teach turtle tonight, but as I've spent a month on it now I was fairly clear on the steps. I'm especially excited that we now have a two hour long open mat: that should be awesome for refining technique, as long as I make sure we get a good turnout. :)

03/09/2014 - Teaching | The Back | Clock Choke

Teaching #192
Artemis BJJ (Bristol Sports Centre), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 03/09/2014

After the women's class, we continued with our position of the month. I went with the simplest attack I know from turtle, the clock choke. Personally I have never had much luck with the standard version, so I use an 'elbow wedge' variation I learned from my instructor Kev Capel (and he in turn learned it from Felipe Souza, who we both used to train with at RGA HQ).

From the side ride, move from grabbing their arm to reaching through for a grip on their far collar. To enhance that grip, there is the option of reaching under their arm with your far arm and opening up the collar, then feeding it to your other hand. Be aware that there is a danger of them reaching back to trap your elbow if you do that. Either way, once you have a deep grip, bring the arm that was by their far leg to the near side of their head. Use your elbow as a wedge against their skull, giving you a sort of 'backstop' to pull their collar through.

Pressing that arm into their skull produces a fair bit of leverage in conjunction with your collar grip. Increase it by leaning back slightly, while walking your legs around towards their head (but maintain your weight on their shoulders, or you'll relieve the pressure). This should result in a choke.
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Teaching Notes: It's worth pointing out that if the grip isn't quite right on the far collar, this can end up being an air choke rather than a blood choke. So, worth considering that: I think the air choke can happen when your grip is too shallow. It also depends on the positioning of your wrist, as depending on how bent it is, that can cause your forearm to drive into their windpipe.