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. :)