15/03/2017 - Teaching | Mount | Single Arm Cross Choke

Teaching #645
Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 15/03/2017

A video posted by Artemis BJJ (@artemisbjj) on Oct 19, 2016 at 4:08am PDT

I first learned this choke from BJJ Library, demonstrated by Saulo himself. He calls it the Saulo choke, but in the interests of being descriptive, I'm currently going with single arm cross choke. From high mount, you start by feeding your hand into the opposite collar, an initial step common to most chokes from mount. For this one, insert your thumb so your hand is palm down.

As with any cross choke, Roger's tips apply. Open up their collar and slide your hand in, then jam your elbow into your same side hip. Use that addition leverage to power your knuckles right to the floor, then bring your elbow. This will press your forearm into the side of their neck. You need to turn their head a bit as you do that, in order to expose the side of the neck properly.

At this point, you can also lower your head to the mat by your choking arm hand, to make sure you stay on the same side as your palm down grip. The more you bring your head away from your choking arm side, the easier it is for them to roll you over. To finish, bring your other hand underneath your own stomach, gripping low on their other collar. To finish, pull on that collar and twist your body away, rotating towards their legs.
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Teaching Notes: It can be tough to get the hand in if you're driving it past their defences, Roger Gracie hip-elbow style. The simple solution there is to turn your hand the other way around to get the initial push, then switching back. I can emphasise putting your head by your hand to get the balance, as well as driving your weight through that arm. That's where most of the choke comes from (Saulo demonstrates how to do it with just that arm too). Also, you don't need to grip especially deep with the second hand on the gi.

I also covered the intermediate class today, where I went through the ezequiel choke with the gi. It does work, but it's definitely best in that intermediate class setting, as I think it also works well as a combination attack. E.g., moving off to side control for a bunch of other submissions that work off a similar set up.