Teaching #909
Artemis BJJ (Easton Road), Can Sönmez, Bristol, UK - 28/10/2019
The RNC is a fundamental technique to BJJ. Everybody with more than a few lessons under their belt knows that you're going to be looking for it, so they will immediately be trying to create barriers with their arms and hands. I focused on the basic application before getting into the set-up, as that warrants a whole lesson of its own.
So, to apply a
rear naked choke (the reason for that name is that you aren't using the gi to complete the choke, hence 'naked'), position the elbow of your choking arm under their chin. You don't want to leave any space, as the idea is to press into both sides of their neck. This will close off their carotid arteries and prevent the flow of blood to the brain. That is an efficient and safe way of subduing an opponent.
Reaching past their shoulder, you are then going to grip the bicep of your free arm. This is to lock the choke in place. It will normally be difficult to grab your bicep straight off, as your opponent knows that's dangerous for them. You can instead secure your initial arm by gripping the back of their shoulder. Stephan Kesting has a
useful video on RNC details, where he talks about holding the ridge of bone at the bottom of the shoulder blade, using what he calls a 'tiger palm'. From there, switch to gripping palm to palm over their shoulder, dropping the elbow of your back-arm down along their shoulder blade. That will further help to lock it in position: as
Demian Maia demonstrates, you can even finish the choke from there. If not, you can then do what Kesting calls the 'creep', wriggling that elbow across their back to cinch up the choke.
When you have managed to grip your bicep, make sure both your elbows are in front of their shoulders. In other words, your armpits are resting on their shoulders. The elbow drops straight down. As Nathan 'Levo' Leverton emphasises, this now means that both your wrists are hidden, making it difficult for them to strip your grip. It also makes the choke tighter, as both of your arms are directly by their neck.
Bring the hand of that bicep arm to the back of their head: a commonly used version is to press the palm into their skull, but there are various options, coming down to personal preference. Using the back of your hand against their neck is arguably better, as that may slip in more securely than palm down. Also, palm down is easier for them to grab, if they try to peel your fingers off their skull. Either way, when you're locking in the choke, don't reach your hand forward over their shoulder. If you do, then they can armbar you using their shoulder as a fulcrum. Instead, slide it behind the head.
Bring your head next to theirs on the bicep gripping side, to further cut off any space. If for some reason after grabbing your bicep you can't get your other hand behind their head, grab your own skull, using that grip to finish from there. Staying close to their back, expand your chest and squeeze your elbows together.
A common problem is that people will also tend to tuck their chin. Some people advocate unpleasant methods to force your way through to the neck in that situation. For example, Stephan Kesting has a list
here: the results of that kind of approach (though Kesting does make a point of saying he is not fond of pain-based options either) can be seen in
this video of a brutal Baret Yoshida match. That is not how I want my jiu jitsu to look.
My goal is smooth, technical, leverage-based jiu jitsu, causing as little pain to the other person as possible. As
Saulo says in my favourite BJJ quote:
"You have to think that your partner, the guy that you're training [with], has to be your best friend. So, you don't want to hurt him, you don't want to try to open his guard with your elbow, make him feel really pain, because jiu jitsu is not about pain. You have to find the right spot to save your energy"
I strongly feel it is best to avoid hurting your training partners, for four additional reasons:
- You're in class to learn, not to 'win' at all costs. Save the 'win' mentality for competition.
- If you're always hurting the people you spar, eventually nobody will want to train with you, making it rather hard to improve.
- Presuming you're in BJJ for the long-term, you're going to be spending a lot of time with your training partners. Therefore it would make sense to build a good relationship.
- Even if you don't care about your classmates, everybody has a different pain threshold. So, the efficacy of pain-reliant techniques will vary from person to person. The efficacy of leverage does not: that's based on physics, not how tough somebody is.
There is a less nasty option you could try for opening up their chin, from Andre Galvao. If they really shove their chin down, this may not work, but it is worth a go. Twist your hand so that your thumb is pointing down, then as you slide the arm to their neck, twist the thumb back up to lift their chin.
If I find I have no option except something brutish (e.g., crushing their chin until they tap from pain or lift their head), my preference is to instead transition to a different attack, like a bow and arrow choke or an armbar (which I'll be covering in later lessons). In my opinion, if I get to the point where force and pain are the main routes to finishing a submission, then my set up was poorly executed.
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Teaching Notes: I was still recovering after the flu, so a bit out of it for this lesson. Therefore I'll copy the notes from last time I taught the RNC, which I should teach more like Charles Harriott style next time. Remember that checklist: hips, head, elbows.
So, taking the notes from before, getting the head in place, not just pulling backwards, staying tight. Make sure you are putting your hand on your bicep, a few people weren't getting that, so I'll emphasise it more next time. The thing about expanding your chest is important too, to the extent that it is probably worth taking off your gi jacket to really highlight that.
