Gi Chokes & No-Gi Takedowns (diary entry)

22.10.16   Today’s two hour lesson was divided up into gi (jacked grappling) groundwork and no-gi stand-up grappling. I am very rusty on teaching gi techniques, as no-gi makes an easier transition between other martial arts. However, I still maintain it can serve an excellent source of attribute training for both self-defence and grappling training.   We began with ground-specific warm-up exercises – bear crawls in different directions and gorilla crawls. I then focused on knee pin movements up and down the dojo. This moved onto the toreador guard pass into knee-pin, which we drilled as a warm-up/muscle memory exercise. This led me onto the first technique of the lesson, the basic cross-choke.* In BJJ I was always taught this submission using a gi with one hand supinated deep into the lapel collar and the other pronated over the top, gripping the opposite shoulder. The knee-pin adds extra leverage to the technique from the top position.   The cross-collar choke was then trained from the closed guard position. This led onto a variation of the technique using an interesting variation on the Ezekiel choke (Estrangulamento de Ezequiel in Portuguese and Sode Guruma Jime in Japanese. This isn’t your standard sleeve grip version, but one that uses the same scissoring submission principle with the bottom end of the gi lapel. It is best utilised when an opponent is maintaining a tight, if somewhat negative, defence when sitting in guard. Rather than posturing up, they put their head close into the fighter’s chest and keep their arms on the inside, making it difficult to set up for sweeps or arm-submissions. This version of the Ezekiel choke begins by pulling the bottom end of the opponent’s lapel free, passing it over the opposite side of the neck, securing it with the other hand and then passing the first hand under the passed over lapel to grip the collar also on the opposite side of the neck. The passed over lapel and the wrist of the first hand create pressure on one side of carotid artery whilst the two hands put pressure on the other side and/or the trachea.   Keeping the choke theme, we went to the clock choke. This is another very popular submission. Once again, we looked at applying to a tightly defensive opponent. In this instance it was the turtle position. Here the fighter secures his grip on the far side, inside lapel and exerts pressure with his forearm whilst using his other hand to grip the far side trouser leg of his opponent. He then executes the submission by engaging his hips and walking into the choke. We also covered another variation where the trouser grip was not used and, instead, the fighter rolled into the submission.   The second half of the lesson began with the body-lock takedown. We began by securing double underhooks from standing position. The fighter executes a simple takedown by exerting pressure on the base of the spine and moves his hips forward. This was then performed with an outside leg sweep. We then looked at the suplex, beginning with belly-to-belly version of this technique. Then we went through the various stages to perform a belly-to-back suplex, finishing with the move in full execution.   The lesson then moved onto drilling the double leg takedown. This was performed by repeating the entry for the technique and then by sliding between the partner’s legs. Then we performed to versions of the technique: the spearing version, where the fighter ends up in the opponent’s guard, and the lifting version where the fighter ends up in side control. Next we drilled the single leg takedown. This was performed as a continuous drill of entries for both legs and then as two techniques: the standard leg-trap version and a lifting version.     *It’s actually a strangle but the term “strangle” has become so obsolete now in submission grappling sports now that specific strangulation techniques are often referred to as “blood-chokes”.   History of the Ezekiel Choke in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu