An Effective Loop Choke from Half Guard

In the gi, the loop choke is an attack that you can use anytime you have a cross collar grip. It can be sneaky, but when done well, it is definitely effective. The key is that you have to understand the specific conditions that allow the choke to happen. Once you have that knowledge, though, you can both create those situations and take advantage of them when they arise.

Additional Details

There are two tests for the cross collar grip placement. The first is aligning your index finger with their collar bone. And the second is pulling the grip across towards the head and checking to see if you thumb aligns with their chin.
The wrist of the cross collar grip should flex towards the chest, similar to a limp wrist or like holding a coffee mug. That allows your arm to contour around the neck better when you go for the choke.
The path of escape is always towards the secondary grip. That’s why taking their head towards your primary grip against your hip or rib improves your finish percentage. That’s why the video mentions treating it like a guillotine. That is not the only way the finish, but all finishes requires some obstacle that blocks their head from ducking under the second grip.

Common Challenges

A smart and logical response to a cross collar grip is to break it right away. That means that you will run into individuals who refuse to accept that grip. If they succeed in breaking it, the loop choke is taken off the board.
If you successfully set the grip and maintain it, the next challenge lies in their posture. You have to get their head lower than yours. Sometimes they will do it for you, but the surest path lies in making them react in a way that brings their head into your strike zone. The sweep attempt shown in the video above is just one method. But sweep attempts in general are great for getting big reactions.
The last hurdle is securing their head, and as a general rule, you want to fall towards the side of your secondary grip. If you can get on that hip, it becomes possible to block the head with your elbow, even when you can’t tuck it towards your first grip.

Hitting the Wrist Lock Off Of The Armdrag

Hitting the Wristlock Off Of The Armdrag

The wrist lock is a versatile attack that works in a wide variety of positions.

But where it really shines is in its sneakiness. In the right hands, it’s an attack that can creep up on opponents suddenly and without warning.

And everyone can use it.

You just have to understand that if the elbow can’t move, the wrist is vulnerable. And that is a situation that can be created in many different ways.

Case in point:

Check out this setup from Joc, a man who is known to have absolutely no chill when it comes to the wrist.

Execution Tips

Establish firm control by cross gripping the sleeve (left on right or right on left) and behind the tricep on the arm you want to attack.
Shift your hips towards the same side of the arm while pulling it across your body. Aim to get the elbow all the way to ground and lock it in this position with your body.
Switch the tricep grip to an overhook with your hand cupping their bicep.
Slide the grip on sleeve up to the hand and apply pressure to force it to flex towards the wrist for the finish.

Fair warning.

Live by the sword, die by the sword. Once the wrists are in play, the intensity of the training goes up.

How to Do the Hip Bump Sweep from Closed Guard

When you first start learning Jiu Jitsu, one of your goals should be to improve your ability to get to more dominant positions like the mount.

And there are many different paths to that objective.

One is to sweep directly into the position from closed guard.

Imagine that.

One technique is all that’s required to take you from the bottom (where your opponent can make you suffer with the pressure of their weight) to the top (where submissions like the armbar and the cross choke become significantly easier).

And of the many options for achieving that objective, there is one that is easier to learn, and it is the hip bump.

In fact, we often teach it to our kids, and they pick it up fast.

But in order to assist all students in mastering the movement, we also put a quick breakdown on tape, and you can check it out here:

Execution Tips

The first and most critical objective is that you must sit up to the hand. That means that your palm of your hand (not elbow) is on the mat behind you and your body is upright with your arm over your opponent’s shoulder (armpit to shoulder contact is key). How you achieve that outcome can vary, but it must be accomplished. One thing that helps, though, is angling your hips to the side and lifting your bottom elbow above your shoulder on the mat. It allows you to push off the elbow to sit up with speed.
Once that first objective is achieved, it becomes imperative that you control your opponent’s arm. It helps to palm their elbow and glue it to your chest.
Then the finishing motion is a rotation. You’re not knocking them directly back (even though that can work in some circumstances). When you focus on dropping the knee on the side of their trapped arm and spinning them like a top, the attack becomes so much more difficult to stop.

Hope this helps, and if you wish to learn more, the best place to do it is in class. And if you’re not a student yet, fill out one of the request more information forms and start the process.

One Reason Why You Should Learn the Reverse Shrimp

In Jiu Jitsu, there is a common situation that is virtually a checkmate.

If you get caught there, you will be offered a harsh choice. It’s either tap or snap, if the attack progresses past a certain point. Escape won’t be an option anymore. But a few short moments before it reaches that point, there is a movement that can be used to drastically improved the odds of a safe, easy and painless escape.

I speak, of course, about the armbar from mount, one of the most fundamental techniques in the art of Jiu Jitsu.

It doesn’t matter where you go or who you train with, you will learn how to do this attack, and you’ll also have to defend it again. It’s common because it’s effective, and that’s true even at the highest levels of the art. Studies have even been done on the result of black belt matches at the biggest tournament in the world, and consistently the armbar has been ranked in the top 2 for most common submission finish. Now that may include many different entries to the attack, but the transition from mount is always threat, and it’s a fundamental transition that you will have to deal with.

That’s one reason why you must have the reverse shrimp in your arsenal.

There’s a moment in the transition to the finish where one little reverse shrimp will make opponents flop on their butt, allowing you to not only escape with ease but also laugh a little at their frustration.

How awesome is that?

It’s not easy movement to learn, though. Perhaps that’s one reason why it’s not often included in many warmup drill flows. Everyone does the shrimp, but the reverse variation just doesn’t get the same amount of love. In fact, I didn’t learn it until I was a purple belt at a seminar in the mountainous region of western Maryland.

That’s why we have put together a short breakdown of how to do the movement, and you can check that out right here:

If you want to learn how to use this movement to escape armbar, sweep from tough positions, and otherwise improve your position while grappling, come in and try a class. We will explore this movement and many others, and you will learn how to apply them in ways that are both effective and efficient.

Just sign up for a trial on the form below.

Objectives for Learning the Fundamentals of Jiu Jitsu

Fundamental Objectives for Jiu Jitsu

Learn the positional hierarchy of the art.
Start to understand how the individual pieces of Jiu Jitsu connect together.
Learn the fundamental movements of the art.
Learn how to escape from inferior positions.
Learn how to establish dominant positions.
Start to understand weight distribution and control on top in dominant positions.
Learn how to execute, prevent and counter the most common submissions.

Positional Hierarchy

Jiu-jitsu is all about unfairness. We aim to create situations that either maximize our ability or minimize our opponent’s. Everything circles back to that objective, and dominant positions give us innate advantages in any altercation or battle.

Here’s a basic overview of the positional hierarchy:

Inferior	Neutral	Dominant
Bottom of Rear Mount	Open Guard	Top of Rear Mount
Bottom of Mount	Closed Guard	Top of Mount
Bottom of Side Control	Half Guard	Top of Side Control
Bottom of Knee on Belly	On the Feet	Top of Knee on Belly

One of the first steps in understanding Jiu Jitsu lies in understanding the positional hierarchy.

Piecing the Puzzle Together

Learning Jiu Jitsu is like learning a new language.

You start by learning a word then another and more after that. Even as your vocabulary grows though, you’ll struggle to communicate until you start to refine your pronunciation, learn the rules of the language, and figure out how words can be strung together to form sentences.

In Jiu Jitsu, you will learn the concepts, movements, and techniques that form the foundation of the art. Each of those pieces will be like a foreign word, and the true value will lie in the relationship between each piece. The connections you make will determine both the speed and altitude of your growth.

Here is a short list of action steps you can take to accomplish this objective:

Whenever you learn a new concept, movement or technique, think about how it relates to something you already know and try to make a connection.
Take a note when you notice one movement or concept used in a variety of techniques. It will help you to focus attention where it would have the most effect.
Drill techniques in sequence. It will teach you to make connections between techniques without conscious thought, and that is the key to mastery.

Fundamental Movement

Learning movement will be one of the greatest challenges you face in our art because many of the movements we use aren’t common outside of Jiu Jitsu. It’s likely that many of the movements will be unfamiliar to you.

Acknowledging that is important because you may struggle at first, but it won’t be because of your level of talent. The cause is more likely to lie in a movement pattern that has to be focused on and improved.

So your first priority will be to master the following movements:

Shrimp
Standard Shrimp	Used to create space for defense and offense. Common applications are seen in escapes from side control and mount.
Offside Shrimp	Used to initiate inversions from non-ideal situations. The most common application lies in countering over under passes.
Reverse Shrimp	Used to close distance and change the point of leverage on bottom. It can be seen in sweeps and reversals.
Shrimp Out	Used to create separation. In essence, it’s a combination of a shrimp and a sprawl, and it can be used to escape or reverse.

Bridge
Upward Bridge	Used to create space and off-balance opponents.
Shoulder Bridge	Used to tilt opponents laterally and off balance them.

Roll
Forward Roll	Most common usage is seen in rolling back attacks.
Backward Roll	Used to generate significant leverage for some sweeps.
Granby Roll	Used for guard retention and ground mobility.
Upa Roll	Used to generate significant leverage for some escapes.

Crawl
Shoulder Crawl	Used to create separation and decrease an opponent’s control of your body.

Each of these movements is used in a wide variety of techniques, and once you master them, your performance will improve significantly.

Positional Escapes

The ability to escape from bad situations is one of the greatest skills that will contribute to your level of success and confidence in Jiu Jitsu. As your confidence grows, you’ll be able calmly assess a situation and decide on the best course of action. It will also make the experience of training more fun because you can play and really focus on using all the techniques you’ve learned.

Establishing Dominance

In Jiu Jitsu, our goal is to take advantage of how the human body works so that we can increase our probability of success in any fight. In order to accomplish that, we aim to create situations where we can use the full potential of our body while depriving our opponents of that ability.

That’s why the positional hierarchy exists. As we go from inferior positions to dominant positions, we increase our control of the situation and increase our ability to dictate what happens. For that reason, it’s important that you learn how to transition to dominant positions.

Here are a few common transitions:

Sweep: Whenever you start from the bottom of a guard position and tilt, flip or move an opponent so that they fall to their back while you come up on top.
Takedown: Whenever you and your opponent start on your feet and you throw or trip them so that they fall.
Pass: Whenever you’re in the top position of a guard and you’re able to get to side control or mount.
Backtake: Whenever you transition from any position to firm control of an opponent’s back.

All those transitions are movements upward in the positional hierarchy, and we’ll cover them. Initially however, you’ll want to focus on the following goals:

Sweeping from closed guard, half guard and basic open guard.
Throwing or taking someone down on the feet.
Passing closed guard, half guard and basic open guard.
Taking the back from closed guard and half guard.
Transitioning to mount from side control.

Maintaining Dominance

Once you establish dominant position, you’ll want to maintain it, and that’s mainly accomplished in the following ways:

You must take away the tools your opponent will need to initiate their escape such as grips and leverage.
You must control the weight distribution of your own body to decrease their ability to move or move you.
You must learn how to place them in positions that make them mechanically weak so that they are unable to utilize the full potential of their body.
You must learn how to transition between dominant positions in order to maintain mobile control.

Understanding Common Submissions

Submissions are the most offensive tools in Jiu Jitsu, and as you improve at them, you’ll improve your ability to end fights.

As you train, it’s also important to keep in mind your safety and the safety of your teammates. We should always tap early, tap often and train safe. So don’t hesitate to tap if you get caught in a submission and always apply submissions with control so that your opponent has time to tap without injury.

With that said, these are the basic submissions you must learn:

Armbar
Triangle
Omoplata
Americana
Kimura
Cross Choke
Guillotine
Rear Naked Choke
Bow and Arrow Choke

Learn and understand the mechanics of each submission in that list and ask yourself the following:

Why do they work?
What is being accomplished?
How can they be performed in different situations?
How can they be prevented?

Those are the kinds of questions that you must be able to answer before you progress up through the ranks.