Get more BJJ techniques in my Totally Awesome Journal.
This weekend, I had planned on shooting a series on breaking posture from closed guard, but my training partner Greg AKA Trog (or Gsoares to you) showed up. We've been working on a series of back attacks and chokes together so we felt it'd be a better use of our time to shoot these instead. We've got some awesome collar chokes we've been doing that we wanted to share.
But before we get on to the awesome ones, there are some fundamentals I wanted to cover first. Nothing below should be that new to anyone who trains, but I am trying to build up the number of detailed tutorials of basic moves that are available online. We've already got plenty of advanced moves and a lot of poorly done basics, but I'd like to see more solid fundamentals done in great detail.
So with that in mind, here is the...
Rear collar choke
We are in a sitting rear mount. I have both arms under his armpits, gripping both lapels. This gi grip is very secure grip, giving you a lot of control over his upper body and allowing you to easily stay behind him if he tries to turn to face you.
I have both my feet hooking over his thighs, with my heels pulling into his thighs. Do not cross your ankles or they'll triangle their legs over your feet and ankle lock you. Do not grapevine their leg by hooking your toes behind their knees. This is just awkward and can lead to knee injuries.
I pull out my right hand and reach over his shoulder, grabbing the opposite lapel.
I reach deeper into his collar, using my left hand to pull the lapel down and feed it deeper. This is the detail I see most often forgotten, yet it can be the deciding factor to whether or not the choke works.
I reach across with my left hand and grab the opposite lapel.
As I go to finish, I fall back to my right side to put them on the opposite side than they need to be to escape.
To finish, I straighten my arms, stretching them out like I want my right to shave the top of my left. My right hand is pulling the collar across the neck as my left hand pulls down on the lapel, taking out the slack. I am arching my shoulders and puffing my chest out to get the power of my back into the choke. My hips are driving into him and my hooks are flexing back. The power of this choke comes from putting your entire body into it like this, not just pulling on the lapels with your arms alone.
This may be one of the simplest chokes from the back, but it's also one of the most powerful, and it is necessary to threaten it to setup the chokes I'll be showing later, so be sure you have it down right.
