Enjoy A Choke

I went over some nice details and techniques on the straight ankle lock. I’ve always had trouble with the submission because I could never tie it up nicely to effectively apply the lock. Turns out I kept having trouble -- or so I thought -- of getting the correct “grip” around the foot. I often thought my grip was too loose so I’d subconsciously “choke up” on the foot, gripping a little higher above the ankle, thus rendering the foot lock useless.

The straight ankle lock is one of those techniques where it takes practice and feeling to understand how to get it. There are other chokes and armlocks that require similar patience and awareness. This one always stumped me.

My partner told me to basically rethink the technique -- that what I thought was loose, was actually the perfect grip. The loose feeling comes from the arm being wrapped where the top of your opponent’s foot is flush against your tricep and their heel basically wedged into your ribs. With this grip, it feels like the foot is about to slip out, or that you’re going to lose the foot -- hence, the grip feels loose, so, that’s why I’d choke up on the ankle a bit. Wrong. Turns out this feeling is natural and means you’re actually in the correct grip. With the proper foot placement, all it took was MINUTE adjustments and crank and the foot was cranked.

I used John Danaher’s “hide the shoulder” technique where the locking leg (the leg going over the clamping leg’s foot) is positioned over the shoulder instead of locking from the side of the shoulder. When done correctly, this gives the user more range of motion to cut the angle, creates a tighter lock, and because of the smaller triangle frame more of your legs are utilized which lets you use the choke 1) with short legs; 2) on bigger guys; 3) both, like me.

I may have posted the video in the past but I’ll repost or find it on YouTube and share.

Last night, our second black belt instructor wasn’t present to teach class, so some of us took the liberty to facilitate instruction. The 5pm class was led by one of our purple belts but then he had to jet at 6. I was left with some white belts that haven’t trained enough to spar, so instead of walking off to get in some rounds of rolling, I decided to work with the beginners by adding to what the purple belt had shown in the previous class. We worked on a basic rear naked choke escape plus the various rear naked choke grips. From there, we worked a variation of the escape to where the defender turns into the person on the back but is still inside their guard. What to do from there? We got to working on guard break, then passes, then side control. After the guard break and pass drills, I had the beginners chain the moves altogether; from defending the RNC, to escaping, to breaking the guard, to passing, and to maintaining side mount. I had the beginners watch my demo, drill the moves, then had them explain to me how to perform the techniques step by step. 

I’ve learned, from working in a coffee shop, that an effective way to have your fresh new partner absorb the information -- with some minute details and all -- is have them regurgitate it back to you. They seemed to have responded well to the sequence we went over and appeared to show a solid understanding of the moves and why we worked on that particular sequence. 

When it comes to partners that have long leg reach, I tend to find myself on the defensive rather quickly. Their guard play is tricky for me and I frequently get caught in their triangles or sweeps. 

Thinking back on last night’s rolls with two very tough partners with long legs, I found that they were able to utilize their limbs effectively whenever: 

1. They had grips on my sleeves/collar+sleeve. 

2. I was in front of their open guard. 

Playing tight won’t help me much if they have strong grips on me. So, of course the natural thing to do is to break them free. I need to remind myself to stop avoiding the grip breaks. Not sure why I don’t address it but if I avoid it long enough (like most things in life), it will only make the situation worse for me. 

Break the grips, dummy!

Now, I know better than to stand in front of their guard. How else am I suppose to pass, right? Well, I don’t know what’s come over me but I didn’t move around to the sides as much as I should’ve when rolling with these particular partners. I was in front of them, in plain sight. Even when they didn’t have effective grips on me or grips at all, I was still in front of them. Perhaps I was hoping to get in a butterfly sweep? I recall at some points trying to initiate some leg attack entries but I would often get blocked effectively. Still, I was stubborn, so I just continued to attempt butterfly attacks to no avail! Fail! Gotta do better than that. 

If they don’t have grips on me, or if they have weaker grips secured, then I have the luxury of movement, and I should effectively maneuver to the sides while nullifying their legs, to pass their guard. Simple! But not easy, am I right? I need to improve on that. 

Partner A -- the first of the two guys giving me trouble with their grips and legs -- is a more advanced purple belt with a very strong grip game and knows how to use his legs and feet to pull & push you off balance. It works almost every time. Without fail, he’d secure strong grips on my sleeves, then would eventually use my energy and momentum (when I’m flailing around to get some leverage on him, yeah right) to get his feet on my biceps, shoot his hips up, and triangle me. Or at least get the triangle lock on me and if I was able to defend the choke, he’d work an arm and/or wristlock (dirty bastard... love it). This was a common occurrence in our multiple rounds together, sadly (for me, and maybe for him too). 

Partner B is a tough blue belt who’s been using his even longer legs to his advantage against all of us in the school. Most times, he’s able to get a nice scissor sweep on many of us -- even those above blue belt. It’s scary. My rolls with him weren’t quite as punishing for me as when I rolled with Partner B, but Partner A still gave me lots of trouble whenever I was physically in front of his open guard (dummy, stop doing that!) He’d manage to get me off balance here and there by attempting scissor sweeps and spider guard tactics but most times he didn’t secure effective grips; because of that, I was able to fend off some of his sweep attacks, pin one of his legs down to work a knee slice pass, or stack him to attempt pressure pass. On the other hand, he was very good at recovering guard due to some impressive flexibility of his, which kept us in a constant battle for position. 

This just shows how significant it is to address the grips. Where both partners demonstrated effective use of their legs, Partner A had a better advantage by securing powerful grips and was 100%  the one to dictate how the “fight” (not even close) would unravel; as oppose to Partner B, with almost equal skill with his legs as Partner A, didn’t quite employ grips as effectively and thus, giving me more chances to pass. 

This was longer than I anticipated -- forgive me -- but I need to really hammer it in my head to not fucking be in front of their open guard so much and to fucking break the grips before I move my ass! 

Keep in mind: when inside the halfguard (on top) you have to keep your outside hip close to your partner. If there’s space, you’ll enable them to get a hook around your thigh and you’re either getting swept or you’re gonna get banana split, which to avoid, you’ll have to let yourself get swept (that’s if your leg already gets hooked). Again, to avoid getting your top position compromised, you need to keep your outside hip down and tight to the body, if you’re in the lockdown then work the escape.

It sucks but what can you do? What you shouldn’t do is train rigorously like you would if you were healthy. That’s without question. 

Luckily I was able to drill a little heavier than light last night, which satisfied two things 1) the yearn to train (I felt that the shoulder injury or deep soreness would completely prevent me from any jiu-jitsu training) and 2) the longing to participate in some sort of physical workout. 

Now that I know I can train comfortably with this shoulder shittiness and that I can push myself a little harder than light (no sparring but drilling with up to 75% resistance), enough to workup a good sweat, I now know I can participate in some other forms of exercises without having to worry about aggravating the joint. 

So, while I’m on this short term (hopefully) hiatus, I’m considering some few options for cardio workouts that don’t involve my shoulders so much or at all.

1. Jogging/Sprinting - Running. This would be the next best thing. 

2. Agility Ladder drills. Haven’t done this for a while but since we’re expecting to have rain for the next week, I think this’ll have to wait. 

3. Plyometrics - Legs-focused plyo workouts with less emphasis on shoulder usage (so no plyo pushups or even burpees for me).

4. High Knees in place. This would maybe have to get incorporated into a HIIT circuit of some kind and mixed with other workouts. Maybe light calisthenics.