MMA and me, day 147

Another day of gi grappling at Alderwood, and I was sweating bullets right away. After shrimping drills, we worked the arm bar, triangle, omoplata drill for five minutes, and I was soaked. We then moved onto working the chokes we've been working on for a few days. We've been doing these for a while now, so I'll just touch on the refinements I've found help them get pulled off a bit easier.

Clock choke: Making sure that the hands are equally deep on the lapels, but not too deep. Also, getting the knees higher up the body makes it way easier to lean over the head and round your back to apply pressure.

Loop choke: When looping under the head, and then the elbow over the chin, bring it as far towards your body as you can, THEN slide it towards their head, under the chin, and try to put your elbow on the mat, keep it there, and motorcycle grip with the elbow DOWN!

Baseball choke: If you can't get it with your elbows in, flare them out to either side of the neck, and bring them to the mat, and sprawl out on your toes, putting as much pressure on their neck as possible, remembering to motorcycle grip, and pull your hands in a reverse punch motion.

Belt choke from guard: Bring them in tight after grabbing the lapel, with your knees. Open your guard and really shrimp your butt out so you can reach over to grab their belt in the middle of their back, with the inside of your armpit on the side of their neck, close the guard up tight, and pull the lapel while twisting your hips.

Clock choke #2: Drop your elbow deeper over the top to make the hole smaller that their neck is in. Have a firm grasp on their arm with your paddle grip so they can't turn into you, and walk around to get your lateral muscle on their neck, but keep the motion consistent, and keep the hips perpendicular to the floor.

Step over loop choke: Use your knee to prevent them from turning into you, much like the paddle grip in the Clock choke #2, and try to make the step over the head as fluid as possible. When you lean back, don't go over the head, really lean straight back, so when you hit the mat, it's very simple to grab the half nelson to finish the tap. You can also try putting in the half nelson before you roll back, if you're having a hard time getting it on the mat.

Another awesome class, and I got a little run in after too. Thanks Morgan for the run, and thanks to Seth for making me work. As always, fun class Coach Aric!