Wicked BJJ Clock Choke

‘Wicked’ is one of the keywords in Mantis Boxing. It has to do with trickery such as fakes, feints, distractions, or setting up the opponent to get what we want. It applies heavily to this clock choke setup and you'll see why.

I spent some time last year adding the clock choke into my game. It's an awesome submission and one I had never really used until early last year. It became quite useful when attacking people's turtle defense.

After using it repeatedly, I ended up in side control with Chris one day. Chris is pretty sensitive to when the armbar is coming from side mount, and good at escaping it.

Rather than risk giving up the dominant position, I kept pressure on his back and looked for the lapel. He now has nowhere to turn except to the turtle. Once he turns all-four, snag the wrist and the clock choke is setup. I enjoyed working this one and thought I'd share it with you guys.

'Sneaky' Americana for No-Gi

Here is a No-Gi variation for the Sneaky Americana (Keylock) I've been using from under the head. Using the shoulder to crack open their frame, can help me pry my opponents arm up closer to their head, where I can snag ahold of it to go for the Sneaky Americana. 

Be sure to insert the hand palm up so you can use the fingers to ply along the muscles of their arm and help you get underneath when they are trying to block it. 

Again, this variation I've been using in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) in order to keep my position during the attack. If I launch my attack across the body, the more savvy practitioners will counter and push my arm away, or launch me over their body. 

A nice alternative to the keylock for more flexible opponents, is pushing the elbow vertical and then applying downward pressure to lock the wrist. 

The turn away: when they go on their side to defend the arm, we go for the arm closest to us to setup and armbar. If they begin to block that, it will create the opening we need for the Americana. If they block both, step the leg over the waist and roll them back into our guard to finish them from the back. 

Have fun with this technique. I've been enjoying it a lot!!!

I'm Not Ready For That.

"I'm not ready for that." is a healthy approach to training things that overwhelm us.

Here are a couple of counters to the standing guard pass to help your game. Years ago I learned the second of these moves at a workshop with Renan Borges. I was still a white belt at the time, and even though I really liked the move, it wasn't something I was ready for. 

I filed it away in the "I like this, but I'm not ready for it right now. I'll do my best today, and someday I'll come back to this." A few months ago, it started reappearing in my rolls and here's how I integrated it and hopefully you can too. When you are ready.

Sickle Sweep - place the feet in the hips as they stand up. As they push the leg down, rotate your foot inside to help with leverage. Not necessary, but it can give a good bite on the hip. 

Use your other arm to attack the ankle with an underhook. Push up with the foot in the hip, and slice the back of the ankle with your leg as you hold the other ankle. 

Deep Pass Defense - when they step through more aggressively, it is difficult to get the leverage to apply the sickle sweep. Here we shoot the arm through the leg following with our head and shoulder. Think of the hand as the tip of the arrow, and the head is the feather.

Place the back of the tricep on the back of the leg to help finish rotating through. No need to pull the leg all the way through, and it is faster to use the shin with the other leg. Grab the ankles and leverage up. 

You can then take the back, or attack the ankles. 

Defending Against the Bear Hug - PASS vs. FAIL

Jumped from behind? Your opponent got position on you? No matter how it happened, it's a bad place to be. Join me and my special guest Sensei Ando as we show what to watch out for, and how to make one of the most commonly failed escapes, succeed.

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►Also visit Sensei Ando's website here: http://senseiando.com

First thing to do is to drape the hands to defend the choke, and drop your stance to keep your center of gravity lower, making it difficult for your adversary to pick you up. 

Next, it is important to realize that standard escapes with splitting the arms do not work unless your opponent makes a mistake. The objective of holding you from behind, unless a multi-attacker scenario, is to pick you up and slam you. This means, our adversary is going to grab us lower, around the elbows; making it impossible to split the arms and slink out.

After establishing control of the arms and a good wide base, start using your hammer fist attacks to the groin, combined with foot stomps to rattle your opponent and get them moving around. Remember to always use the 'outside' foot to stomp. Never the inside.

Since our opponent has widened their stance for stability and to avoid the attacks we are making, we can now make our first attempt to escape using the underhook to the single leg takedown.

Caution

Be careful not to walk out and stop. This is transitional only. We have to immediately move to the takedown, or re-establish our base and position if something went awry. 

As you shoot for the single leg, if the opponent moves, or you do not have enough mobility to get a strong hook/position, then we can abandon that and use the elbow splitting escape that previously did not work. After all the moving around, chances are that the grip they had before, has slipped higher on our arms and we can make our secondary attempt a success. 

Where to? 

Once we're out of the bear hug, we want to look for a follow-up move to secure our position and turn the tides. Sensei Ando has a good go to he shows, followed by a variation I would use.

After the elbow split - immediately snag the neck hook position to keep control.

Ando

Attack the head with a knee to the face to soften them up. Maintain the neck hook and do not give up a strong position. Immediately follow up with a shoot underneath using the elbow in the groin to bring them over the back for a Fireman's Carry Takedown.

Tips: Sensei Ando makes note to watch the danger of the headlock as we're slipping out. Good tip. He also points out to tuck the foot so they don't land on you and break your toes.

Randy

I start off the same way and attack the head with a knee. I'm anticipating the block, but if they don't, even better. We're done here. If they do block as planned, then I shoot over the top and thread my arm under the neck all the way to the other underarm. Clasp the hands, and we have a nice guillotine setup. Use your shoulder to drop weight on them making it difficult for them to posture up and move. Follow this up with a nice reaping leg takedown variation for the finish.

The finish is up to you and your skillset. You can chuck them and go to a ground and pound, pound the ground package, or you can hold on to the guillotine, keep a solid position on the same side of the body as you started on, and finish the choke you already have.

Defending the Worst Position Ever!!

The High Mount combined with striking is a deadly combination. This is by far, one of the worst positions you can get stuck in on the ground. The traditional BJJ escape for mount - bridge, trap, and roll doesn't work quite yet, and meanwhile our opponent is raining punches on us, and bringing the thunder like Poseidon.

All too often, we panic in this situation and end up flailing, or trying to grab arms. Here we show a technique we call - 'Shield Up / Shimmy Up' to help you deal with this problematic position. We have to work from where we are, not where we want to be.

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