Mizblog

Greggo started this Tuesday morning class with some flow rolls to warm up, then opened the mat to questions. Jose (who is new to the daytime classes) asked about finishing the bow and arrow choke, so we went over that.

We started the move from the side control position, with our opponent turned away from us on their side. Your top hand feeds the top lapel to the hand reaching under their head, so you’ve got a grip of their top lapel around their neck. With that grip, you slide your knee behind your head, while the other knee steps over their body and you sit on them, tucking the foot into their armpit like you would for an arm bar. With your free hand, reach down and grab their knee (either by the pants or by underhooking the leg). Leaning toward their leg, keeping your weight on them, you lawnmower your top leg to the outside and sit back and toward their legs. As your lawnmower leg comes around, hook it over their lower arm, to keep it out of the defense equation. Make sure to keep your elbow close to your body so they can’t easily move your arm off their neck. Then, to finish, pull back with your knee grip and your lapel grip to turn their body into a ‘U’ as you choke them unconscious.

If they do pull your arm off their neck, you can take that arm and do an arm bar. Hook the arm with your free hand, use your formerly lapel-gripping hand to push their head down as you slide down the pole of their arm/back, squeeze your legs together to secure their upper body, and hip in to extend the arm for the tap.

You can also finish the bow-and-arrow choke by stepping your shin behind their neck, with your knee inside your elbow, and stepping your other shin behind the belt to brace the hips, then pull the knee and the lapel to finish the choke.

Then we rolled…