D'arce, Anaconda and North South chokes

Tonight I learnt a few new chokes, but I think the thing I need to work on the most at the moment is my posture. When we start wrestling, I've been told that my weight and head is too far forward and this results in me being easy to guillotine or be controlled from the back. Same with being in guard, posture is integral to ensuring that I can at least prepare to pass.

Today someone taught me the D'arce Choke, a variation to a head arm choke.
Submissions 101 D'arce Choke breakdown and concept.

Instead of starting on top, I was taught the choke from side control, if they're trying to hip escape away from you (facing you), you dig your arm closest to their leg under their top arm, under the arm pit and around their neck. Then with that same arm, loop it back and grab your other bicep to close the choke and tighten (like a rear naked choke).

I was also taught the Anaconda choke (another variation of the head arm choke) but I must admit, I'm a bit hazy on the details. It seems very similar, to the D'arce, except the arm is dug deep from the other end (so dig in from the neck), bring it under his opposite armpit from the side of the neck you dug and close it like a rear naked choke again.

With each of these chokes, getting that arm as deep as possible seems to be one of the key, or you can't close the choke off. 

Someone also taught me the basic North South Choke. From front control, slip your arm under the neck, push their head to the side and get their neck in between your lat and bicep. Then, with the other hand gripping the choking arm, pull it tight and sink your body down, pushing your chest forward. The sink is really important. Another submissions 101 video explaining how to execute it! Whether their arm gets caught in it or not isn't really important, as long as you have unhindered access to their neck.

Figure 4 lock (Americana) from mount. I need to focus more on putting all my weight into getting that arm down and working for it.
If the person is tightly keeping their arms to their body, I can always attack the neck to get them to open up.  Got caught with this several times.

So some points for improvement:

• Work on keeping posture upright! This is especially key when in a guard, mounted or even at the start of wrestling.
• Use my weight to try and manipulate people, not my strength. 
• Keep my weight as low and centred as possible. Extending beyond my weight results in easy sweeps.
• Attack the neck if an opportunity is not presenting itself from mount.
• Look for under the arm or under the neck choke opportunities.

Throat hurts...someone choked me pretty hard, hopefully it doesn't bruise.

Elbow positioning

So yesterday I went along for the no gi BJJ class. Man, no gi wrestling is hard! You lose alot of the easier to get anchor points (collar, sleeve, pants) and end up being alot more limited in the submissions you can go for (alot more slip, hard to find holds). Well, it feels like that anyways, I sure had to tap out alot!
I did get to try a few new different moves and was successful in executing a scissor sweep, side control sweep and learnt a few different submissions (gogoplata and omaplata from rubber guard). It was fun just experimenting as we couldn't go full bore sparring for an hour so we worked techniques and taught each other new things.

Anyways, after BJJ, I also did the Kenpo class which always makes me think a bit more about my technique. The Kenpo feels much more technical (though BJJ isn't exactly easy) and makes you reconsider concepts that you thought you had down pat.

One thing that we worked on yesterday was a technique called Gripping Talon. The video below shows a quick breakdown of the technique.

One of the first moves in the technique is a step forward with the right foot and trap the grabbing hand (with potential finger break). The elbow sinks in the first move so that the elbow point is below the point of the grab and allows you to break the grip very easily. And this is where I started thinking a bit more about the elbow position. Though it doesn't even get a mention in the video, I think the elbow position is a key aspect in alot of ways.

Whether you're a ground specialist, grappler or striker, the position of your elbows in your guard and in each position can dictate what happens next. Generally speaking, it would seem that close to your body tends to work well in most circumstances and gives you the additional grounding/defence/power that you need.

For example, in BJJ, if your arms and elbows are away from your body (usually across your centre line), people are able to capitalise upon this and you usually end up in any number of submissions. Similarly, if you are grappling and in a clinch, the person with their elbows closer generally has a stronger base to pull you close and is much more difficult to break away from. In stand up striking,  elbow position close to our body allows us to protect our body from kicks and punches as well as dynamically fire punches. I've been to a few wing chun classes in which they showed me the folly of shifting my elbows even a couple of centimetres out of place. They were able to capitalise on this and could essentially control my arms from the elbow.

Quite often the first reaction that we have to a wrist grab is to pull away from the attacker. However, at this point, our elbow is too far away from our body and we are unlikely to break away. By stepping into the attacker, sinking our elbow below the grab, we are able to weaken the grip, obtain a better angle to break the grab and stabilise our base, all in one motion. The further away the elbow is from the body, the more effort is required to break the grab, we start to utilise our shoulder, triceps and chest muscles to compensate. Its a much more stable scenario than trying to establish our base from where we started off.

Anyways, just some thoughts. I think elbow position isn't given much thought, but is something critical that people take for granted.

In other news, a new video has been released of the last grading that we had in February for a Green belt and Brown belt in our Kenpo class. Just some highlights from the grading below (note, there is metal music playing in the background).

I'm one of the n00b yellow belts. So many problems with my form...need to think more about my guard and where my hands are when I'm sparring. And my posture...arrgghhhh >_<