Choking Makes Me Happy

I'm not sure why this choking drill made me so happy on Friday, but it did.

Maybe it is because it reminded me of when I taught it to my daughter, Ronda, when she as that age.

Maybe it reminded me of all of the times my friend, Tina Thomas, and I ran through it at Venice Dojo just for the hell of it  - so often that Gary Butts took to calling it the "Rousey Roll".

Maybe it's because I remember all of the times I did it in tournaments, starting from when I was 13 years old - old enough to choke but not old enough yet to do arm bars.

Maybe it is because I've been working so much the last several weeks that I am happy just to be on the mat, outside, anywhere but adding one more reference to a report, writing another paragraph, staring at another budget.

More likely, it is all of those things. I don't know. I just know that sometimes, choking people makes me happy - even people I like!

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Sliding lapel choke

This is how I do a sliding lapel choke. Watch the video!



Points to note here that are often missed:

1. When you begin, you CROSS-GRIP, that is, you grab the lapel across from your hand, not directly in front of it.
2. Your top should only be about a hands-width above your bottom hand
3. Both hands are on the SAME side of the gi to start
4. You NEVER let go of the grip with either hand
5. Swing your elbow on the top hand UP as your hand goes around the opponent's neck.

Thanks to Crystal for being such a good sport. It's amazing a college sophomore is more mature than me, but there you have it.

The Chokey- Chokey

I thought I had invented a really cool choke when I was about 14 years old. I showed it to my coach, very proud and he said,

"Oh, sure. The Klaus Glahn - that's the one Olympic silver medalist Klaus Glahn does."

Needless to say, I was very disappointed that I was not the first person to think of it.

Remembering my lesson on opposite side mat work from the previous week, I taught this on the left side at Gompers on Friday.


When Ronda was 11 or 12 years old, I taught her this same choke, and, just like the kids at Gompers, she had trouble remembering all of the steps. So, she made up a song for it. I used to make her sing it at clinics. Now that she is too mature for that, I sang it for the students yesterday.

Although everyone always laughs about this, you'd be amazed at the number of times I have heard even black belts I've taught murmuring under their breath ...

"You put your right hand in ...."

Here is a video. Enjoy.

The words, in case you cannot tell

You put your right hand in
You put your left hand up
You put your right leg up and
You roll them all about
You do the chokey-chokey and you choke 'em right out!

A mat work counter: How NOT to lose by a triangle choke (sankaku)

Getting pinned or choked with a triangle (sankaku time) has got to be one of the stupidest things that happens to people in judo. You hide like a turtle in a shell and let someone sit on your head. In what alternate reality is this a good strategy in a fight? Yet, people do it all the time and lose this way all the time.


Many matches are won by a technique called a sankaku jime in judo and reverse triangle in mixed martial arts and jiu-jitsu. The top player uses a figure four to trap one arm and choke the opponent with his or her legs, leaving both hands free to either hold the  trap the opposite arm for a better pin or attempt an arm lock. It is a bad position for the player on the bottom.  However ... if you are ready when the technique begins, you can launch a surprise attack counter, as shown ....

You don't want THIS, do you?  

Step 1: The opponent puts a knee into your shoulder and hooks your arm with the other leg.

Really, really important for this technique to work  --- as your opponent steps in, you are going to put the back of your hand against the knee. Your other hand is cupping the heel. You are not grabbing either leg. You want your opponent to be lulled into a sense of security. Your opponent almost has the figure four sunk in. “Almost” is a really, really important word in that sentence. With the figure four almost sunk in and you not having a grip anywhere, the opponent feels confident, she rolls to her side expecting to lock in the pin and choke as she rolls over.

Step 2: Put one hand against the opponent’s knee and the other cupping the heel.

Step 3: As your opponent rolls, spread your hands apart as far as they can go. This ends up with your opponent lying on his or her back with legs spread wide apart. Not a very defensible position. (Note: When you are resisting, the person who is applying sankaku is going to pull harder to roll you. The harder they pull, the easier it is going to be for you to roll fast right up into the opponent.) 

Step 4:  Continue the direction of the roll so that you are laying on your stomach, with one hand under your opponent’s neck grabbing the collar and the one that was on the knee slide underneath grabbing the leg.

There! Now that’s a much nicer position for you, isn’t it?

Me & Jim Discuss Variations of The British Strangle

"I looked at that choking technique you showed on your blog and I think you're doing it wrong."
"What the hell do you mean I'm doing it wrong? I made that technique up. How can I be doing a technique wrong that I made up? That doesn't even make sense. That is like me saying that my favorite color is red and you saying no, it isn't."
"You didn't make that technique up. It's been around since the 1980s, maybe before."
"Oh, yeah, well I've been around since before the 1980s. Besides, if it's not the same technique, maybe I did make it up. Maybe whoever did it copied it from me."
"Well, I'm telling you that I looked at your blog on my iPad and I think what you are doing is a variation of the British strangle. Look it up British strangle on youtube and you will see what I mean."

First of all Jim Pedro, Sr. used to be the least technologically involved person I know, so when he said that last statement I almost asked him, who are you and what are you doing in Jim's body.  It seems there are advantages and disadvantages to having my co-author become a lot more Internet savvy. The chief advantage is that we can get work done a lot more easily. This is a huge advantage because we signed a contract with Black Belt and our book is expected to be in their fall catalog.

The disadvantage is that now he is aware of it when I talk smack about him on my blog (not that it will stop me).

So, I did look up the British strangle and found a bunch of videos on youtube including this one with Nicholas Gill.

Jim says we need to call the section in the book where I discuss the two chokes in the last couple of blogs "variations on the British strangle".  Fine!

Actually, although I give Jim a hard time for a hobby, I have no problem believing that someone came up with that choke before me. It wouldn't be the first time. When I was a teenager, I was very, very excited about this choke that I had made up. I showed it to my coach and he said,

"Yeah, that's the one Klaus Glahn, the 1972 Olympic silver medalist beats everyone with."

In fact, you can find the choke in the Tap Out Textbook under Glahn's name.

As far as the British strangle, yes, I had seen it before. No, that is not what I was trying to do and doing it wrong. I actually prefer my way of doing it. I'm not saying that Nicholas Gill and Jimmy Pedro, Jr. and anyone else who does it that way is doing it wrong either. It's just a different technique, like seoi toshi isn't a wrong way of doing tai otoshi.

Jim would argue that no, it's a variation and that makes him right.

Hmph.  Whose ideas was it to buy him an iPad for Christmas?

Choking Plan B

Remember our transition drill from standing to matwork that I rambled on about in the last two posts? Here is Plan B.

The purpose of a situation drill is to have a FEW techniques that you have practiced so often from a given situation that when it happens in competition you react automatically. In this drill, the situation is a fairly common transition from standing to matwork. The blue player attacked and missed a throw.

Step 1: The very first thing you do is make it very clear to the referee that you stopped the throw. I have seen many times in tournaments where the white player in the photo above (not me!) would go around behind the blue player to apply the choke. Blue continues the throw, the white player gets thrown and has only himself/ herself to blame. In the picture below, the standing player jerks the opponent down and the blue player puts her hand out to stop herself from going face first into the mat. Notice that, just as in the previous technique, the standing player has her right hand on the opponent's lapel. THIS HAND DOES NOT MOVE.

These next few steps should happen in one or two seconds, but we have slowed them down here to show you.

Step 2:  Move to the side of the player on the ground.

Step 3: Pull up with your right hand, to make it difficult for the player to flatten out, and slide your left hand under the opponent's left arm. At the same time, throw your left leg across the opponent's stomach.

Step 4: Roll hard to your left  side. As mentioned in the previous technique, this is a move where your momentum carries you through the roll and your opponent with you. 

As you roll, you drive your leg across the opponent's stomach and your arm up behind the head. You do NOT wait until you have rolled over and then try to slide your arm behind the opponent's head. 

Below is the end of the roll. If the opponent turns in, she is going to allow me to slide my left arm further behind her head and choke her even better. If she turns out, that is going to pull the lapel in my right hand tighter and choke her even better.

Personally, this choke is not my preferred style because, unlike the previous choke, there is no natural transition from here into another technique.

When Ronda was little I tried to teach her the diving roll over choke I did and no matter how many times I tried to teach her, she just couldn't get it right. So, I came up with this move, Plan B. This illustrates an important lesson, by the way. The point of judo isn't to slavishly imitate your instructor or your favorite world champion. The point is to win. If in doing a drill like this standing transition drill you find there are certain techniques that don't work for you, discard those and try something that feels more natural. 

Don't think, just choke

"I know all 67 throws in the go kyu no waza."

is a brag I have heard rather often from a certain type. I have a confession to make:

1. I don't know if it is actually spelled go kyu no waza.
2. I don't know if there are actually 67 throws in it.
3. I certainly don't know all of them.

Gasp! And I have a sixth-degree black belt!  Yeah, I have a bunch of of good medals, too. How can that be. What a travesty!

I don't believe being a good judo player, or a good coach, is a matter of knowing every possible technique. In fact, think of the number of times you have seen a player hesitate in a match. For example, one player attempts a throw and misses because the opponent stepped out of the way or pushed the opponent down.

Both players hesitate and in the end nothing happens.

 In a position like this, most people would probably try a sankaku time (also known as a triangle choke). I have no idea who the person is doing it in the video in that link but her sankaku looks pretty typical in that it takes a while to sink in.

I don't try sankaku from here for three reasons. First, I just don't do sankaku because for most of my judo career my right knee did not bend (I injured it seriously as a teenager). Second, even if I could do sankaku it probably would not be my technique of choice because so many people do it that your competitor is generally expecting it. The third reason is that it is just not the style of mat work that I do. 

Here is what I do. First, as in the picture above, I get the hell out of the way so that she can't throw me. Notice I have stepped around her so that I am at her head and I am pushing down on her shoulder, putting my weight on her to stop her from trying to pop up and throw me.

Next, I am going to DIVE over her towards her hips at a 45-degree angle  (and you thought there was no use for geometry in real life). If you aren't so good at geometry, look at the picture below.

Do NOT dive straight over or you will end up under your opponent, get pinned and look stupid. And I will say, "I told you so."

You are going to do a rolling break fall and as you do it you keep your right hand on the lapel, in the exact same grip it was from the time you started standing with a right lapel grip. This hand never moves. Just hold on to that grip for dear life.

Notice the movement in the picture below. You are sliding your hand under her arm and behind her head as you are rolling over her body NOT after you have completed the roll.

The picture below shows the position as the attacking player is in the middle of the roll. You can see that her right hand has hold of the lapel that is now pulled tight under the blue player’s neck. Her left hand is under the arm and moving behind the head.

Instead of continuing to a standing position as you would in a regular rolling break fall, you are going to slide back on to your stomach as shown below.

At this point, you are both choking your opponent and have her in a pin.

When I do drills starting from a particular position, like this one, I do the same couple of moves over and over. I don't have 67 different moves. I probably have a Plan A and a Plan B that I practice 1,000 times a year - EACH. Then I have a Plan C and a Plan D I practice about 500 times a year - EACH. 

Because I do these so often, when I am in a particular position on the mat I am going to hit that move, say, the choke shown above, automatically, without thinking. If for some reason I cannot get it, say, the player turtles up too quickly and I cannot get the roll in fast enough, then I am going to go to my Plan B - automatically.

Tomorrow .... Plan B.

In the meantime ... Happy New Year !