BJJ / Grappling Tips: What to do when your cross choke from guard is countered?

What do you do when you can't finish a cross choke in BJJ? The beauty of BJJ is that it works. Naturally, BJJ will defeat those who don't know BJJ much more smoothly than against those who do know it. Every BJJ move has at least one counter (at least so I am told).

I mentioned in an earlier post that we should watch BJJ matches with a focus. When we focus our attention on one or two elements (also called memory anchors) only while watching a BJJ or grappling match we learn a lot more as we start recognising patterns of movement. For example, if every time an opponent has us in their half guard they start fighting hard to get the near underhook, we should make a note of that. It will come handy later on in our BJJ / grappling career.

I shot a quick video teasing with two alternatives we can go to when the opponent manages to counter and prevent our cross choke from the closed guard. The most important thing is of course to actually notice the defensive action and recognise it as a pattern. What you do from there is really up to your grappling creativity and that's part of the magic that is BJJ. What I have presented here in this BJJ video is simply two suggestions:

1. Taking the back from the closed guard
2. Triangle choke from the closed guard



What other ideas can you come up with from this particular BJJ position? What other patterns can you recognise when attempting the cross choke from the closed guard? How can you take advantage of these grappling movement patterns?

Finally, I wish to send a shout out to Mr Ken Primola and his gang at I Love BJJ and Takedowns101 for the huge passion and support they show to the grappling and BJJ community.

Liam "The Part Time Grappler" Wandi

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5 comments:

Jason said...

One thing that I've seen and used is to attempt the cross collar with the brabo grip. When the opponent defends, you push the elbow across his body and you've got a Brabo choke. This youtube clip shows it in action. Without the Brabo grip, you can always go for a scissor sweep or a loop choke. I think your man, Ken Primola even has a video on loop choke from the failed scissor sweep.

A.D. McClish said...

Love those transitions! Thanks! Sometimes I sneak my free hand to get an overhook of the guy's arm, feed my hand underneath that arm to get the opposite lapel and get the choke that way instead. Or I keep my right hand grip of the collar, and use my left arm to start to attack the arm they're not using to defend for a straight arm bar. They usually get distracted by the arm attack and then when they defend that, I switch back to the collar choke, trying to sneak my hand in there before they notice. I didn't explain that stuff very well. lol Sorry!!

Liam H Wandi said...

No you did very clearly. Arm bar to choke is a very nice combo :)

Liam H Wandi said...

Hi Kifner. Thanks for this. I do love the brabo transition, actually I get it even with a normal gi grip. It wouldn't work, however, with this particular defence. At least I don't think it would, pls do show me if it does ;p

The way I do it, if I have my right hand in their right lapel, I can do the Brabo transition when they defend with their LEFT hand, not their right one.

The loop choke. Oh yeah. that's what I won my bronze medal with this weekend. Video to follow :)

Ze Grapplez said...

shoot the triangle then take the armbar or keylock depending on position of his arm