Clock Choke Defense With Priit!

What do you like most about training?  What do you like least? Which position or positions do you favor?  Do you know why you favor those positions over others?

The longer you train the more you star to develop things you like and things you don’t like.  You will start to develop your own game and start to like certain positions more than others. It is only natural to lean towards liking things that you are better at than the things you are not so good at.  It is important that you do not forget about the things you don’t already do well, because just because they are not part of your game does not mean that you do not need to know them still, and know them well. 

One of the things I would bet most everyone dislikes is getting choked and being forced to tap.  Tapping is a necessary evil in our sport. In order to get better we must experience defeat. Tapping is an opportunity to learn from what you did wrong and do better the next time.  If you look at tapping as the ultimate measure of success or defeat, well, you likely will not stick around long. 

While learning that tapping out is not a sign of defeat, it can still be used as a guideline for progress.  It is good to look at what types of submissions you are tapping to and if it is the same one or two for an extended period of time.  If you find yourself tapping to the same thing often it may be time to dig in and better understand why. What exactly is causing you to get submitted?  In many cases it’s a simple adjustment or warning sign you are missing that can quickly rectify the situation.  

Understand that you are likely never going to be so good that no one can ever tap you, but it is good to be getting tapped by different things, forcing you to learn and grow in your Jiu Jitsu journey.  One of the worst submissions to tap to in my opinion is a choke. Personally, I like choke submissions, just not when I am on the receiving end of them.  

What I like about choke submissions is from a self defense standpoint it gives you an option to put the attacker to sleep and end the situation without having to do any permanent damage.   A similar situation occurs on the mats in competition. If the opponent decides not to tap to a choke, they simply go to sleep and the match is ended whereas if the opponent decides not to tap to a heel hook, they simply don’t walk for a few months…. See the difference?  It’s for this reason that I strongly prefer choke submissions.  

That being said, I do not like being choked, so any time I can watch an escape technique breakdown and add some things to my game I am open to it.  Let’s check out this clock choke defense by Priit Mihkelson and see how we can avoid getting choked out in this situation.  

 

The clock choke is like a bow and arrow choke but from the turtle position.  The first step in defending this choke in to tuck your chin and turn in away from the choking arm.  Imagine hiding your chin the way you would when you throw a punch. It’s the same concept here, we are looking protect the chin so the opponent can not get under it to our neck therefore giving us time to sit through, grab the wrists or fingers, or also look to drop to your hip and start working from a bottom side control position, or look to work another escape.  

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Regardless of which option you choose, the clock choke is no longer an issue once you tuck your chin.  Theoretically you could do nothing other than tuck your chin and eventually your opponent would get tired of trying the submission and maybe even just let go.  While that’s likely not the best choice, it would work in theory.  

If you want to dive into these escapes a lot deeper and really look to understand Priit’s complete system that breaks one of the number one rules of Jiu Jitsu which is to never show your back, then you need to check out his video instructional titled “The Sitting Turtle”.  Priit is sought after all over the globe because he has such a philosophical and exciting approach to teaching Jiu Jitsu.  His methods and system are simple, easy to learn and retain yet extremely effective and perfect for grapplers of all levels.