Trick to Get the Rear Naked Choke
Posted by Ismail Safi on
With Kron Gracie’s last MMA fight, we were once again reminded of the value of the rear naked choke. This submission from the back is arguably the best submission to get in Jiu Jitsu for many reasons. First, if the rear naked choke gets locked in, escaping is extremely difficult. Secondly, this submission is very helpful in MMA and self-defense situations because it provides the attacker with a significant amount of control over their opponent’s movements.
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The first step in getting any rear naked choked is getting to the back, which is difficult enough on its own. But, even if you have established back control, getting the rear naked choke can be difficult as well. If the defender is a skilled grip fighter, they can block many of the different set ups you have up your sleeves for wrapping up the neck.
Knowing that the grip fight exchange in back control allows for attacks, it becomes obvious that in order to secure the choke, you have to dominate the grip fighting exchange. Its not that easy though, because you both have two hands, and if you transition one hand from a grip to the choke, the defender can easily repummel. This is why I am big fan of using John Danaher’s methods for grip fighting because it allows me to totally eliminate one of the defender’s arms.
There are numerous tricks you can learn in Jiu Jitsu to help secure the rear naked choke, and it is important to learn as many as possible so we can continue surprising our opponents. One trick you can use to get the choke is by locking up a wrist lock. The wrist lock will force the defender to let go of your arms and give you the finish. Watch the video below in which the legend Kazushi Sakuraba illustrates how to do this:
Wrist locks can be dangerous submissions because the pain comes in fast and the break not much after, so be careful with this one. Fortunately this technique is designed to allow the wrist to escape so that you can switch to the rear naked choke quickly.
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