SLC MMAExploring MMA and Jujitsu in Salt Lake City Utah

The Cobra Choke Taught by the movie InceptionFiled Under: Instruction

So I just returned from the movie theater, and let me tell you. My. Mind. Has. Been. Blown.

Enough to over use the periods in a trendy, ungrammatical way, something I almost never do. To put it in non-nerd terms, imagine your brain after seeing The Matrix for the first time.

Yes.

Whoa.

That type of mind-blow.

Anyway, there is this scene where gravity in the dream world has broken down and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Arthur) has have a bad-ass anti-grav fight in a hotel hallway (pictured above).  As the title suggests, there is a choke out via the cobra choke. The cool thing is we just practiced this choke up at the U of U MMA class last week! Fortuitous, right?

The cool thing is that there is an awesome transition from an arm triangle attempt.  Imagine you just can’t finish the arm triangle – it happens.  Instead of losing a really nice dominant position, you just reach around the head and grab the wrist, then feed your hand through his arm to grab your own forearm.

Now to finish, pull your opponents wrist towards the back of his head to snug up things, but don’t roll them over. The real umph is dropping your elbow towards the ground across the neck.  As long as the arm holding your own arm is anchored, you’ll be surprised how quickly cutting your forearm down forces the tap.  Like I said, too much pulling the opponent’s wrist behind the head actually sabotages your choking.  I think that this error comes out from guys who do gi jujitsu, because this choke is a lot like a scissor collar choke.

Remember though, the one arm (at least IMO) does the choking and the other stabilizes.

Here’s a vid showing a guy pulling off the cobra choke from the guard.

If you want more instruction on it, pick up a copy of Karo Parisyan’s book about Judo in MMA.

Tags: chokes, inception, Karo Parisyan, mma in the media, No Gi, submissions

Using The North South AKA “The 69″ Position In MMAFiled Under: Instruction

[Bill and Ted meet themselves]
Ted: OK wait. If you guys are really us, what number are we thinking of?
Bill, Ted: 69, dudes.
Bill, Ted: Whoa.
[quadruple air guitar solo]

- Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure

The north south position is a very dominant ground position, and in my opinion, is both very dangerous (for the bottom) and wildly under-utilized. Part of it comes from ignorance and part of it comes from people’s natural discomfort.  The whole face-into-crotch thing makes for a weird experience when you’re grappling. However, you just got to get over it.

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Tags: 69, 69 position, anaconda, armbar, chokes, darce, grappling, kimura, north south, north south position, submissions