Within the MMA and BJJ world the word “Choke” conjures up
fond memories of one of the best MMA documentaries ever made which followed
Rickson Gracie as he competed in Japan to defend the Vale Tudo title that he
had won a year earlier. However, for the purposes of this post it’s actually in
reference to the strangle techniques which we practised in last night’s class. Now
there is a difference between a Choke and a Strangle and what we leant were
actually strangles but I just wanted an excuse to post the below documentary
and would recommend anyone who hasn’t yet seen it to take a look.
Sore necks were guaranteed to us all by Graeme last night
as we practised a number of strangles, many of which are in the current DanGrade theory test. This has to be passed in conjunction with the competitivepart of your Dan grading before you can receive your black belt.
The main two we practised were:
Ryote-jime
Tsuki-komi-jime
I’ve always felt that one of the weaknesses in my Newaza
is actually my strangles. I get in to positions to attack with them but very
rarely pull them off, unless of course you are talking about san-gaku-jime. I
do know enough of them but in that split second when you get the opportunity to
take their collar before they tuck their chin in I often get confused and grab
with the wrong hand. I’m therefore going to make a conscious effort to try and
only finish people with strangles and see where that gets me.
Following our strangle master class we got to do a number
of 2 minutes rounds of newaza. I did actually manage a couple of successful strangles,
one of which was a Ryote-jime.
At the end of the class Graeme mentioned that next week’s
class would be a Randori only session, both newaza and tachiwaza. Hopefully this will attract some seniors
from other local clubs who are looking for some extra practise. So if you are
free on Tuesday 1st March then come on down to Dorking Judo Club
