Monday, August 4, 2014

Good Use For Short Choke

When teaching a session to folks of varying ranks, it is normal sometimes for some students to go a bit past the drills at hand in an effort to increase knowledge and skill. A wise instructor pays these no mind, as they can be quite helpful in the right circumstances.

Then there are the jerks that try to establish a second ongoing class at the exact same time as the main class. 

A few weeks ago, just such a thing happened. I was teaching in Rocklege, FL on my vacation, as I often do. One student, who had managed to remain a white belt in BJJ for four years, provided just such a situation, and it led to hilarious results.


Just so you know, this individual had been "leading" a groundwork class at the dojo. However, his ego had prevailed and he had injured a couple of students. These students never returned. Hence, he was asked to leave the dojo.

On Tuesday night, while I was teaching at the request of the head instructor, he kept going off topic.
EVERY.
SINGLE.
TIME.

He ignored, or soon forgot, my urgings to "stay with the drill," or "let's work on this one for now."
Nevertheless, we made it through class.

On Thursday, he actually got worse:
  • While "helping" me demonstrate the movements, he was providing match level intensity resistance to my moves and not providing the indicators I was calling for (this was soon remedied with a surprise intense arm lock from Guard). 
  • After the arm lock incident, he no longer wished to help me demo, saying "no thanks" when I asked if he would help me demonstrate something. LMAO
  • When I would demo something, with his buddy, the joker-in-question would immediately go off into "showing" another student "some moves" (half of which were incorrectly performed) very loudly while I worked with some younger students. 
  • He told the guy he was "working with" that the guy would "never be able to apply a triangle choke" because "his legs were too short." I had that student properly applying triangles within 5 minutes after warning him not to listen to the joker-in-question.
  • He said out loud to the class: "I was about to snooze when you said we would be working on basic guard control again."
At the end, I asked if anybody wanted to roll. He accepted (to my delight). I told him from the outset that I only planned to work on basic positional strategy and not go for many subs unless he just outright gave me one. Thirty seconds later, he was tapping to a rear naked choke - hadaka jime.

His basics were so horrible, he couldn't keep me from getting his back in fifteen seconds.

After that, I decided maybe a quick lesson in basics was in order. I decided I'd take his back the next time and use a short choke variation of hadaka jime. For those who do not know, the short choke is a more painful pressure on the front of the throat as opposed to less uncomfortable arterial constriction from the sides of the neck.

Second roll: less than a minute, and he tapped to a short choke.

Third roll: less than a minute, and he tapped to a short choke.

He declined a fourth roll. 

It has been suggested I rename this variation the "STFU choke" after this demo. I might just do that.


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4 comments:

  1. A Rose By Any Other NameAugust 6, 2014 at 6:09 PM

    Wow, so, you're a bully? "I beat up a 4 year white belt. Respect mah author-ah-tay!!" What a dipshit.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A Rose By Any Other NameAugust 7, 2014 at 6:00 PM

    Ah, yes, because the only option was to hurt the guy. You weren't interesting in teaching him anything. You looked forward to beating up on someone you knew couldn't beat you. My high school fooball coach used to calls guys like that "Bullies". I'd go one further, ignorant dipshit. Of course, I wouldn't expect a hillbilly like you to understand that. Bet you're originally from Mississippi, aren't you, Princess?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OMG. Here in 2021, Google searching "short choke" and find myself here. Reading a story I've been on both sides of. A story where I was the professor no fewer than 20 times, no exaggeration. A story we see much more rarely these days on the mats, but still about once a year. Then I read the comment by "A Rose By Any Other Name."

      OMFG

      This dude never played HS football - if he did, he would have recognized that his coaches did the exact same thing to the loudmouth in a drill. Usually about once every two or three years. And it is clear he (is it a he?) has never taken a BJJ class. Never rolled. Never been tapped by anyone. Has no clue.

      If another reader happens across this - most classes never see anything this whack. Most people learn the ropes pretty quick. Sounds like this was an unusual situation - visiting another gym if you read the 3rd paragraph. But this commenter... wow. There's a lot of "online experts," but this one is out there for even one of those.

      Good use of the short choke, author. Maybe if we are in the same area, we can meet up. Sent you an email.

      Delete
    2. Oh my.
      Great article. Very relevant, even 8 years later. Then the comment. Oh, boy. As "Jiggly" said, it's easy to spot that the "ARBAON" commenter is not a former athlete of any sort. He may have been the one that was on the receiving end of the short choke?

      For those reading, when a person in a jiu-jitsu class is helping demonstrate a move - either performing the move or receiving the move - the idea is to cooperate with the partner so that the students can see how it works. Everyone who has ever tried to "clamp down" like that has been an asshole. And there's only one way to deal with it, and the author tells you exactly what that way is.

      It wasn't the teacher "looking forward to beating up on someone he knew couldn't beat him." It was a case of setting things straight with the asshole. Give a guy like this an inch and they will try to take over the whole class.

      Delete

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