North South Choke Instructional?

[klnOmega]

This is a move I've been working on adding to my game a lot lately. There are plenty of single videos out there on the basics of the choke, and simple set ups, but I'm wondering if someone has done a good instructional video set dedicated to the choke, and set ups to get there.

 

[BJJ_Rage]

This is a move I've been working on adding to my game a lot lately. There are plenty of single videos out there on the basics of the choke, and simple set ups, but I'm wondering if someone has done a good instructional video set dedicated to the choke, and set ups to get there.

no matter how much instructionals or even whos teaching this choke to you (it helps though) whats going to make it work is time. Once you have the basics of this choke down, to make it work you need to "feel" the choke. With time, youll find the sweet spot, how to position your body etc..

 

[FatherSauce]

no matter how much instructionals or even whos teaching this choke to you (it helps though) whats going to make it work is time. Once you have the basics of this choke down, to make it work you need to "feel" the choke. With time, youll find the sweet spot, how to position your body etc..

This always seemed like a copout to me until I started doing the choke. I still can only get the finish about half the time and most of the instructionals I've watched haven't helped much.

As for the setups, just look up the choke and Marcelo Garcia. That should give some good info.

 

[lutalivre1989]

Without any doubt the best resource for the NS choke is MGiA. Marcelo teaches hours of setups, tweaks and finishes on it.

That being said I completely agree with BJJ Rage. The NS choke needs a lot of feel and the only way to really get proficient at it is to put the hours in.

 

[sixfifteen]

Gerbil has a good series on it on his youtube channel Great Grappling. I'm still working on it, but it has certainly helped.

 

[mataleaos]

This is a great and simple video on the finish by the master of the move

 

[Steve08]

I have nothing to add beyond the fact that this choke is one of the few subs that I legitimately don't really understand. I get that you cut off one side of the neck with the arm you wrap around, but what happens next? Do you choke them with your arm and your shoulder on the same side, or...?

 

[mataleaos]

I have nothing to add beyond the fact that this choke is one of the few subs that I legitimately don't really understand. I get that you cut off one side of the neck with the arm you wrap around, but what happens next? Do you choke them with your arm and your shoulder on the same side, or...?

There are several approaches to the choke. But the one that seems to work best for most people is Marcelo Garcia's approach. Their head needs to be facing directly up. Your ribs keep that with contact on one side of their face, and your arm is around their neck, elbow on the floor, as just a "trap" for their head to be inside of. The choke does not come from lateral pressure in this case. It's not a trash compactor type of presure in that way that an arm triangle or a darce is, and it's not a cutting/drawing in type of forearm pressure choke the way that a guillotine is. Once their head is facing up, you are sprawling your weight backwards to open up the space between their chin and their chest, exposing their throat. From there you want to drop your shoulder straight down to the floor, only their throat is in the way. It's still hitting the cartoids. You do not have to squeeze in from the sides to hit the carotids, so the choke will put people to sleep. There's really no other choke with the same pressure, so it takes a while to figure it out. It's one of the few chokes that you can't make up for lack of technique by squeezing. If you don't have a perfect RNC it doesn't matter. You can squeeze and power through it. Not so with the north south coke, as squeezing laterally won't (usually) put them out. So the 3 key concepts are:

1. Your ribs and arm wrapped around their neck just provide the structure to hold them in place to be choked.

2. Sprawling your weight backwards. Even if you think you've sprawled back far enough, you probably haven't. Keep going.

3. Drop your shoulder through their throat, down towards the floor.

The grip doesn't matter so much as long as your choking arm has the elbow on the floor. You can choke with one arm, gable grip, guillotine grip, etc. Whatever feels best.

 

[Steve08]

There are several approaches to the choke. But the one that seems to work best for most people is Marcelo Garcia's approach. Their head needs to be facing directly up. Your ribs keep that with contact on one side of their face, and your arm is around their neck, elbow on the floor, as just a "trap" for their head to be inside of. The choke does not come from lateral pressure in this case. It's not a trash compactor type of presure in that way that an arm triangle or a darce is, and it's not a cutting/drawing in type of forearm pressure choke the way that a guillotine is. Once their head is facing up, you are sprawling your weight backwards to open up the space between their chin and their chest, exposing their throat. From there you want to drop your shoulder straight down to the floor, only their throat is in the way. It's still hitting the cartoids. You do not have to squeeze in from the sides to hit the carotids, so the choke will put people to sleep. There's really no other choke with the same pressure, so it takes a while to figure it out. It's one of the few chokes that you can't make up for lack of technique by squeezing. If you don't have a perfect RNC it doesn't matter. You can squeeze and power through it. Not so with the north south coke, as squeezing laterally won't (usually) put them out. So the 3 key concepts are:

1. Your ribs and arm wrapped around their neck just provide the structure to hold them in place to be choked.

2. Sprawling your weight backwards. Even if you think you've sprawled back far enough, you probably haven't. Keep going.

3. Drop your shoulder through their throat, down towards the floor.

The grip doesn't matter so much as long as your choking arm has the elbow on the floor. You can choke with one arm, gable grip, guillotine grip, etc. Whatever feels best.

Thanks man!

This choke will definitely take some time for me, but reading stuff like that helps a lot.

 

[mataleaos]

Thanks man!

This choke will definitely take some time for me, but reading stuff like that helps a lot.

Give yourself time. Marcelo Garcia is the best ns choker of all time. he said he was working it for a couple of years before he felt comfortable trying it in a match. And then another 3 years before he was comfortable going for it in gi matches. That's another thing. Try to practice it no-gi first. In the gi there is so much material that sometimes you may think you're on their throat but their chin is actually tucked. Don't let that discourage you. Another big tip: Don't wrap the head too tight too early. It's better to slide all the way into finishing position, ribs against their face, and then wrap the neck. Wrapping the neck too early will make them tuck in and defend.

 

[BJJ_Rage]

There are several approaches to the choke. But the one that seems to work best for most people is Marcelo Garcia's approach. Their head needs to be facing directly up. Your ribs keep that with contact on one side of their face, and your arm is around their neck, elbow on the floor, as just a "trap" for their head to be inside of. The choke does not come from lateral pressure in this case. It's not a trash compactor type of presure in that way that an arm triangle or a darce is, and it's not a cutting/drawing in type of forearm pressure choke the way that a guillotine is. Once their head is facing up, you are sprawling your weight backwards to open up the space between their chin and their chest, exposing their throat. From there you want to drop your shoulder straight down to the floor, only their throat is in the way. It's still hitting the cartoids. You do not have to squeeze in from the sides to hit the carotids, so the choke will put people to sleep. There's really no other choke with the same pressure, so it takes a while to figure it out. It's one of the few chokes that you can't make up for lack of technique by squeezing. If you don't have a perfect RNC it doesn't matter. You can squeeze and power through it. Not so with the north south coke, as squeezing laterally won't (usually) put them out. So the 3 key concepts are:

1. Your ribs and arm wrapped around their neck just provide the structure to hold them in place to be choked.

2. Sprawling your weight backwards. Even if you think you've sprawled back far enough, you probably haven't. Keep going.

3. Drop your shoulder through their throat, down towards the floor.

The grip doesn't matter so much as long as your choking arm has the elbow on the floor. You can choke with one arm, gable grip, guillotine grip, etc. Whatever feels best.

hmmm, I have quite a high rate success with the NS, thres only one dude I cannot do it on him, hes really hard to choke anyways, but I feel like Im putting a lot of pressure with my biceps and lats, I feel like the shoulder dropping is just the finishing move, but the choking comes mainly from the biceps and lats... interesting.

 

[mataleaos]

hmmm, I have quite a high rate success with the NS, thres only one dude I cannot do it on him, hes really hard to choke anyways, but I feel like Im putting a lot of pressure with my biceps and lats, I feel like the shoulder dropping is just the finishing move, but the choking comes mainly from the biceps and lats... interesting.

For sure there is pressure coming for the biceps and lats. it has to be there because your arm can't be a loose noodle. And that could even be the main choking pressure for you. People with strong lats can just flare their lats sometimes and finish ns chokes. I do find Marcelo's finish to reliably be the best for most people. However I also think that are plenty of right ways to do most things. Not everyone can or should be expected to finish every choke the same way.

 

[TapDatAss]

The grip Monson shows made a huge impact to my N/S choke success. You can try it with your training partners, conventional grip then try the Monson grip, choke kicks in fast. Compared to the other grips, you use very little energy
this way.

 

[BJJJoe]

MGinAction has a ton of entries, examples and instructionals on the NS choke.

 

[BJJJoe]

 

[Anthas]

There are several approaches to the choke. But the one that seems to work best for most people is Marcelo Garcia's approach. Their head needs to be facing directly up. Your ribs keep that with contact on one side of their face, and your arm is around their neck, elbow on the floor, as just a "trap" for their head to be inside of. The choke does not come from lateral pressure in this case. It's not a trash compactor type of presure in that way that an arm triangle or a darce is, and it's not a cutting/drawing in type of forearm pressure choke the way that a guillotine is. Once their head is facing up, you are sprawling your weight backwards to open up the space between their chin and their chest, exposing their throat. From there you want to drop your shoulder straight down to the floor, only their throat is in the way. It's still hitting the cartoids. You do not have to squeeze in from the sides to hit the carotids, so the choke will put people to sleep. There's really no other choke with the same pressure, so it takes a while to figure it out. It's one of the few chokes that you can't make up for lack of technique by squeezing. If you don't have a perfect RNC it doesn't matter. You can squeeze and power through it. Not so with the north south coke, as squeezing laterally won't (usually) put them out. So the 3 key concepts are:

1. Your ribs and arm wrapped around their neck just provide the structure to hold them in place to be choked.

2. Sprawling your weight backwards. Even if you think you've sprawled back far enough, you probably haven't. Keep going.

3. Drop your shoulder through their throat, down towards the floor.

The grip doesn't matter so much as long as your choking arm has the elbow on the floor. You can choke with one arm, gable grip, guillotine grip, etc. Whatever feels best.

Great post on the most complicated chocke in bjj, in my opinion! After experimenting a lot with it and watching a ton of tutorials on youtube, I've come to the same conclusion... there are at least two DIFFERENT ways to do the choke, and you have to choose one to apply the finish. Marcelo's one puts presure on the throat, directly from above with the weight of your shoulder/armpit, you don't push from the sides... the chin must be open. The other way I've seen is more a lateral presure/squeeze type of choke, where the chin is not as important... Still experimenting with both, and thinking that maybe one should learn to apply it both ways depending on what your opponent is giving you? Don't know.... The arm in guillotine was hard to get but It paid up big time for me, hopping the NS does the same... My finishing rate is slowly going up!

 

[mataleaos]

Great post on the most complicated chocke in bjj, in my opinion! After experimenting a lot with it and watching a ton of tutorials on youtube, I've come to the same conclusion... there are at least two DIFFERENT ways to do the choke, and you have to choose one to apply the finish. Marcelo's one puts presure on the throat, directly from above with the weight of your shoulder/armpit, you don't push from the sides... the chin must be open. The other way I've seen is more a lateral presure/squeeze type of choke, where the chin is not as important... Still experimenting with both, and thinking that maybe one should learn to apply it both ways depending on what your opponent is giving you? Don't know.... The arm in guillotine was hard to get but It paid up big time for me, hopping the NS does the same... My finishing rate is slowly going up!

Maybe I should try the squeeze style finish more. I just am very used to the marcelo shoulder drop pressure and maybe trying to change it at this point wouldn't be worth it. The ns choke might be my #1 submission.

That's interesting you say that about the arm in guillotine because I think it's the 2nd or 3rd most difficult finish of the no gi chokes to nail down.

I've been using it recently over the high elbow which is my equally favorite guillotine. At least attacking it. because it splits their arms and they can't hang on your choking arm with both hands to defend. If I go high elbow/marcelotine I like to get my arm in grips first and then re grip for the high elbow.

People have a hard time with the arm in but if people can figure it out then usually i think the other guillotines get way easier to finish.

 

[Anthas]

Don't take my words to seriously, Im not good enough at NS to give you any advise.... I was just stating my findings so far, but if the marcelo way is working (it probably is the most effective way) no reason to try anything else!

On the arm in I do consider myself pretty good ( for a purple) and as I said I find it to be the second most technical choke to get after the NS.... But it is EVERYWHERE, and people will give it to you... There are different variations also, and my favorite one is with the chinstrap. It allows you to choke peple with one arm (the strenght comes from your crunchin motion and from your bicep/tricep pushing down on the top of their head) but makes it more difficult to transition to the marcellotine, which requires to be slightly deeper under the neck.

The Marcelotine I'm still working on, but I find myself not really needing it that much having a good arm in and a good 100x100 for the rare ocasions where it fails me... The only thing I miss with the arm in is the ability to nulify their "jump to the safe side " escape.... I guess it's a matter of availability vs effectiveness...

 

[Perfect form]

Try forcing your opponent up in to a high elbow guillotine. Forcing them to turn their face towards your elbow in the choking arm (You looking for their chin over your elbow, RNC style). And if they try to roll through, you catch them in the guillotine.

 

[mataleaos]

Don't take my words to seriously, Im not good enough at NS to give you any advise.... I was just stating my findings so far, but if the marcelo way is working (it probably is the most effective way) no reason to try anything else!

On the arm in I do consider myself pretty good ( for a purple) and as I said I find it to be the second most technical choke to get after the NS.... But it is EVERYWHERE, and people will give it to you... There are different variations also, and my favorite one is with the chinstrap. It allows you to choke peple with one arm (the strenght comes from your crunchin motion and from your bicep/tricep pushing down on the top of their head) but makes it more difficult to transition to the marcellotine, which requires to be slightly deeper under the neck.

The Marcelotine I'm still working on, but I find myself not really needing it that much having a good arm in and a good 100x100 for the rare ocasions where it fails me... The only thing I miss with the arm in is the ability to nulify their "jump to the safe side " escape.... I guess it's a matter of availability vs effectiveness...

You can still kill their jump to the safe side with the arm-in. It's just that the best way to do it involves either switching onto your strong side hip as they jump, or switching to the brabo as they come around. That one takes practice but is super effective.

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