How I prefer to do the cross choke from mount these days
Eons ago (or at least it seems so) I learned how to do the cross choke from mount.
My memory might be faulty, but I have no doubt that it was among the first few techniques I learned in my first two months. And I learned in the traditional way.
Yup.
I speak of the standard palm up first grip followed by a palm down second grip. Don’t get me wrong either. I had lots of success with it, but I ran into the following problems:
One – I always had to be worried about being rolled.
Two – When people focused on creating strong defensive structures with their arms, it could be difficult to get the first grip set.
Now there are ways to address those problems without abandoning the common grip configuration. For one, there are both sneaky and brutal ways to blow past a defensive structure. And then there are ways to shift your weight to make you more stable on top.
But there is also a specific grip configuration that makes you more stable on top just by the nature of the grip and is easily to set even when opponents defend like their lives depend on it.
I first noticed it being used by Rafael Lovato Jr. In fact, I can count about 4 specific times when he got to mount, set the grip, and finished with ease.
And from outside, at first, you might not think the choke works.
But it does.
And you don’t want to be on the receiving end of it.
In fact, I liked it so much that abandoned the traditional grip configuration. I can’t remember the last time I fed my first grip palm up. These days, I’m all about the double palm down variation of the choke.
And you can see it broken down and demonstrated in this video: