When you’re attacking with the Rear Naked Choke (aka the ‘RNC’) you’ve got to have answers for when your opponent buries his chin in his own chest to hide his neck.
Here’s a simple trick that Erik Paulson recently showed to me to get your opponent to lift his chin so you can sink the Rear Naked Choke properly.
(And here’s a link to the original 10 minute tutorial on the RNC)
Give it a try. Sometimes simple is good.
Q: Hi, Stephan,
I believe it was Erik Paulson who said that older grapplers should focus on gi based grappling compared to no-gi since it was a slower and less explosive game.
I’ve been keeping this in mind as I look for clubs to train at. I’m getting up there in age and the plan is to continue into my forties and so forth. Would you agree that this is the wiser approach?
Thanks again,
Bob.
A: Hi Bob,
First of all, if Erik said something like that, take his advice! That man’s a freaking genius!
My own perspective is this: when it comes to training without injury as an older grappler a lot depends on the school, your instructor and how crazy your training partners are.
If you’re trying to hang with a bunch of testosterone-soaked, steroid-amplified, MMA-wannabes then you’re gonna get hurt, plain and simple.
On the other hand, if you’ve got a bunch of respectful, careful training partners then you CAN train no-gi without too much risk.
In general it’s the head instructor who sets the tone. The club will have a very different flavor depending on the example the instructor sets on the mats, and what kind of behavior he tolerates and/or encourages among his students.
Now, as a very general rule, people who train with the gi tend to be a little more analytical and move a little less explosively in sparring than those who train no-gi. There are a million exceptions of course, but it’s amazing how often this ends up being the case.
Two pieces of parting advice for you:
1, Read these articles about training in grappling as you get older, and
2, Go and check out a lot of schools and see if that whole gi vs. no-gi thing applies in your area. Listen to your gut on this one.
Good luck with your training
Stephan Kesting
www.grapplearts.com
A while ago I interviewed Erik Paulson, one of the best MMA coaches in the business (click here to listen to that very informative conversation).
Now if you’ve ever trained with Erik, you’ll know he’s an encyclopedia of submissions. He can show you an incredible number of rapid-fire leglocks, chokes, armlocks, wristlocks, neckcranks and kneebars.
So I was surprised when he started talking about how he’s started limiting his game and reducing the number of submissions that he uses on a day-to-day basis.
His point was that in his sparring he’s sticking to the submissions that are high percentage for him. It’s important to understand that this is for his personal go-to moves: he’ll still teach all the moves he knows, because what’s low percentage for him might be the perfect move for someone else!
So I pushed him for examples and he spoke about two particular series of attacks – the first starting from the front headlock position, and the second from side control.
When trained with Erik in Seattle at the beginning of this month I ended up filming both sequences! If you’re curious as to the high-percentage submissions from the front headlock, then watch the video below
In the above video Erik shows the ‘Grovit’ facelock/neckcrank, but the angle of the camera isn’t very good. So here is Catch Wrestling legend Billy Robinson breaking down the Grovit for you in some additional detail.
I hope to get to the side mount series out to you next week!
Erik Paulson is an MMA Master Coach. He’s trained tons of fighters competing at the highest levels of Mixed Martial Arts. And he held the Shooto light-heavyweight title in Japan for 5 years.
He’s also my friend and a mentor.
Recently I asked my newsletter readers if there was something in particular you wanted to ask Erik. (Hey, if you were signed up for the FREE Grappling Tips newsletter you’d have been able to ask questions too!).
Anyway, within 5 minutes the email floodgates opened and the deluge of questions started. At last count there were more than 500 questions in the queue…
We just finished getting the interview ready for you! Here’s just a bit of what Erik shares:
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There’s at least three ways you can listen to this interview:
1) Hit play on the video below, and/or
2) Right click on this link and select ‘save as’ to download the mp3 file to your computer, and/or
3) Subscribe to the Grapplearts Podcast in iTunes.
Thanks and Merry Christmas!
