Recently, I’ve been watching a lot of Rafael Lovato matches.
And I noticed something curious.
When he gets to quarter mount, his very next step is to drive in a cross collar grip with the palm. He then uses his forearm to drive into the chin, making his opponents look away from his trapped leg.
That force often opens up the pass right into mount.
And that’s not all.
Once in mount, he does something completely unorthodox.
He goes for the cross choke, but it’s not any old normal one. He doesn’t switch his first grip at all, nor does he feed the second grip in with the palm up.
Instead, he loops around and slices his elbow down against the other side of his opponent’s neck (’tis a really good way to make sure that second grip is tight) and then grabs the back of the collar with his palm down.
That means that he executes the cross collar choke from mount with both palms down.
Now that might not seem that extraordinary to you.
But it is to me.
And I’ll tell you why.
One of the biggest challenges with getting basic attacks to work on seasoned opponents lies in how effectively you conceal the threat. If they see it coming a mile away, they will stop everything and slaughter it in its infancy without the slightest bit of remorse.
There one moment, gone the next.
Opportunity lost.
On the other hand though, changing the execution of the choke conceals the threat. And not only is that first grip powerful in the sense that it can be used to inflict discomfort and distraction but it’s also not an early sign of the cross choke threat.
Unless the opponents knows that you have many levels to your attack, they won’t see it coming.
And it’ll be too late to stop it.
Play with it and see if it works.
And for more little micro adjustments head here:
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