The motion of sinking the armpit in a North-South Choke

[Greg W]

All I got to say is, It took me nearly two years of ONLY looking for NS choke finish to even get it solidly into my game. I literally put every sub on the back burner and I would finish NS or nothing. I too scoured high level practitioners minds, studied all the vids I could find, and it still took two years of unyielding dedication too live rolling reps.

[David Rosado]

Good post Mike. I agree, I don't like Monson's X grip. But I like his details.

For the NS chokers out there, do you guys ever bait a guy to roll into the marcelotine? In theory, I feel like it's a good back up plan if you can't quite get the NS right.

[Greg W]

Good post Mike. I agree, I don't like Monson's X grip. But I like his details.

For the NS chokers out there, do you guys ever bait a guy to roll into the marcelotine? In theory, I feel like it's a good back up plan if you can't quite get the NS right.

Yes, I have a whole series of attacks that needs a very threating NS choke. Usually leads to a one arm mounted guilly, but will take mounted Marcellotine if available. Marcellotine from bottom as last resort, but I really messed up to get there. But you need a NS that demands some respect.

[Mike Nall]

For the NS chokers out there, do you guys ever bait a guy to roll into the marcelotine? In theory, I feel like it's a good back up plan if you can't quite get the NS right.

It's a good follow up. Check out 2:52.




I don't usually try to bait though. I go for the NS choke with full intention to finish it. I do like to bait but no usually with a technique that's so low risk and high reward like this. If I think I can get a NS choke I will try to put it away. But if they get out then the guillotine is a great option for a follow up.

[David Rosado]

That's definitely a smarter approach than simply baiting. Thanks for the feedback.

[Liquidrob]

Yeah, go for the North South, you're in good position, no need to bait and get rolled, Marcelotine is the back up plan

[Eli]

You can go sideways a little, sure. If you do the NS choke on the floor by yourself right now with no one under you. For the sake of this drill, make a ball and socket grip, with your non choking arm against your side, and the choking elbow will be pointed out sideways. Keep your choking grip, sprawl, and try to touch the point of your shoulder to your fist without moving your grip around. So try to just keep your arms still and touch your shoulder to your grip. That's the motion. Imagine doing a plank and someone came up and started sitting on the back of your shoulder. Your shoulder would drop, right? That's the idea. I know it's weird because there's not really a squeeze involved but that's the idea. If that doesn't make sense I'll film myself doing it and upload it here.

I don't like Monson's X handed version, because it puts a lot of sheering pressure on my wrist, but hey there's no one way to do things. Maybe it works well! I rarely say such and such doesn't work that often, but I've found Marcelo's NS choke from under the guy to be really neccesary to have a powerful squeeze. Most arm chokes you can actually do without squeezing too much but that ain't one of them. I also suck at it so maybe I'll get there.

I noticed the wrist pressure with Monson's X (trying on a foam roller), it seems if you slide the forearms a little further to get ulna on radius instead of wrist on wrist, you get local pain (only at first? don't know yet) but it reduces the wrist pressures. The pressure on the foam felt solid, but I think I'll stick to the one handed for now, the surprise advantage Brian Beaumont explains on MTS 69 sounds appealing to me. Thanks for the input!

[Damian J]

Marcelo is so cool. I may have a man crush on him...or a man bjj crush.