Got to knee on belly and don’t know what to do next?
Check out this article with all the details and the video lesson explaining, step by step, how you can do a lapel choke from knee on belly.
Even though it has a lot of details that are really important for the movement, I consider it an easy choke to do, and with patience and a bit of craftiness you’ll get your opponent to leave their arm hanging so you can lock it in.
Let’s go?
Video lesson – lapel choke from knee on belly
Starting the position
To start setting up the lapel choke from knee on belly, we first need to pull out our opponent’s lapel. You can be in any position for this; what matters is getting the lapel out.
In the video lesson I talk about both options: pulling it out directly from knee on belly, and also pulling it out from side control, known in Jiu-Jitsu as the 100kg.
Passing the lapel to your hand
To make it easier to follow, let’s go by the side I’m on in the video lesson, which is my opponent’s right side.
The next step is to pass your opponent’s (left) lapel to your right hand. Notice that in the video lesson I mention a wrist adjustment made right after passing the lapel. If you haven’t seen this adjustment, watch the video lesson Closed guard choke, where I go over all the details that make the position really effective.
Setting up the choke
After passing and adjusting the lapel, now it’s time to be patient and wait for your opponent’s mistake. When your opponent has their arm on the mat, it’s hard to do the movement from this video lesson, so what I always go for is the traditional side control choke, gripping the opponent’s collar with my left thumb and going back to side control to choke. When I try this attack, it’s natural for my opponent to put their left hand on my forearm to defend, and by doing that they end up giving us the arm to finish the submission from this video lesson.
A very important detail is how you pull your opponent’s arm. Most of the time just pulling on the elbow does the job, but when we face a very strong opponent this can be a bit tricky. A trick that makes it easier is to push the elbow toward their head; this puts pressure on the shoulder and they end up giving up the position.
Trapping the arm with your chest
Once the hardest adjustments are done, we can’t lose the position. To stop my opponent from pulling their arm out and escaping the trap, I pin their elbow with my chest, and only then do I wrap my left hand around their head so I can finish.
Finishing
To finish the choke, the adjustment is made by pulling with both hands and pressing your opponent’s arm with your chest, driving forward.
Questions
Even though it has some very important adjustments that are essential to executing the technique well, it’s a relatively easy movement to apply, because your opponent ends up giving you the arm at some point.
So, were you able to land this submission?
I’m here to help with any questions you have.
Good training!
OSSSS
Jiu-Jitsu video lessons, articles and stories with Matheus Zimmermann
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