Chop Down to Clock Choke with Kayla Harrison
In true Judo fashion two time Olympic Champion Kayla Harrison shows us a powerful way to aggressively seek the take down and then move through a series of progressions to either chokes, submissions or pins in the video below.
We start here with a right vs left cross grip to take the match to the ground but instead of going for a juji gatame (armbar), which people often expect from a judoka, we’re going to for a sit out choke, also known as a clock choke.
The initial kuzushi (breaking balance) is coming from a pull of the sleeve to off balance our opponent forwards and we retain control of the arm by holding it tight to our waist with our left hand. This allows our own centre of mass to control our opponents arm. The right hand shoots around to the back of the waist and we sink as much of our own weight onto our opponent as we can. We want to break our opponents posture down here so if our opponent is standing up we won’t be able to chop them down to the ground. Keeping our weight on our opponent will break their posture down and set us up for the next part of the sequence.
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The leg sweep here is a vigorous movement, almost like you are kick starting a motorbike and this is done in conjunction with pulling that arm forward that we’re controlling at our waist. Once our opponent is on the floor like this they are very close to being able to defensively turtle up so Kayla immediately is switching the sleeve grip into a deep lapel grip to start working the choke.
Here Kayla shows a small but painful detail. As we get deep into the lapel our opponent is likely going to know we are seeking for the choke and will bring their chin in to defend the neck. No problem. Just give the underside of their nose a quick pop with the bony part of your hand or wrist and the head will jolt backwards, opening that neck back up for the choke. (You might not want to do this too often with sparring partners!).
From here Kayla is already posted with the leg and then posts out with her hand before sitting out hard and driving her weight down into her opponents shoulder blades into a modified type of kesa gatame. This should already be choking your opponent as the lapel grip just got tighter. Here you want to keep the elbow of your posted hand closed in against the back of their neck as a lot of times your opponent will try to circle out and this control from the elbow allows us to circle and follow them, at the same time as applying further pressure to the choke.
If you don’t get the submission from here you can transition into placing the knee to the back of their head and sit back into the choke. If you don’t get the submission from there we can thread the needle through the gap in between their side and their free arm to sit through for side control. In Judo the side control is a strong points winning pin, but it also sets us up for an array of submission holds as well.
As always is the tightness of technique and smoothness of transitions that Kayla is demonstrating here that make this sequence so devastating and have brought her so much success at the highest levels of competition.
Two-Time Olympic Gold Medalist Kayla Harrison is ready to show you the techniques that helped her become one of the most accomplished combat athletes on the planet! The Real Judo Chop and Other Favorites by Kayla Harrison will increase your success rate with throws, grips, and submissions! Check It out!