Baseball Bat

6/6 - Valley

I've been wanting to learn this ever since my matches at Revolution where my coach was screaming at me to do the baseball bat choke and I had NO idea what he was talking about. Not knowing a pretty basic choke made me feel like such a n00b. Plus, I lost.

Anyway, we did it from bottom side, in guard, and in top guard. Also went over the defense, which was simple and effective. My favorite. I will probably never, ever, ever go for this when I'm in someone's guard, but it was interesting to learn.

1. Bottom side: Must prevent opponent from cross-facing you. Assuming opponent is on your R side, your L hand goes deep in their collar on their R side (back of the neck), thumb in. R hand goes on the L side of their collar, palm up and as close to your L hand as you can get it. Turn hips slightly to the L so that you can step your R leg over your L and "run" to a N/S position. This is more effective and faster than trying to scoot your hips out. Keep elbows in and bring them into your body to finish the choke.

• If they try to step over you into mount, they're cooked. Keep the choke and follow their momentum, they'll be sorry.

2. Inside Guard: You can go for a standard cross collar grip (R hand palm up on their R lapel), and if opponent ducks their head under, keep the position you're left with (R hand palm up on the L lapel), feed your L hand thumb in on their R lapel. Open your guard and "run" to N/S.

3. Your Guard - Sweep: R hand palm up grip on their L lapel, R hand has grip on their L sleeve. Open guard and move into scissor sweep position. Bait them to pass to your R, NOT your L. If they start passing to your R (i.e. toward your back), get the thumb in grip with L hand on their R lapel, "run" to N/S and choke.

4. Their Guard: Get the necessary grips on their lapel, and then turn to one side and sit on your hip instead of kneeling. This works, but it's very dangerous to leave your arms extended in an experienced player's collar. Also, if you don't hit it, you end up exposing your back. Bad juju.

A couple of quick rolls. Was happy with how I did. Got a sweep from DLR but have no idea what really happened. Probably not so much good technique on my part but more lack of balance on their part.