Jean-Jacques Machado Rolling Collar Choke

There’s nothing worse than being in a tournament match, working like hell to pass somebody’s guard, only to have him or her roll to their knees at the last minute to avoid you getting the points. You’d better have a way to make them pay for that tactic of gaming the system. One man who should strike fear into anyone looking to “turtle up” is Jean-Jacques Machado: the most decorated warrior of the Machado clan. Jean-Jacques was kind enough to allow us a look at just a few of the various ways he attacks opponents who choose to turtle up. Each choke is more fierce and effective than the last. Joining us on this shoot is Matt Baker, one of Jean-Jacques’ black belts and a seasoned competitor.

Rolling Collar Choke 
This attack comes from a slightly off-center north/south angle with your knees back, not too close to your opponent, applying pressure with your chest against the back of his shoulders. Be sure that your knees are behind your hips. This is important so that your opponent can’t easily reach and grab the back of your knees.

1. With the opponent turtled up, reach in with your left hand underneath his right arm. Use that hand to open up his right side collar.

2. Use your right hand to reach between his left shoulder and neck to get a grip of his right collar with a four-finger inside grip. The left hand is just feeding the collar to the right.

3. Once there’s a grip of the collar, switch your head to your opponent’s right side with your head between his right arm and leg.

4. Immediately reach with your left arm to hug his right leg at the knee.

5. As soon as you have a hook of the leg, post your right foot to the mat and switch your base by rolling backwards.

6. With your control of his leg, feed his right leg to your left leg with a hook behind the foot.

7. Lastly, finish by pulling your right elbow down to finish.

Key Points

• In step 2 it helps to get the right hand high up on the collar, but not necessary.

• After you duck your head under his arm, let’s say he bases out his right foot to avoid the roll. That’s okay, just pull your right leg back in to knee on the mat and base out with your left foot instead. Next, drive forward with your shoulder, and grab the back of the leg when it’s within reach. Continue driving forward until his left side hits the mat. Continue your body around until you end up in the finishing position.

• When he ends up on his back, there will be some confusion as to what you’re going to do with that leg. That’s when you finish, there should be pressure applied to the choke the entire time.