The north south choke is a powerful choke that you can apply from the top of sidemount or the north south position.

This submission looks a bit like an upside-down guillotine choke but the mechanics of finishing the choke are quite different.

Given that this technique works both with and without the gi I think everyone should experiment with it, at least enough to recognize when someone is setting it up on you..

I always think it’s valuable to have different perspectives on the same techniques when you’re trying to learn it, so here are two different breakdowns of the north south choke…

The North South Choke in 1 Minute and 55 Seconds

The north south choke is an integral part of my north south attack series.

Normally I start that series by threatening the Kimura armlock.  If my opponent starts contracting his upper body to defend the armlock then he often raises his head, which opens the route to the north south choke.

Check out my quick breakdown and big takeaways for doing the north south choke in this video here…

Some of the key points of the attack are…

• Wrap your arm around his neck so that your biceps is right against the side of his neck
• Use the side of your ribs to turn his head so that he’s looking up at the ceiling. This is slightly easier to do with the gi because of the increased friction of the fabric
• Align your body so that it’s 180 degrees from your opponent and sprawl your hips all the way down to the ground.
• The power of the choke mostly from moving back, back, and further back with your body. Squeezing with the arms helps, but it’s not the primary power source for the choke.

Marcelo Garcia Teaches the North South Choke

As a 4 time ADCC champion and a 5 time IBJJF world champion Marcelo Garcia is widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest grapplers of all time.

He’s also one of my favorite human beings, which is saying quite a lot.

I was lucky  to train with him in New York City a few years back, and he was gracious enough to break down his approach to the north south choke in detail for me.

Check it out below…

I hope you enjoyed both of these north south choke resources!

While I’ve got your attention check out three more resources for your BJJ below…

Three More Great BJJ Resources

Roadmap for BJJ Book – My free checklist that breaks down the 6 main positions of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and the basic strategies for winning a fight on the ground.

The 3 Most Important Concepts in BJJ – a detailed breakdown of base, posture and structure, the 3 concepts which can cause any jiu-jitsu technique to succeed or fail.

The Grapplearts BJJ Master App – In this free video-based app you’ll get hundreds of black belt level techniques, access to my BJJ podcast, and much more.  Free to download for iOS and Android, so check it out!

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