Earlier this week, I was lucky enough to attend a seminar held by BJJ black belt Zezinho Quintella, who trains out of Bridgeville, Pennsylvania. This guy has not only one of the coolest names ever, but also a ton of skill and techniques hidden up his sleeve. By the end of the seminar, my head was buzzing with all the shiny new stuff he’d taught us, but one submission in particular really stuck with me for all the right reasons.
This lapel choke is great for anyone who, like me, has trouble remembering long, complicated movements. Like any technique, you should repeat it a thousand times, but all the steps flow together so well, you could whip this out in a live roll pretty quickly and have a good chance of landing it.
This submission isn’t just awesome for its simplicity, though. My favorite thing about it is that it almost tricks your opponent into thinking they can get out of it. This isn’t a technique that feels dangerous for the victim right up until the last second. They’ll start to get uncomfortable once you move to north-south, but it’s not until you move that arm that they realize they’re in deep trouble… and by that point, it’s too late for them to do anything but tap.
Take a look for yourself, practice it until you can’t close your eyes without seeing it play out in your head, and then rub your hands together and cackle like a supervillain when you land it on someone. (Just kidding. That’s bad sportsmanship.)
