When I competed at the World Pro Trials I was pretty confident of 2 parts of my game. My open guard and my cross choke. I like to think my guard is getting better and harder to pass and at the academy I have a high success rate with my cross choke with guys who are equal (or lower) rank than me. You could call me a 'guard player'.

During my first fight I went for a cross choke when the guy was passing my De La Riva guard. In theory he thinks he is passing but I am baiting him into the choke (if you see the video my teacher is even fooled because he is screaming to 'adjust your guard' - but it's like playing possum).  I couldn't get the choke and ended up finishing with a triangle but if you see the video I have my hand in his collar right to the end.

And in the second fight I tried 4 choke attempts with no success although they took their toll on both of us. I now have fingers which feel like they keep clicking in and out of place and in our post fight chat it was clear the chokes were pretty brutal and I had to give my opponent credit for his 'not tapping'.

Rightly or wrongly I showed up for training on Monday night. After being frustrated with myself for not picking up the sweep being taught, I had a pretty tough night as the guys all powered out of my choke again and I felt out of sorts. My hands were too sore. I took 2 nights off and on Thursday went back to class, more to filter out work. Professor Britto and Eduardo have been working X Guard set up and sweeps with us and I had more success with the technique and more 'fun' rolling. Sometimes I start to take things too serious and I have to get back to a place where it's 'fun' to do Jiu Jitsu. But again...it was clear to me I have to refine my choke. Because my hands are crapping out and higher level guys are not tapping to it.

The problem is my second hand. I fight with a deep deep collar grip with my right hand. Most of the time if I am on bottom I look for this. This is a secure first hand so this is not the problem. The problem is the position of my second hand. If I don't put it in the right place the guy is going to be able to muscle out of it or I will end up blowing my hand out because it  is just not right.

What is comes down to, is working out the technique behind the 'Helio Gracie' cross choke. I understand it. But now the challenge is 'getting it'. It's kind of obvious what you are looking for as you try to slide your free hand under the crossed arm towards the guys collar. You may as well shout "HEY, I AM TRYING TO CHOKE YOU".

Instead of looking at Youtube, I'm going to talk to my teachers and get their input for they both know alto that can help me. I *could* take a break from working chokes and look for some other things for the next while...but "let's gonna keep working the choke and eventually the guys gonna go to sleep".

...kinda like this guy - from one of my first tournaments..where I iused a variation of the choke I am looking for...