Tournament Proof: Uchimata to D'Arce choke in BJJ Competition

This was from a Submission Only event held by US Grappling in Virginia, November 2011.
I'm in the Blue Gi, Blue belt division, Under 149 lb's:

I cross grip for my lapel grip then as I establish my sleeve grip, I begin circling to my right, which forces my opponent to follow as he begins to search for his grips.
**** By "cross grip" I mean that I reach for his lapel with my rear hand. In Judo, we rarely reach for the lapel we desire with the lead hand as this can lead to your being on the receiving end of a footsweep. I've actually footswept guys in NoGi divisions as they reach in to tie up with me. It really does happen.****

At :17 I feel him circle into me and his posture feels weak, so use my lapel grip to reach over his back and set up a stronger, more powerful/dominating grip and begin to bend him over/kill his posture even further.

At this point, you'll notice how wide his feet are (wider than shoulder with), they are square (on the same line/plane), and he is sitting back on his hills/butt sticking out, head forward of his waist and feet. This is the ideal posture for your opponent to set up an uchimata (and ouchi gari, kouchi gari et cetera).

He than makes the fatal mistake and steps back behind what will be my reaping/lifting leg for the uchimata with HIS left foot. The rest is pretty basic:
I land in half-guard and from learning the hard way in earlier matches, immediately pummel/lace my power grip right hand back inside to hunt for the underhook on the far side (otherwise he takes my back). He beats me to it, I lose the underhook race, and I settle for bringing my elbow down to kill his underhook ("escrima" they would yell at me in Brazil).

My opponent lets me keep him pretty flat on his back despite having the underhook and his weak/lazy underhook is what sets up the D'Arce. His head is bent down and his spine curved, letting me slowly tighten up my D'Arce grip.

Unlike the way some people do it, I like to lock the D'Arce and step over into mount making it a slightly different kind of squeeze. I've been told it feels closer to a guillotine than the way the D'Arce normally feels (to me it normally feels like scissors clamping down on my neck).

At any rate, here's an example of how some basic, fundamental of Judo: cross grip, circle away, and when the opponent follows you establish a power/high/dominating grip, and take advantage of poor posture and defensive stance to land on top, score points, and begin to pass the guard.

Happy Trainingz!

Uchimata Wednesday: Judo for your BJJ (or other grappling) Volume 7.4

The "Judo Jumper": Coming to a Fall Fashion Line near you!

I like techniques with many entries, many set-ups, many options in which it can be used.

Owing to the fact that I've hit uchimata in MMA, Judo, and BJJ, today we will revisit one of the initially easiest Judo throws there is. That and the fact that recently I hit a sweet uchimata to head/arm choke in a tournament.
Again, like the cross-collar choke, or the armbar, do not confuse basic with inferior. What makes it basic is how applicable it is from a variety of situations.

I was never much of an uchimata guy from the beginning of Judo. In fact, I tended to use it as a counter to weak/poorly set up single leg attempts than as an outright throw on my part.
See here:


Don't let anyone tell you this "basic" technique will not work.
I've used it in gi, nogi, bjj, judo, wrestling, mma sparring with 16 oz. gloves.
This works.

Moving on....
Once I found that the uchimata worked as a counter, and I began competing more frequently in BJJ, I started looking for lower risk throws that did not open my back, involve complete commitment. Particularly as players compete at a higher level, they adopt defensive posture and look to hop on your back as you enter for a big throw. Again, in Judo, the defensive, avoidant, throw-averse-resistant player will be penalized into changing his posture. In BJJ, he can remain here as long as he would like. Granted, he poses little if any threat to you other than perhaps an ankle pick or a single leg, provided you are wary and control with a strong lapel/sleeve grip.....but he can be more difficult to throw, particularly early in your Judo trainingz.
See defensive posture here:

Again, we've all competed with and trained with the player in the white gi on the above left. He may seem strong and impervious to deep entries, but this is not so!
He is dead set on maintaining his Vulcan death grip and keeping his hips as far back as possible to avoid the big entry/forward throw. To quote my coach, his hips are far away from you which does make him perhaps harder to throw, but he also has virtually decided he will not be doing any big throwing as well.

The above stance is the perfect entry for uchimata. Specifically, a variation of uchimata known as "ken-ken".
The Japanese call it Ken-Ken uchimata, simply meaning "again, again" b/c of the again and again hopping action it often takes to tip the little resistant tea pot right over onto his back.
Notice the brief, but extremely bent over posture of the non-Japanese player:


His weight has broken the center of gravity line, with a tug/kuzushi, his weight will be even more unbalanced, and driving his head down and around will facilitate this throw into the mat.

Happy Trainingz!

As a bonus, here is probably the greatest documented Uchimata player demo'ing one of his many variations of this classic and ergonomic throw: