by Great Grappling | Aug 10, 2011 | Uncategorized | 9 comments

The Bow and Arrow choke is one of the most powerful submissions in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. You see it used at all levels and by people off all shapes and sizes. There are an almost infinite number of setups that lead to this submission but today I address two of them.I was originally taught to do this move by pushing your opponent onto their side after you have trapped their arm (as shown first in this video). This can be a great setup but leads to spacing difficulties when trying to get the knee into the back of the head…it seems to me like the arm just gets in the way. My suggestion is to rep it out repeatedly and feel the transition and you'll understand what I'm talking about.After teaching this to my class I was not surprised to learn that many of the students have the same problems that I had when I was at their level. I always stress keeping that elbow pinned to the shoulder but when falling at the angle between their head and their shoulder it can be very difficult to keep that elbow tight and not let their head pop out.My answer to this problem is simple, remove the arm from the equation. You can see in the second part of this video that I show a setup that involves pushing the sleeve and hand across the hip line. At first glance you may think this is an unrealistic setup but you will find that there are plenty of times that this setup works (especially if you look at the transition from North/South. When setting up the Bow and Arrow this way it allows you to fall towards the legs which totally closes that pocket for escape. You will also notice that it contorts the body when you pull the pant leg toward you and push away with the core of your body and your shin, this makes it extremely uncomfortable AND extremely difficult to escape. Try it both ways and see which way you like better.