The Cross Choke, or Cross Collar Choke, is one of BJJ’s simplest and most effective submissions you want to get comfortable with. The fact that it’s easy to learn and execute doesn’t mean that it won’t work on more advanced BJJ trainees.
The opposite is true: it’ll work perfectly well on both advanced and novice trainees. But that will only be a reality if you learn about the small details that make or break a submission. For instance, if you only learn its basics, you won’t be able to finish your opponents and get the tap nearly as often.
And this is what this article will bring to you. It’ll allow you to start getting more victories using the Cross Choke by teaching you both the basics and the advanced tips.
These advanced tips will allow you to get the Cross Choke to work more often, leading to many benefits, such as more motivation and dedication to continue practicing. But most importantly, your grappling skills will skyrocket, which, I believe, everyone wants.
Alright. I want you to start learning already and get on the mat to practice eventually. So without further ado, let’s dive into the 1st part of this article!
What Is a Cross Choke?
Alright. You’re now in the first part of this article. Hopefully, you’re ready to start learning. Understanding the basics of anything you learn before diving into the more advanced stuff—is always best practice.
The fundamentals serve as the first layer of information you want to learn about anything you do. For instance, when you learn to play the piano, you’re not going to start with learning one of Beethoven’s Symphony. This makes a lot of sense, but it seems as if many grapplers don’t apply this to their own BJJ practice.
So let’s examine the fundamentals of the Cross Choke in BJJ:
The Cross Choke is a highly effective and simple submission taught in grappling-based martial arts, including Jiu-Jitsu and MMA. It utilizes gripping the opponent’s right collar with your right hand and his left collar with your left hand (cross-grips.) Finally, you apply pressure by bringing your elbows closer and squeezing.
This is quite simple to understand. And you know what? You might know enough now to start learning and practicing this choke on your own. However, you won’t stand a chance against a grappler who knows what he’s doing, I would say that blue belts know to defend this choke perfectly.
How to Perform the Cross Choke?
Now that you know the fundamentals of the Cross Collar Choke, it’s time we dive a bit deeper. As you might know, you can perform this submission from many positions, including Mount and Closed Guard. So it’ll be worth it to start from the easiest position, so you can begin on a good note.
You want to start in top Mount and grab the opponent’s right collar with your right hand (palm up) to perform the Cross Choke. Then, you grab his other collar with your left hand while your palm faces down. Finally, you bring your elbows as close together as possible while applying downward pressure.
This should get you the tap. However, there’s so much more that goes into the small details of finishing this choke more often. You want to familiarize yourself with such minor details, so you can get more taps, which is what we all desire.
Finishing this choke might be more difficult than you think. Your opponent might bridge up and roll to the side, forcing you to release your grips. Or he might frame your hands and defend his neck. These are viable escape routes he has.
But don’t worry, we’ll cover how you can counter such offensive means in the upcoming parts. Anyways, we’ll now dive into the 4 variations of the Cross Choke you want to learn and master.
So let’s dive in!
Cross Choke Variations
We’re now in perhaps the most interesting and important part of this article. If you weren’t really paying attention thus far, it’s time you amp up your concentration abilities so you can learn as much as possible.
I’ll ensure to keep the explanations concise, so you’ll be able to get through them quickly.
You have two options in this part (if you want to take your training seriously), either you bookmark this article for easy access in the future, or you take, right now, a pen and paper and write the steps to perform each variant.
The last thing you want to do is learn a few variations simultaneously. Instead, your aim should be to learn each variant on its own, so you can build muscle memory quicker. So following either method (or both!) will give you the ability to progress and learn faster.
So let’s dive into the first variation.
Cross Choke From Mount
The first variant we’ll review will be from the top Mount position. This position is one of BJJ’s most dominant ones, so you want to get comfortable with it. Likewise, it’s also the simplest variation, which we’ve already covered in the previous section.
However, we’ll now dive into further details concerning this variation, so you can become a better grappler when using this choke.
So here are the steps to perform the Cross Choke from the Full Mount position:
- Start in Mount
- Grab the opponent’s right collar with your right hand (4-fingers in)
- Shoot your left hand underneath his hands
- Trap his hand using your knee
- Grab his left collar (thumb-in)
- Squeeze your biceps
- Bring your elbows together
- Lean forward
- Lower your head
- Apply downward pressure
- Get the tap
As you can see, not as difficult as many folks think. This, for many grapplers, is the first submission they learn since it’s easy to understand. The finishing part is perhaps the most difficult to remember. Instead of squeezing your hands and hoping for the best, you want to bring your elbows as close together as possible.
This will create unbearable pressure.
Learn more about the Full Mount position by following the 1st link. And if you desire to learn about the best submissions from Mount, follow the 2nd link!
Cross Choke From Guard
The second variation we’ll review is from the Closed Guard position. This is a more complicated variation, as it includes more details you have to remember when you execute it.
You’re going to start in Closed Guard, which is when you’re on the bottom and wrap your legs around the opponent’s hips. You then want to lock your feet together, which derives the name of this position.
Your primary goal here is to break the opponent’s posture. Once you’re able to do that, you’ll find it much easier to grab his collars and get the tap. Now, different coaches will teach different tweaks to this submission. However, they all base their variations around this.
So here are the steps to perform the Cross Collar Choke from Closed Guard:
- Start in Closed Guard
- Grab the opponent’s left collar with your left hand (palm up)
- Connect your elbow to his sternum
- Pull him with your legs
- Grip his other collar (palm up)
- Push your hands
- Extend your arms
- Pull the opponent to your chest
- Bring your belly up
- Squeeze
- Get the tap
Learn more about the Closed Guard position and how to use it by following the 1st link. Furthermore, you can learn about the best attacks from the Open and Closed Guards by following the 2nd link!
Cross Choke From Knee on Belly
The 3rd variation, which isn’t as common, is from the Knee on Belly. Now this is definitely one you want to avoid learning first. However, it will be a great addition to your toolbox.
And as you probably know already, I’m a big fan of learning as many variations as possible, especially of the same attack. Hence, knowing more than a single way of executing the Cross Choke, will be highly beneficial and valuable to your toolbox.
Thus, I’m confident you’ll benefit from learning this variation. So without further background giving, here’s how to perform the Cross Choke from the Knee on Belly position:
- Start in Knee on Belly
- Dig deeply into the opponent’s left collar with your right hand
- Bring the same arm’s elbow to your knee
- Your opponent turns to you
- Dig your other arm’s thumb inside his collar
- Block his hip using your knee
- Bring your left elbow down
- Apply contradictory directions of force
- Get the tap
Learn more about the Knee on Belly position and how to use it effectively by following the 1st link. Learn about the best Knee on Belly attacks by following the 2nd link!
Cross Collar Choke From Side Control
And lastly, we’ll now review the 4th variation, which is from Side Control. The Side Control position is extremely valuable to get comfortable with. You’ll be able to transition to it from many positions, typically by using a sweep.
If you want to learn about the best sweeps in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, follow the link!
Anyways, understanding the Side Control position—will be invaluable to your grappling skills. Not only is it perfect for competitions and spars, but it’s also a common position to get into in street fights and self-defense situations.
The Cross Choke from Side Control is intriguing. It looks different from everything we saw thus far. However, I assure you it works on the same principles and fundamentals we have covered in the first part. So if you read it, you’re in the clear!
Here’s how to perform the Cross Choke from Side Control:
- Start in Side Control
- Attain control over the opponent’s head and arms
- Grab the opponent’s left collar with your right hand (not too deep)
- Bring your right elbow to his belly
- Apply downward pressure with your right elbow
- Drive the opponent’s head up
- Loop your left hand around his neck (like the Guillotine)
- Grip his far lapel with your left hand (thumb in)
- Pull his lapel down (with your right hand)
- Drive your left elbow to the mat
- Get the tap
This is an interesting variation of the Side Control Cross Choke. You’ll be able to start using it shortly after learning to execute it, making it easy to learn and simple to understand. But as you can see, it’s not the traditional Cross Choke you expect to encounter; however, it’s an option you want to familiarize yourself with.
If you want to learn about the Side Control position, follow the 1st link. Furthermore, if you want to learn to finish from the Side Control position using the best submissions, follow the 2nd link.
Cross Choke Tips
We’re now in the advanced part of this article. This is where I’ll go over tips you want to eventually implement in your Cross Choke game. Now, it’s another reason for you to bookmark this article.
Approximately, this article is around 3000 words long, which is a lot of information to digest in a single reading. I believe that you can’t learn all the information I’ve included here in a single reading, which is why I encourage you to come back to it every time you need help honing your Cross Choke.
I’ve also made sure to include videos in this piece, to help you better understand what it looks like. All the videos I’ve added are extremely interesting and valuable, as they include many tips from different coaches.
Alright. Let’s see what the first tip is.
Tip #1 – Focus on performing the Cross Choke technically
The first tip is to focus on the technical aspect of the choke. The last thing you want to do—is use your body strength and body weight as the sole methods of applying force. Really, it’ll be extremely beneficial if you use the technical tips I’ve included in this article.
Let me give you a few examples: Instead of using your bicep curling strength to apply neck pressure, you want to use your entire arm. How do you do that? By bringing your elbows together, you’re using your arm as a whole, instead of just your biceps.
Another example is getting the grips right, instead of rushing through the execution and missing out on the grips themselves. Listen, if you want to get this submission right, you must do everything it takes to get the grips right. Instead of having both your hands palm-down, work on having them both palm-up or one up and one down.
These examples, and all the others ones I’ve mentioned in this article, will allow you to perfect your Cross Collar Choke execution.
Tip #2 – Bring your elbows together when applying neck pressure
I’ve already mentioned this tip a few times, but its importance exceeds all others. You must understand this small detail to finish all variations of the Cross Collar Choke.
You must bring your elbows together when going for the finish. Any other thing you do with your arms won’t be as useful as this detail. In fact, there are things you’ll do, such as pushing your forearm on the opponent’s neck, that’ll create space between your arm and his neck, which is what you want to avoid.
Tip #3 – Learn all the variations
The 3rd, and last, tip—is to learn all the variations Look at it this way, if an artist has 2 colors to use in his pallet, he’s limited. Although he might still be a master of these 2 colors, he’s still limited.
On the other hand, another artist purchases a pallet with 20 different colors. He also bought another clean pallet he can use to mix colors together. Now you tell me who’s more likely to become a better artist? (Although subjective, understand the metaphor.)
The same applies to BJJ. The more you know, the more you can mix things around and get a better end result. So learning all four variations I listed in this article—will be beneficial in the long term, to say the least.
How to Escape the Cross Choke
This part is going to cover an escape route you want to know and understand when you get comfortable with the Cross Choke. There’s a valuable lesson in learning how to defend an attack you desire to master. You understand the other side of the coin.
And grasping the other side of the coin will help you better prepare for what the opponent will try to do. So understanding what defensive move your opponent will go for once you execute the submission, equals preparing for that defensive move and countering it.
Framing using your hands is the ideal way to escape the Cross Collar Choke in BJJ once your opponent has the Cross Lock on your neck. You’ll move the opponent’s right arm with your right hand while placing your left hand on your neck (where your opponent wants to grip.)
It’s a two-step movement, making it simple to learn. It’s the ideal escape route for when your opponent already locked his hands on your neck. So definitely learn it, as you can execute it from all variations, such as Mount and Guard.
Is the Cross Collar Choke Effective in BJJ?
The Cross Collar Choke is one of BJJ’s simplest and most effective chokes in BJJ, especially from the Mount and Closed Guard positions. It’s a painful submission since you’re not using your strength, but proper technique that has the capability to overcome bigger opponents than yourself.
Final Words
This was the Cross Collar Choke in BJJ from many positions. I know it might be difficult to put yourself out there, step out of your comfort zone, and learn a technique you have never heard of. Even if you heard of it or even know its basics, it’s hard to attain more knowledge on it.
However, this is the difference between the grapplers who progress faster and those whose pace is slower. And you’ve read this article to its fullest, meaning that you’re on the right path to becoming a grappler that progresses faster.
The Cross Choke, however, isn’t the most effective submission from the Knee on Belly position. If you want to get your Knee on Belly game up there and finish more often, follow the link to learn about the best attacks from it.
Here are other articles you’d enjoy reading:
BJJ 101: D’arce Choke (Lots of Variations)
BJJ 101: Brabo Choke (Perform with Precision)
Baseball Bat Choke 101 – BJJ Grappling Guide
BJJ 101 – Bicep Slicer (The Right Way)
Mastering the Triangle Choke – Complete BJJ Guide