Armchair Quarterbacking Rafa Mendes vs Cobrinha ADCC Finals Anaconda Chokes

This video constitutes Fair Use, and contains commentary on the original work. The original video is no longer available, but alternate camera angles of the match without commentary can be found here: www.flograppling.com/people/5...
#rafamendes #adcc #bjj #nogi #submissiongrappling #jiujitsu

[@DrewDarce]

Again, this video is just meant for fun. Rafa is a beast and I don't think made any glaring technical errors at all. Definitely not for 20 years old during an ADCC debut. Cobrinha actually addresses the submission attempts and how he thinks Rafa could have finished him in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pnPan3inj6eajLM Interestingly, Cobrinha shows a darce and not an anaconda, but I think the idea still applies. If Rafa could've found a way to trap the hips of Cobrinha, either with a mount or guard position to finish, that could've ended up being a good idea.

[@jphynes1]

I think the reason the second choke wasn't as close as the first is because Rafa's choking elbow was in too "deep", giving Cobrinha some space in that elbow pit. If you look at 3:19 in contrast, his elbow is pulled all the way back into Cobrinha's neck. At the 7 minute mark, it's actually nice when they base out because you can just hang on them and choke them there. It's not working there because the choke isn't as tight as it could have been and Rafa's chest drifted down towards Cobrinha's elbow instead of staying up near his shoulder where you want it. Hindsight is 20:20, but in that situation a better move would be to bail on the roll and try to reset the choke before hanging your weight on him again. I hope to see you do more of these!

[@DrewDarce]

Insane feedback! Love this so much! I didn't really think about the elbow being too deep, but honestly it makes sense. I prefer not be super duper deep on the anaconda as well, and Matt Skaff who has the best anaconda choke I've ever felt (even more than Rafa IMHO) does the same. I've heard Lachlan Giles mention that as well, bot to over-penetrate. Funny enough, Rafa usually emphasizes penetrating super deep on the anaconda when he teaches it, but in a ton of the rolling footage I've watched of him doing anacondas--half the time he doesn't penetrate as deep as he says to. I wonder if it's an unconscious thing when he's rolling to actually pull the elbow back a little more instead of driving it as deep as possible, or if he actually does like to have it super deep. He emphasizes using the chest a lot to "push their head down like in a triangle choke" and at least for me, having the arm super deep like that does make me need to use more of a big chest and walking into them like Rafa often does. If I have my choking arm more in the position you're talking about, I don't have to walk into them nearly as much. BTW I'm definitely going to keep doing these. :)

[@jphynes1]

@@DrewDarce I think part of reason it's confusing is because "deep" can mean different things. The thing to avoid is essentially the opposite of a short choke finish. You want to pull your forearm into their neck for the finish (among other things), and this means pulling your elbow back behind their shoulders. This is a finishing mechanic though, and is separate from how you'd like to position your arms while setting up the choke. Generally, you want to relax your stronger finishing mechanics during the setup, and take out all the slack so that you start to get the effect earlier in the application of your main finishing mechanics. As applied here, this means feeding your arm "deeper", but without allowing any gap to form on the front half of their neck. If you get to where your elbow is actually in front of their neck, you're going to have to "rebite" to remove that space much the same way you would with a triangle or arm triangle. I think Rafa and Lachlan are mostly just talking about different parts of the process, and using language a bit differently. Rafa is pointing at the value of getting your choking arm as far through your locking arm as possible during the setup and Lachlan is pointing at the slack that can be created if you carelessly shoot your elbow in without keeping it flush to the neck, and the need to retract your elbow for the finish.