Okuri Eri Jime

Here is a description of a sliding collar choke, or okuri eri jime in Japanese. Okuri eri jime is a very good and common way to choke someone out. It is a purely gi technique, but the principles are very similar to the RNC and many other no-gi chokes. It mainly disrupts blood flow through both carotids using the collars of your opponent's gi. You can go for it as an alternative or even a set-up for hadaka jime. The steps are:

1. You have back control with hooks and a harness. That is, you have an over-under bodylock. After stabilizing the position let go of your lock.
2. Underhooking hand grips same-side collar and pulls is out so it can easily be gripped by your other hand. Don't pull straight down and make it taunt; instead pull out and loosen the gi material. You don't have to grip really high - in fact sometimes that can make it hard to pull out his colar.
3. At the same time, your other arm quickly slides around his neck with your thumb facing you. Sneak your elbow under his chin and staying close to his neck. Finish the motion when the opposite hand grips high on his opposite-side collar. Tip: Try to trace around his neck with your thumb like the "off with your head" motion.
4. Now the underhooking hand lets go of his gi and grips the other collar. Again, you don't have to grip realy high but just parallel to the previous grip. Pulling straight down usually works - there is no need to pull across his chest. You just want to make the collar taunt.
5. Finally, your other arm pulls across while you take a deep breath in and arch his back slightly. He should tap or go to sleep!

I won a judo match with okuri eri jime in this video. There are many variations of the technique. For example:

• From standing (kneeling) behind him, make space to finish. You want to be pressuring above him.
• From starting in a turtle, you can put only one hook in instead of both. Once choke is secure, pull him over you to the other side so that you have "half back mount." You are not directly behind him, but off to one side. Finish.
• You can use your legs like in this video instead of your underhooking arm to pressure on his gi and tap your opponent out.
• As an alternative from putting hooks in from a turtle, you can finish like a clock choke in several variations too.

Here are some links describing the choke:

1. Judo Ontario
2. BJJ Fighter
3. Wikipedia Entry
4. Lockflow description
5. Aesopian's description
6. Good Judoinfo discussion

Here's a little rant.

Once while were were drilling the newaza before a big judo tournament, we did some rolling from pinning positions. I was partnered up with Patrick - a guy a little smaller than me but some people told me is apparently the good ground guy there. He was pretty quick and had good technique. But he needs to calm down and leave his ego off the mat!!!

In BJJ nobody turns flat on their stomach and stays there. In MMA this would just get you flogged. But in Judo its fair game (albeit retarded). That's a horrible habit by judoka. I don't find that they move faster than good BJJ fighters that I train with, but they do spaz out more, use too much strength, and play the rules. Turtling flat and waiting for a standup is just a dangerous strategy IMHO.

Well I had Patrick pinned and he did the same thing - spazzing out to turtle flat on the mat. I hate it when judoka do that, and I knew that's what he would be trying to do. So I fought him for a bit and let him get to the position... as I slid my thumb under his neck and executed okuri eri jime. I used his turtling momentum to continue the move so we were on our sides and I executed the choke.

What I didn't expect was for him to fight it so hard. He tugged a little and started gurggling. At this point, I'm thinking I better release cuz he won't tap. But I hate it when grapplers act tough that way so I kept the pressure. He stopped for a second and started gurggling again. I'm worried that he would rather go unconscious than tap so I let go. Unfortunately, he was already out cold. When I let go he was still gurggling and frothing at the mouth while his body was limp. He eyes were still open and that freaked me out. After a few seconds he came back and seemed a little euphoric, but didn't remember what happened.

Dammit I think I'm more shaken by this than him. I bet the first time he gurggled that he was out, and I didn't realize it. I've never choked anyone out before, and if I didn't release out of concern then he could have had brain damage or worse. You can't have any ego on the mats.

I'm not as shaken up about it now as before, but it just shows that it is a very effective choke and you should tap to it!