This is a undeniable fact:
If you want your attacks to succeed, you must improve your setups.
Let me give you a real life example.
I’ve known the loop choke from half guard for many years, but I had an absolutely horrendous success rate with it. Whenever I would go for it, guys would just posture up a little and the threat would vanish into thin air like an illusion.
The only time it worked was when my opponents dropped their head for me and drove in (perfectly setting it up for me).
Such occurrences were rare, obviously.
But then at a certain point, I realized that the hip tilt would be a good setup to the attack. Man, I hit that sweep all over the place. It works like a charm. And when done right, it makes your opponent choose between a rock and a hard place.
They either get swept or they base out on their hand.
What’s interesting for the loop choke though is what happens to their posture. It naturally drops, no matter what their reaction is.
And I’ve been absolutely ripping people to shreds with the loop choke because of that fact.
Guess what though.
Over a year ago, my setup got taken to a whole ‘nother level. I was visiting Dave Jacobs’ academy at the time, and during the open mat, I got into a discussion with Greg Souders.
The topic?
The loop choke.
Some ridiculous science was dropped, and one of the things he showed me was a setup, which was remarkably similar to mine in principle but different in tactic.
Instead of damaging his opponent’s structure laterally, he scoots away, which creates all kinds of interesting reactions. And in combination with my lateral attack, something magical is created.
It’s an offensive loop that leads back to the choke from multiple directions.
And whoa, it’s scary. I would hate to be on the other side of it.
But I have no problem with making others suffer.
And you can do the same. How I setup the loop choke from half guard is thoroughly outlined in the one of the lessons of the half guard course.
But if you’re not ready to embark on the path of half guardian mastery, here’s a quick breakdown of the setup I learned from Greg: