Best BJJ No-Gi Chokes You Should Master As a BJJ Beginner

BJJ athletes face many challenges when they transition from BJJ with a gi to No-Gi BJJ. Most people do think that No Gi BJJ doesn’t fulfill the principles of Gracie Jiu Jitsu because they believe that No Gi Jiu Jitsu favors the athletes who are very strong and well-built. This is not correct at all. You can think of No-Gi BJJ as a variation of Gi BJJ. You can execute techniques and moves that will allow you to conquer those who are stronger than you. If you are just transitioning from Gi BJJ to No Gi BJJ or if you are a beginner in No Gi BJJ, you should learn some chokes that will help you submit your opponent. This article is focused on the best BJJ No Gi chokes you should master.

The following are some of the best no-gi chokes that you should learn:

• The first BJJ No Gi choke you should master is the punch choke. This choke is really valuable, not just for the fact that it is a choke and it can finish people on its own, but it also leads to some good openings if it doesn't land. For employing this choke, get your arm underneath your opponent’s head. Once you get your arm under their head, take your secondary hand and make sure their face is oriented up so that you can use your chin to do that.

• You can use your hand and then lock it with your chin, or just use your chin. Use your chin toward their temple, not in their eye socket. With your Knuckles, plug the artery manually on one side; your bicep is doing that on the other side. So plug there now and then grab their arm, grab on the outside of the forearm. After this, pull all that together, and it makes a nice little tight choke. When you hear the little sound with that, it means it's working right.

• So, essentially, what's happening is two sides of the triangle, and the first is coming in for the third side. You are locking it, squeezing all that together. It is a really powerful choke.

The second No Gi BJJ choke you should master is the BJJ No Gi Ezekiel choke. Punch choke is adjacent to the Ezekiel choke, but the No Gi Ezekiel choke is different. So, the No-Gi Ezekiel choke essentially wraps through, and you fold your arms. So you either fold your arms first and then wrap them through to where your hand is going across your opponent’s throat. Then, if you can, fold your arms up and get there. This choke is not as effective as the BJJ No-Gi punch choke, but they are similar. They are two different chokes.

• The reason most BJJ No Gi athletes like to use the punch choke is that often, when we get on top, our opponent wants to come in and start defending against it. If they go in to protect it, what they have done by doing that is they have raised their elbow, and you know if you get that elbow up and they are defending successfully, you can get under the elbow. So wedge your forearm underneath their elbow. Now you can start walking that arm up, so walk if this is their arm.

• Walk 90° to that so crawl wedge, crawl wedge, and continue that process until their elbow is elevated up. From that point, start grabbing at their armpit to help lock it into place. Use your face to start pushing that Elbow out of the way. Now you need to get your chin to the outside of your opponent’s arm. The problem with that is if you are in that position and then try to get your chin to the outside, they may move their elbow so you can never get around it. So, instead, put your chin on top of your own bicep. If you can get your chin to your bicep, you know it's on the outside of their arm.

• So then you just wedge down like you are nuzzling into it. Keep your hand on the shoulder. For this arm triangle set up, sink your shoulder back. One of the most common mistakes is people driving the pressure into the person's face. It is not going to get the strangulation as well. So drop your shoulder down nice and tight. Your head is going to sink down to the floor and reinforce your first hand by cupping it on their shoulder, and then everything on your left side melts as you turn to face your opponent. This way makes it choke a lot tighter. You don't have to dismount or collect your arms in any certain configuration. Honestly, just grabbing that shoulder and reinforcing it is a lock enough to be able to sink it up. Drop your shoulder down so it is not pressing on their jaw, but it is actually going into their throat. Now the rest of it is turning and facing your opponent, and that tightens everything from all sides. So it is a really powerful choke, the head and arm choke.

• The fourth BJJ No-Gi choke you need to learn and master is the variation of the mounted triangle. So, for executing this choke, imagine that you are on top of your opponent. Separate their one arm from themselves with your one hand and keep that far away from them. There are several ways to do that, but sometimes, if you get their arm separated from their body and there is a space between your chest and your opponent's chest, they will use their other arm to grab and protect the separated arm.

• If they do that, they expose their back. Now you can take their back and start chasing back attacks and other things which you can do. But if you've done a good job of keeping that space sealed and keeping their ear to your chest, they can't go through the middle. So sometimes, they will start trying to reach around the outside. When they do that, they give you a big space in the back to be able to slide your knee and elbow up and together. Once you can make that connection, you have them on your side. So start keeping this pressed away and lift their head with that space that you created. Now you have three different options for how to do this.

• You can just kick it straight to close up that triangle. You might not have the flexibility or mobility for that, so you may need to stop, step on top of their arm, and then shoot the rest of the way through. You may get enough resistance that you can punch their chest and then shoot all the way through. So, those are three different ways to get to the point. Once you reach this point to finish the triangle, start turning and rotating your hips, which is what pushes your arm across. Lace your toes on the bottom behind your back leg and keep turning until your shins are parallel to each other.

• Once your shins are parallel, you should be able to make enough tension to get that choke. If you're not getting the choke from here, you can either go to the straight arm bar or roll off. You'll usually get the correction you need to finish the triangle from the guard. If you are going to do that, make about 95% sure you'll get that triangle, so you don't just give up your top position. There are several routes to reach the mounted triangle, which is one of the more powerful attacks from the top right corner.

• The fifth choke you should master is the BJJ No Gi single wing choke. BJJ No-Gi single wing is sometimes called the kata ha, but it is also known as the gobra clutch. So from this position, if you are successful with setting things up by wedging this arm away from the body, and make your opponent come in to start trying to gather that arm up, so they are protecting their arm. At this point, something that you can look to do is to prevent them from exposing their back. So sometimes you can use that to start taking their back and then attacking from there, but also right around the corner here.

• Before you give up your top-mounted position, something that you can look to do is if you get a nice, tight gift wrap, because the more that you pull, the more your opponent wants to pull in response. Your opponent might be making a gap in the space when they are pulling, so if you can punch through that place and get over on top of their neck. So this is the modified gift wrap position. Now, from here, if you pull hold this nice and tight and wedge the arm down, it is a very painful kind of Choke.

• So, it is not always the cleanest, but it is getting the pressure enough for the choke. Sometimes from here, it is just pain in their neck, and you can reach up and grab their elbow and squeeze. That is a lot cleaner of a choke, and it is a lot tighter. If your opponent tries to defend it, get this gift wrap position. As you are pulling on the gift wrap and they are opening that space, you are punching up. Taking this to the other side like a single wing choke with the Gi, but you are either grabbing or getting your shoulder behind. Grab their elbow. Once you grab that elbow, pull that in tight, and then that's a really tight, nasty choke.

• The sixth choke you need to learn and master is the mounted gogoplata. Sometimes, from this position, you can start getting your opponent wedged over, and they are reaching around your back. Whenever you feel them reaching around your back like that, you know there is a lot of opportunity. So as you start to step up, when you get to this position, you have the opportunity, sometimes because their arm is so exposed, to go to this mounted gogoplata variation.

• You can even step across and start going for omoplatas or monoplatas, which are a variation of the monte. Now, something else that can happen whenever we do that is that you step over and across whenever you start to fall over to the side. Then from this position, if you go in, then you are essentially in the monoplata. The Monoplata is a shoulder lock, but because of how your opponent is going to try to turn and face and fight you, you can also reach down and grab their head for the mounted gogoplata.

• The monoplata and the mounted gogoplata are two different things. One is a shoulder lock, and the other is a choke. So, for doing the choke variation, flex your foot down so it cups around their neck. Reach the far side of their head. Try to connect your two hands behind your head and pull in nice and tight. It is also a very nasty choke.

• The seventh choke you should master is the BJJ No Gi smother choke, also known as mother’s milk. Be careful, of course, when you are training this or any of the chokes that we just discussed. If you do find yourself mounted, though, and you are trying a lot of these different chokes, you are trying to get them to react to the punch choke. You are trying to get them to react to you wedging their arms up and down. Something that you can resort to because it's not the nicest move in the world is the smother. Sometimes called mother's milk or the waterboard. So whenever we get in the position where you have your arm underneath, and again, you need to get their head squared up facing you.

• So, to do that, take your other arm underneath and try to bring your biceps close together. So when your biceps get close enough that your elbows are coming off the ground, place their nose in the cleavage on your chest so that you have it wedged in, and then from there, as you drive forward.

• It is a really nasty submission because what it is doing essentially is plugging their nose and mouth, and it's kind of smashing down and cranking on their face too. So it is not the most polite thing in the world to do, but it is a technical move in the sense that you are causing a smoother kind of tap. So it is adjacent to a strangle or adjacent to a choke. So you can put it in the category with the mounted chokes.

• These were some of the best BJJ No Gi chokes and choke adjacents in some cases. There are a lot of good options from here, and a lot of these things connect well to other setups, so you can transition from choke to choke. Sometimes you can use it to start setting up back exposure and chasing their back. Sometimes you use it to start setting up arm locks and other submissions. It all depends on you, to what level you want to extend these chokes. There are a lot of things you can do to submit to your opponent. Just make sure you are learning these chokes and mastering them.

The following are the best BJJ No Gi chokes that you should master as a BJJ athlete:

• BJJ No Gi Punch Choke

• BJJ No Gi Ezekiel Choke

• Head and Arm Choke/Kata Gatame

• Mounted Triangle Variations

• BJJ No Gi Single Wing / Kata Ha / Cobra Clutch

• Mounted GogoPlata

• Smother Choke / Mother's Milk