Transitions transitions transitions! Today I wanted to break down some of the mini battles that many of us are facing this month at 10th Planet Van Nuys.

Let’s take a look at a head and arm choke from the mount we have been covering this month at 10th Planet Van Nuys. Many people they think that once you mount all you have to do is push the arm over, dismount, and finish the choke. Sure in a perfect world that is all you have to do but once you go live with it you begin to see that there are tons of transitions and mini battles you have to win in order to pull off this choke.

Let’s break the move down though and look at the transitions. The first transition you need to make is getting to the mount. From there you need to make sure that you get a strong head and arm pit control. If your head and arm pit control is weak your opponent can easily escape and stop your progression. After securing a good head and arm pit control the next battle is to get your opponent’s arm in the right position. Once you do that you need to work for the dismount. And so on and so on.

So as you can see there are a ton of transitions within this one move. Mastering each of these transitions will guarantee that your move works. Not knowing one of these transitions will stop your progress and ultimately frustrate you.