Mash Pass Defense to Loop Choke

That Lepri video is solid, but the mash pass to loop choke combo isn't exactly fresh out of the lab. Gordon Ryan was hitting that overhook-to-head control transition into opportunistic chokes *years* ago, especially in those early EBI days when the mash pass really started cooking.

This is a good sequence. The mash pass isn't something we see in the Gracie Barra curriculum until the black belt program, maybe. In the fundamentals class this week, we're still on side control escapes and bridging drills. It's solid material, but definitely not the kind of thing beginners get exposure to in the first two years.

Yeah, if your gym teaches the mash pass, you're already doing better than mine was at purple. Still paying off Vegas from Masters Worlds.

This whole sequence, the mash pass and the loop choke off of it, is older than people think. Gordon Ryan definitely popularized it for a generation, but the idea of using that deep overhook to collapse the space and then hunt the neck isn't new. Carlson Gracie Sr. was teaching similar concepts for creating openings from top half-guard pressure way back, I think even in the 1970s. The terminology might change, but the core mechanics of creating head and arm control, then converting that to a choke, have been around since at least Rolls Gracie was evolving the technical side of the art.

The overhook collapsing space for sankaku makes a lot of sense. Good stuff.