We’re very happy to announce the addition of a brand new Techniques section to the website. Eduardo is very happy to share his knowledge and hopes these techniques will be useful additions to grapplers’ games all over the world.

The first techniques are a Crucifix Series, since Eduardo feels it is a unique position that doesn’t get the attention it deserves. The Crucifix Choke gives a simple introduction to the position, while the Reverse Omoplata and Cattle Catch show two more advanced setups and finishes.

We hope to add a new series every month. Feel free to make requests or ask questions about current techniques.

Enjoy!

The cattle catch is a neck crank (cervical lock) that’s illegal in almost all Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournaments, but still great for no-gi, submission wrestling and MMA.

It’s also called the crucifix, making it the other half of the problem we try to clear up in A Confusion of Crucifixes.

Eduardo says to use this on people who talk ill about your momma.

Be careful while drilling and using this in sparring.

You don’t want to screw around when it comes to people’s necks.

An extra big thanks to Lee for being the dummy in this one.

Your opponent is going for a double leg takedown, either off a shot or going to his knees to escape side control, and you’ve got your chest against his back.

Here’s a detailed look at your grips:

Your left hand is underhooking and grabbing their lat.

Your right hand is overhooking and grabbing around to their biceps.

Sit into him, straightening your right leg and bending your left, like you’re doing a runner’s stretch.

Here’s the same position from the other side:

Note how the straightened leg is blocking the side of his knee. This is to stop him from posting when you start turning him over.

Immediately after sitting in, turn towards your straightened leg and lift with your underhook to roll him. Make sure his head stays in your armpit throughout all of this or you’ll lose the move.

He should end up on his back with his head against your side, and your left arm under his right armpit. His other arm is between your knees.

If he comes down without his arm between your legs, quickly hook it to get the crucifix before he can escape. Even if he tries to hide it or keep it away, you should be able to trap it.

Turn belly down until your knees and left hand touch the mat, then come to your knees. Keep your left arm heavy so it doesn’t come off the mat or he’ll be able to pull his arm away. Keep weight on his neck throughout the rest of the move for control, but don’t try to crank it until the end.

Bring your left knee towards his opposite shoulder, keeping his arm trapped against the inside of your left leg.

You can post out with your right leg to help keep pressure on his neck. This also tightens up the position and puts his head firmly in your armpit, which makes for a cleaner finish.

Finish by joining your hands and pulling his right arm as you arch your back and drive your weight into his head.

The pressure on his arms is like you are trying to make his elbows touch behind his back (which is why you drove your near knee towards his far shoulder with his arm trapped).

Here’s the finish from another angle so you can see the position of the neck and the awesome expression they make.

If the crucifix is underused, then the reverse (or inverted) omoplata is almost unknown or at least considered an exotic novelty. Hopefully, this instruction will help change that.

A possible reason for this is that one of the hardest parts of the reverse omoplata is simply having faith in it. When most people are taught it, they blow it off as some impossible technique without even giving it a chance.

You have to be willing to take a “leap of faith” when you first start trying it. Once you get it a couple times, you’ll find that it’s not as wild as you thought, though it does require confidence in your movements, which will come with drilling.

While showing this move once, Eduard told the class, “You’re all looking at this and thinking ‘Oh, that’ll never work—that’s crazy.’ But ask any of the brown belts in the room, and they’ll tell you I get them with this all the time.”

So have faith and practice, and it’ll come to you!

You have side ride on a turtled opponent, similar to how you set up the clock choke. Your chest is across his back, and you’ve got a one-on-one (one hand grabbing one wrist) on his far arm. Your outside leg is posted away from him for base.

To take the crucifix, you need to expose his near arm. Do this by driving your knee under his armpit and pushing his arm out.

Step over his arm with your outside leg and drag it back, trapping it between your kness. If he is trying to hide his arm, you might have to dig some with your foot to get your heel to catch it.

All of the normal rules of the crucifix apply. Keep your knees pinched tight and your hips close to his shoulder so he doesn’t have room to pull his arm out. Your free hand posts on the mat in front of him to keep base if he starts trying to take you down.

At this point, you could roll to the traditional crucifix like we did before, but we’re going to take another route.

Pay special attention to the next two steps. They are tricky to get even with live instruction, and even harder to show in still photos. You’ll need to experiment with this part to get a feel for the footwork.

Cross your right knee over your left leg, bringing his arm back. Your goal is to pass his arm from one leg to the other. Your left heel will need to trap his arm so you can uncross your legs without his arm coming back.

When you uncross your legs, his arm should remain pointing back, stuck behind your left leg. Opponents will often hug this leg and try to take you down, not knowing what’s in store.

When people see this for the first time, they almost always ask “What’s stopping him from just uncrossing his arm?”, since it looks like it would be really easy to do.

Luckily, it’s not.

All you have to do is keep your left leg bent, and your heel will block his arm from returning to the other side. He can never straighten his arm (which is what he needs to do to free it) further than you can bend your leg to block it.

With his arm crossed back in the right trigger position¹, let go of your one-on-one and bring your entire upper body to his right side. You’re going to dive your left hand underneath his near shoulder as you roll over your left shoulder.

As you start rolling, reach back with your left hand and grab his knee, and triangle your legs to secure his arm.

Contine rolling, still holding his knee and triangling your legs.

He’s probably already feeling the pressure on his shoulder, and if you do it fast enough, it’s possible to submit him from here. But because we don’t feel ballistically ripping your training partner’s shoulder off, we’ll continue the move with control.

Walk your shoulders towards his knee as you pull it to your head and hug it. This is to help you control three possible situations:

1. He rolls to escape the pressure on his shoulder.
2. You want to roll him to finish him on his back.

1. A mix of both.

   It’s easier to finish him on his back if he’s too strong or flexible to finish upside down, or if he’s defending by holding his belt or grasping his hands together.

   The easiest and most direct way is to keep rolling until you can sit up, lifting his knee and cranking his arm with your shoulder. He’ll often go right along with this to relieve the pressure and avoid the submission.

   If you’re having trouble rolling a heavy guy, you can untriangle your legs and swing your right leg out like you’re doing a pendulum sweep, while rocking up and lifting his knee. This adds more momentum to the roll and can tip the balance.

   If he resists rolling by posturing up, you can often take it the other way by sitting back into him and knocking him backwards instead of forwards.

   He might also try stepping over you, in which case you can roll belly down and sweep him like a normal omoplata sweep.

   Whatever happens, just get him on his back without losing control or letting his arm slip out.

   While drilling, just stick to rolling him forward.

   

   One way or another, you’ve now rolled him on to his back.

   Keep holding his knee to maintain control and stop him from rolling out, and keep your hips tight to his body so he doesn’t get the space to pull his arm out.

   Reach across his body and put your left hand in his far armpit. Lay across his upper body to pin and block him from sitting up. This position will feel natural if you’re familiar with reverse scarf hold.

   Before you start trying to crank his arm, scoot your hips back to take the slack out of his shoulder—you won’t have the leverage to finish otherwise. This will also break any defensive grip he has such as holding his hands or belt.

   

   Finish by posting with your outside leg and bringing your inside leg back like you’re doing a technical stand-up (your leg going under your hips).

   ¹ A trigger position is when your opponent has some part of his body in a position that prompts you to do a particular move, such as someone pushing on your chest from under mount being a “trigger” for an armbar.

With the addition of the Crucifix Series to the site’s new Technique section, I felt I should address a common confusion people have when they try to discuss the crucifix.

The root of the problem is that two different positions share the same name. One is legal at all levels of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and judo competition, while the other is a neck crank that is only legal in no-gi submission wrestling and mixed martial arts.

You can see how this leads to confusion when someone asks a question like “How do you escape the crucifix?” and people start telling him “Just tap! It’s not worth risking your neck!”, and he can’t figure out how a simple gi choke is going to do that.

A Tale of Two Crucifixes

The traditional crucifix is a position where you are laying behind your opponent, trapping one of his arms between your legs and the other with your arm. In judo, the choke from this position is called jigoku jime, which means “hell strangle”.

It is commonly gotten off a bad single leg (as we do here) and fireman’s carry or as a counter to the turtle.

Here’s a photo of the traditional crucifix:

Gary Goodridge catch Paul Herrera in this in UFC 8. If you saw it, you’ve probably never forgotten just how devastating it was.

The other “crucifix” is similar in that the opponent’s arms are held out, but you are up on your knees and turned away from him, and you can put severe pressure on the neck. This neck crank version of the crucifix is also called the “cattle catch”, “stocks”, “reverse crucifix” and more.

If the internet doesn’t lie, Gene LeBell said this about this neck crank and its problem keeping just one name:

“Some people call this move a crucifix, some call it an iron cross, even a half cow catcher into a shoulder pin, and a hundred other names. In truth it does not matter what you call any technique as long as you can do the hold.”

You can get it as a counter to a single leg, off a failed guillotine or after a neck crank turnover. It can also be gotten from a tradition crucifix, as you can see in our Cattle Catch demonstration.

The neck crank crucifix looks like this:

As for its UFC appearance, Jerry Bohlander submitted Nick Sanzo with it in UFC 12.

Due to the severely different nature and legality of these techniques, I prefer to differentiate between them by calling the traditional position the “crucifix”, and the neck crank the “cattle catch” for no better reason than those being my favorites. This is how the techniques are named on this site.

Other Crucifixes

Other positions also share the crucifix name, usually because they prop the arms out and block the back of the neck. Examples of this include the leg crucifix and crucifix guard.

I hope this helps clear up the confusion that always happens when the crucifix is discussed.