The Darce Choke, a.k.a. the Brabo choke, screw choke, inverted arm-triangle choke… Like every other popular move it has several names and several people claiming to have invented it. No matter which name is to your liking, it’s a powerful choke in BJJ. I, personally, was first exposed to it as the Darce choke, so that’s how I’ll refer to it. Over the years it’s become one of my favorite weapons, mostly because it is applicable from almost every position possible.
Born out of necessity, in my case at least, the Darce has truly transformed my game. It all began with me getting stuck in people’s half guard while they had an undertook on me. As everyone who trains knows, this can be a sticky position if the bottom person knows what they’re doing.
Enter the Darce choke. In all fairness, I had no idea what I was doing and just instinctively went for a whizzer/overhook while trying to control the head in order to hang on for dear life. Then, one day, an older student introduced me to the Darce, which clicked perfectly in my quest to beat the underhook half-guard. Fast forward a decade, and it’s become one of the most utilized weapons in my Jiu-Jitsu arsenal.
Who Invented Darce Choke?
The Darce Choke is officially considered to have been invented by a grappler named Joe D’arce, a BJJ Black Belt under Renzo Gracie. He competed in over a hundred grappling and BJJ tournaments with a lot of success.
The relation with the Renzo Gracie gym also gives John Danaher bragging rights in terms of the invention of the choke, which he is not shy to claim. While Joe Darce is famed for this choke a lot of sources suggest that the Darce choke was originally put together by a German Luta Livre competitor named Björn Dag Lagerström.
What Does Darce Mean?
As you might have concluded. Darce is the surname of the BJJ Black Belt who made the move popular (and might have invented it) – Joe D’arce. In fact, the correct way to write the name is D’arce, but many people have adopted the much easier-to-remember and spell ‘Darce’, which has spread around the BJJ world.
You might encounter the choke under different names as well, such as the Brabo choke, screw choke, or inverted arm-triangle choke.
The Evolution of the Darce BJJ Choke
As with plenty of moves in BJJ, the Darce choke came about by accident. If we stick to the original information on its origin, a Norwegian grappler by the name of Björn Dag Lagerström is the father of the modern Darce choke. He inadvertently came up with the move while learning the Anaconda choke and tying his arms the other way.
Björn managed to use the newly discovered technique to choke out all of his opponents at a tournament in Germany in 1996. That is when the world was introduced to the Darce choke albeit not with that name.
The choke’s greatest ambassador, though, was a Brazilian by the name of Milton Vieira. A submission artist who was famous for his use of the Anaconda choke, Milton joined the famous Brazilian Top Team in 2000. He took the Darce choke with him where he taught it to the whole team, most notably Rodrigo ‘Minotauro’ Nogueira.
Minotauro wasted no time and successfully used the Darce to choke fellow heavyweights in MMA, further catapulting the move’s popularity. When exactly the term Darce and Joe D’arce’s contribution entered the frame is not known, but it was after these occurrences.
It was famous grappling coach and BJJ black belt, Marc Laimon who referred to the move after Joe. After witnessing Joe D’arce using the choke with staggering effectiveness at grappling tournaments and accredited the young grappler with the move’s name.
D’arce Choke Mechanics
The Darce choke is, in essence, an anaconda choke but with your arms locked on the other side of the opponent’s trapped head and arm. Both of these chokes originate from the arm triangle (kata-gatame) and share its mechanics.
The principles behind the Darce are that you’re using your arms to create a noose around the opponent’s neck, using the triangle choke mechanic to cut off the blood flow to the brain. That means you need to trap the opponent’s shoulder on one side in addition to their neck.
One arm is placed in a V-shape at the front of the neck with the opponent’s shoulder right in front of your chest. After wrapping the neck, you then place teh palm of this arm in the crease of your opposite arm’s elbow, grabbing the biceps. This enforces the triangle choke mechanics essential for finishing the strangle.
In this structure, two sides of the triangle are made up of the forearm and biceps of the choking arm, while the third is the upper arm of the opposite arm, which goes on the back of the head of the opponent. The choking points are the forearm of the choking arm placed on one side and the opponent’s own shoulder on the other side.
You can finish the Darce choke in a multitude of different ways, depending mostly on the position of the attacker.
When setting up the Darce Choke from the front headlock, as shown above, the vice grip is your best bet to control the opponent’s posture. After flipping the opponent to their side, you can sink the choke in by threading your forearm across the neck, starting at the armpit.
The squeezing motion of the choke is not as straightforward as it seems. Sure, you could just squeeze as hard as you can and get a tap, but it’ll probably be due to a neck crank.
What you should do instead is focus on making the noose around the head and arm tighter. The best way is to tightly pinch your elbows together before you squeeze by using a rocking motion to get your arms as close as possible to your chest.
Setting up the Darce Choke
It is important to understand that the Darce Choke is more than just a choke, it is a position of great control that can open up plenty of transitions. Even if you only have a vice grip, are already in t the driving seat.
The reason behind this is that you have an arm trapped and you’re affecting the opponent’s posture at the same time. The control of the shoulder and neck allows you to be able to either push the opponent or slide under him, never losing an ounce of control in the process.
Such a huge amount of control allows you to choose where you’re going to attack the Darce from. Let’s go through some of the most common setups:
Top Half Guard
Getting underhooked when in the top half guard is going to become your favorite position when you master the Darce. Every time the opponent underhooks you from half guard, his arm creates the opening for attacking the Darce.
The Whizzer is a great tool to restrict the opponent’s movement while you get in place. From there, the most important part of the move is shooting the arm through. Once there, use a scooping motion to control the opponent’s posture, thus opening space to create the triangle. Check the video out for more finishing details:
Top Side Control
When in top side control there are a couple of ways you can approach the Darce choke. In the first option, the opponent’s body needs to be turning towards you. This can be done by causing your opponent to turn, or when they try to escape:
In the second variation, you find yourself in crossface side control with the opponent’s arm between your knee and elbow. This time the focus is on keeping your opponent on their backs while rotating via North-South to set up the choke:
In both scenarios, it is important to trap their arm and shoot your palm through to the neck. From there, it is pretty much the same as with the top half guard Darce.
Bottom Side Control
A move popularized by the 10th planet community, The Ghost escape is a very sneaky Darce setup from the bottom. For this Darce entry, you need to trap the far arm of the opponent with an overhook when in bottom side control.
From there, it’s all about the quality of the movement. You need to swing both your legs towards the opponent’s head while holding on to the trapped arm. Once your head gets on the other side of the opponent you use the overtook arm to shoot behind the neck. Getting the Darce from there is an easy chore:
Darce Agaisnt the Turtle
Since the Darce is positionally very close to the front headlock position, a turtled opponent offers the perfect opportunity to set it up. The entry can be from the front or the side of the opponent.
The most important point is shooting the arm through. Once the arm is through, there are two options for getting the BJJ Darce choke. For a top position Darce you must utilize the vice grip, flipping the opponent over to side control. In order to shoot the arm through in the first place, you have to attack your opponent from their side:
For the second option, starting from the front of your opponent, the aim is to connect the arms underneath their chin. The position of the arms is an over-under one, where one arm goes over the neck and the other over the opposite arm. From there you forcefully flip to your side simultaneously shooting an arm through for the choke:.
D’arce The World!
Give the Darce choke a try next time you roll and you’ll be surprised at how easy it actually is. Although lankier people are better fitted for this choke, short arms are not a disadvantage. Experiment with this choke and the positional control if offers and you’ll develop a much tighter game. Oh, and yes, you can use it with and without the Gi! Happy hunting!
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