Ne-Wazalyzed: Amandine Buchard uses her choke as a weapon to win

Amandine Buchard (FRA) has two key newaza moves. One is a turnover into osaekomi and the other is a choke. She has a very unusual choke which is essentially a sankaku done with the arms. Oon Yeoh of JudoCrazy gives the details on this choke. Today is her birthday with 13 days to go for a possible gold medal for France.

Some people have described her unique choke as a legal version of the famous Gerbi Choke (which is now considered illegal by the IJF). Perhaps this is because of her leg movements which are similar to Gerbi's Choke. But the hand movements are quite different.

Her hands does a cradle on uke similar to what Kaori Matsumoto does when she does her famous Matsumoto Roll. However, while the Matsumoto Roll is designed to result primarily as a hold-down (a choke is possible from that cradle but usually uke is held down rather than choked). In Buchard's case, it's designed primarily to effect a choke, though a hold-down roll from there is also possible and Buchard sometimes does this.

It's a very slick move and one that she does quite often. It's surprising that not more players do this move. Then again, not many players do the Matsumoto Roll either, and that's a very slick move too. Both start essentially the same way but with different primary objectives. Also the Huizinga roll is a famous ground technique that he can claim as unique in his era as a fighter U90kg. We're happy to see that some of the current athletes taking advance of the more appreciated groundwork as a basis to win contests. Ne-waza is back as a weapon to win.

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