This first section is subdivided into three scenarios depending on the reaction of your opponent. 

1. Uncontested – They don’t control the attacking arm (Overhook). 
2. Weakly Contested – They have a Defensive Hook on the attacking arm, but it is not deep enough or covering a sufficient amount of the arm. 
3. Strongly Contested – Deep Defensive Hook and intelligent control strategy.

Uncontested

This will be a low standard of opponent, and it will mean that the attacking arm has no barrier or interference on its route to the neck. 

Weakly Contested

Just having some form of grip or contact on the attacking arm is not sufficient to defend. With the Seat Belt control, I always emphasise having it as tight to your opponent’s chest as possible because the less space between your attacking arm and their chest, the shallower their Defensive Hook will be. A shallow Defensive Hook can be cleared with the use of a ‘digging’ mechanic on the attacking arm. This is rotating the wrist away, digging the radial bone between their chest and fingers of their Defensive Hook. 

Strongly Contested

This becomes more problematic and a series of grip changes and breaks may be required to create an opening. At this point, we move onto using the Cross Breaks approach.