Are there any particular steps or strategies to take in order to get a nice deep overhook ... or do I just have to be patient and wait for my opponent to decide he wants an underhook?
I've never done formal wrestling, but have been doing Judo for 10 years. right handed. I have done a fair bit of no-gi ground grappling, and a small amount of no-gi standup grappling, which is what I'm interested in improving for an upcoming contest. Anyway I absolutely nailed what we'd call yoko-wakare in Judo. Here is a vid of Shonie Carter teaching it for no-gi.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-sfwqbtjf0
My problem is the first step, getting a nice neep overhook. I found myself engaged in an awful lot of 'feeling out', 'handfighting' (?), shucking off neck/head grips, etc. Until finally I got lucky, and found myself with a good overhook. Surely there must be a better way?
thanks!
if u r against someone who is good on his feet then getting a good overhook (with ur head on the same side) can be very difficult and even harder to keep if he doesn't want to stay there.
if u are willing to let someone get a deep underhook on u make sure to whizzer (overhook) down hard before he gets too deep and don't let his head get on the same side. otherwise he'll have a good angle and possibly get wrist control on ur other arm. 
shoot for a bad double leg, they will have to underhook to stop the 'takedown'. Voila.
This was stolen from the UG. Right off the bat this guy shoots for a double but doesn't really change levels all the way and comes up into a quality hip toss. I realize he throws from the underhook side but he could have just as easily cinched up that overhook on his left.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=296_1314630201