Rearnakedchoke

• ›Elbow under the chin, not across the throat.
• ›Head to head.
• ›Squeeze with your back, not just your arm.
• ›Chest glued to their back.
• ›Coaches differ on the free hand: behind the head pushes it forward, on your shoulder closes the gap and gives fewer ways out.

• ✕Squeezing across the jaw or face instead of getting under the chin. Fix: slide the elbow under the chin first.
• ✕Forcing the choke without back control, so they turn into you. Fix: settle your chest and hips before you attack the neck.
• ✕Leaving space between your chest and their back. Fix: pull your chest into them and keep your head tight.
• ✕Pressing on the front of the throat. Fix: aim the pressure at the sides of the neck; air chokes hurt more and are riskier to the throat.

• •After you take the back in a scramble, from a turtle or following a throw.
• •When your partner turns away from you to escape a pin or a mount.
• •When their hands come off their chin to defend something else.
• •When you want a finish that needs no jacket, as in no-gi grappling and MMA.

• •Arm drag or snap-down to the back, then take the seatbelt grip.
• •From a turtle, insert a hook and flatten them before you go for the arm.
• •Win the hand fight: clear the hand that guards the chin with your free hand, or make them move it by attacking something else.
• •From the mount, when they turn to their stomach to escape.

• •Body triangle or hooks to keep the back if they defend.
• •An armbar on the arm that fights the choke.
• •Okuri-eri-jime (the sliding collar choke) if they are wearing a jacket.

• •Tuck the chin and fight the choking arm with both hands before it gets under the chin.
• •Turn into the attacker and escape your hips toward guard.
• •Peel the choking wrist and slide out the back door.

• •Tuck your chin to your chest the moment they take your back and fight the choking arm first.
• •Protect the neck with both hands and keep your elbows down, then work on escaping the hooks.
• •If it is sunk, tap early; do not wait for the vision to narrow.

From behind, put the inner forearm across the front of the neck, palm down, and clasp your hands above the far shoulder without gripping the jacket. The pressure comes from both arms together. This clasped-hands form is taught in the Kodokan list and in the Katame-no-kata.

The choking hand grips the other biceps and the free hand goes behind the head or onto your shoulder. This is the common version in jiu-jitsu and MMA, and the one most coaches mean by rear naked choke.

Both hands clasp. It gives more pressure but less control of the head, and it can turn into an air choke, which hurts more and is slower. It is less common at advanced judo level but has finished MMA fights.

You can control the hips with hooks inside their legs, or by crossing your legs over their stomach in a body lock. Hooks leave your legs open to attack; the body lock limits their movement and stays close to the back.

Sport sambo bans chokes, so the hold does not appear there. Combat sambo allows a 'painful (choke) hold' of up to one minute, and a bout can end with a choke-out judged a clear victory.

Hug a heavy bag from behind. Slide your choking arm to the top of the bag, grip your biceps, put the free hand behind the top and squeeze with your elbows and back. Ten slow reps each arm, feeling where the elbow sits.

From back control, your partner tucks their chin and fights the choking arm at 30 per cent. Win the hand fight with your free hand, slide the arm under the chin and stop at the light squeeze. Switch every two minutes.

From a well-set back control, apply the choke slowly to the point where your partner feels the pressure and taps. Release at once, reset and repeat. The partner taps early and often; the point is learning the feel, not the finish.

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