Blue belt · Defense · Core
Rear-naked choke defense
How to stop the rear-naked choke: chin down and win the hand fight on the choking arm. Use it the moment your back is taken, before you try to escape.
Step by step
- Prevent it: chin down and hands up at your collarbones the moment they get the seatbelt. Elbows tight.
- Find the choking arm. It's the one over your shoulder. That hand is your first target; ignore the bottom arm.
- Two-on-one: grab their choking wrist with both hands and pull it down off your neck to your chest.
- Keep your chin tucked and your shoulders up, so their forearm can't slide under your chin.
- Holding the hand, slide your shoulders to the mat on the choking-arm side and start your back escape.
- Tap when their forearm is across your throat and their second hand locks behind your head. Rear chokes put you out in seconds.
Details that make it work
- Order matters: choking hand first, everything else after.
- Two hands on one wrist. You win the hand fight with numbers.
Common mistakes
- Grabbing the bottom arm while the top arm slides under your chin.
- Pulling their forearm with one hand while the other does nothing.
Drill it
Partner on your back hunts the choke at 50%, no hooks fight: 3 × 1 min. Then 5 full reps of hand fight into back escape.
If it fails, or what comes next
- Back escape Escape · Back taken
Set it up from
This defends against
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