I will make this clear – Chokes are NOT essential for self defense. They require skill, strength and endurance. They also demand that you are grappling – where size and strength of your attacker are factors.

I get it. Submissions are great. They are one of the few things you can do in practice and know that IT WILL WORK. If your partner taps – it worked.

However…if want to use chokes for self defense then this is something you MUST understand.

Don’t bet your life on the “tap”or it will be “taps”.

Getting your partner to tap is training is EASY, but effectively choking someone who thinks you’re trying to KILL THEM is not only incredibly hard – it’s almost completely different.

Training Partners generally tap because they’re uncomfortable. Yes, the choke hurts, but it’s a far cry from being knocked unconscious or asphyxiated by someone who has no intention of stopping.

When you actually apply a choke on the enemy he will PANIC and become extremely violent. This will require you to adjust your technique and use a lot more strength and stamina than you can imagine. Remember, you’re experiencing SNS activation which will cause your adrenaline to kick in…that will give you a boost, but won’t last forever. So you must prepare for this fact.

So here are some tips on getting your chokes self defense ready…

1. Hide your pretty face. 
   One of the first things the enemy will do is try to grab your face. So you need to bury your face (where varies on the type of choke). You don’t need to see him, you know exactly where he is. Now if you’e training the chokes from SDTS Module 3 you’ll already know how to use the top of your head to apply more pressure to the choke – so you’re good.
2. “Base” yourself. 
   The enemy is going to thrash around…a lot. Having a good base and balance in any position (standing or ground) is essential to riding out his resistance.
3. Use bodyweight.
   Depending on the type of strangle, you should always use your legs, bodyweight and even his bodyweight to increase the force of the choke. 90% of people who learn strangles use mostly arm strength and that’s because you can get away with it with a training partner who taps when their neck gets sore. This is why we use the training dummy in SDTS Modules 3 and 12. The training dummy allows you to put full weight and power into your choke.
4. Train BEYOND the TAP.
   This is MANDATORY for using a choke for self defense. You need to dig deep and train 5X the normal amount of time you would normally need. Do not be shy…grab it and grind it.
5. Shake, Rattle and Roll. 
   Violently shaking the enemy while you’re applying the technique will enable you to keep him off balance, disorient him and cause additional trauma to the brain.
6. Tenderize him.
   Never apply a choke on a “fresh” target. Whenever possible try to strike first, or use a concussive entry technique to take a little fight out of him and disorient him in order to create an opening for your choke. The problem with sport is that you can’t do this…even in MMA, attacking the back of the neck is prohibited (as it should be) but that’s one of the first places we target!

Using chokes for self defense requires a different set of skills in addition to the “normal” techniques. Keep in mind that if your strangle is “off” a degree or two in the street, it will make your life exponentially HARDER. This is why we don’t advocate using strangles as a primary means of self defense.

The hierarchy of self defense is:

1. Escape
2. Weapons
3. Striking
4. Gouging, ripping and biting
5. Grappling

Grappling is the lowest rung on the ladder because it requires the most skill, size, power and fitness. It will take you weeks to learn a choke – but literally minutes to learn a strike and less than that to use some pepper spray.

Until next time…

Train Honestly,

Damian

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