The rear naked choke is to the submission grappler what the big slamming KO is to the boxer, or the hot and heavy head-kick is to the Muay Thai competitor. It is the piece de resistance, the nonpareil, the ultimate finish.
The rear naked choke is not highly regarded and regularly used simply because it is a dramatic way to finish (which it is) but because it is one mighty effective and one muy mal hombre.
Every submission grappler inside 30-days of training should already be competent with slapping on a tight rear naked choke. The mechanics of doing so are not hard and that is part of its utility. A good heavy KO punch or facile head kick are far harder to educate, but even a novice grappler if he or she can take your back has a very good shot at rendering you involuntarily sleepy.
And where the rear naked choke used to be reserved to the esoteric grappling arts a few decades ago, now it seems everyone has a grasp on what a rear naked choke is and, most troublingly, law enforcement personnel and self-recorded thug videos show it being used on a surprisingly regular basis on folks who have no interest in being part of whatever evil game these scum are playing.
So, whether we are combat sports athletes or street-combative personnel a good answer or two to this grappler's KO is in order.
We cover the ABC Drill-Set on how to escape this position in all its manifestations on RAWs 163-165, and I will not divulge that drill set here as that is a bit of an in-house advantage for my RAW crew. What we will discuss today are a few absolute no-nos that will get you choked if you've got anyone with even a bit of competence and a lick of sense on your back.
CHOKE-PROOFING NO-NO'S
Do Not Bridge This is an, oh, so common mistake one that plays directly into the choking strategy. A good choke relies on good hip control and that hip control is predicated on the choker being the one that can get their hips through the chokee.
Whether the choke is belly-up, belly-down, or opponent's side-by-side, choke hip control dictates that the offensive player has their hips driving the defender's lumbar spine or hips into a concave position.
In essence, the choker is the one who must "bridge" no matter what position they are in, the chokee who hits a bridge is doing nothing but assisting this concave position aiding and abetting their own demise.
Do Not Fall to Your Side Falling to either side allows your opponent the easiest position to hit their lumbar attack. In belly-up position the choker has to fight your body-weight and gravity, in the belly-down position, they must fight against a bit of gravity and add more muscle to make the concave position happen.
The side-by-side position offers little or no resistance to the hips-thru concave position necessary to a strong choke. Falling to the side merely puts the choker into their path of least resistance.
[This is an "i before e except after c rule" as you see demonstrated on RAWs 163, 164 & 165. There is lots of side work in the drill set but failure to do two vital things BEFORE the move to the side and you are doing nothing but helping your opponent.]
Do Not Reach or Work for the Hands or Arms An easy and logical mistake to make. It would seem that since the arms are what are around your neck and ultimately what will put you to sleep this is where your attention should be focused.
But appearances can be deceiving. Rarely is anyone with more than a modicum of skill and more than two teaspoons of grit in their soul choked by dint of arms alone. There must be lower body control, there must be hip control for the choke to do its magic.
With this in mind we have a bit of two-edged advice. Chokers, don't rush to the choke, aim for lower-body and hip-control first and then proceed to the choke.
Chokees, putting your attention on the arms as opposed to killing hip and lower body control puts you 5 moves behind in your defense.
Do Not Reach for a Hook Now that I've said that one of the secrets of the defense is not in attacking the arms, many rush to hands vs. feet assumptions, particularly those who are fans of esoteric leg locks [shin shines, digs, fresh and salt-water crabs, etc.]
Bad call.
The hooks do act as retentions but they are ancillary to the hip-control.
Think of it this way, if you feel hooks to your inner thighs but zero pressure or contact from the hips, no threat, at least not yet.
Tight driving hips before the hooks come in, now you definitely know something bad is on the way and you need to get to work.
From these few tips we can see that the order of progression would begin with killing hip control first, removing hook control second, and as for what's around our necks-that's the very last thing we address.
Change the order of defense and you just may be playing into the hands of the person on your back-literally.
[To begin your Choke-Proofing Training run the Linear Progression Drill Sets on RAWs 163-165.]
