Choke Fix

At testing on Friday, I noticed that a number of the students were doing the rear naked choke incorrectly.  They had the elbow off to the side of the neck, instead of in the middle.  So today in class we took the opportunity to fix the problem.

What exactly is the problem with having the elbow a little off to the side?  One problem is it becomes an air choke rather than a blood choke.  The trouble with air chokes is that some people can resist them for a long time, finding opportunities to breathe or simply dealing with being oxygen deprived for a while.  Nobody I’ve met yet can resist a blood choke. Another problem is that it’s a bit dangerous.  With the elbow off to the side, the radius bone tends to dig into the windpipe which can injure your partner.  Every few years a bouncer kills some misbehaving drunk via choke and it’s my guess (which may be totally inaccurate) that a sharp radius bone across a windpipe is the culprit.

Here’s to all your chokes being blood and not air!