Chokes are your best submission in Jiu-Jitsu

Chokes are your best submission in Jiu-Jitsu

Chokes are your best submission in Jiu-Jitsu, it can’t be denied. Nothing beats a good choke. Jiu-Jitsu has three major categories of submission attacks – Chokes, upper body joint locks, and lower body joint locks. All are tremendous weapons that can end a match in a second, but chokes have a special set of qualities that elevate them over the others. In any joint lock, your opponents choice to tap is exactly that, a choice. If he is fearless, he may well decide to let the limb break and continue fighting. In the case of strangles there is not choice – you either submit or pass out – but you don’t get the choice to fight on. Grandmaster Helio Gracie used to say “I prefer choke over joint locks because a tough guy may keep fighting with a broken arm. But anyone who gets choked will go to sleep” In addition, Chokes offer offer a flexibility level of intensity to the match. You can apply a choke in ways that range in intensity all the way from a gentle constraint, to a TKO all the way up to killing someone. Joint locks have no flexibility in their application, it’s all or nothing, it either breaks him or no effect, and even if you break him he may elect to continue fighting. As such, chokes are the ultimate weapon of Jiu-Jitsu. Work all your submission skills, but set aside special time for training your chokes from everywhere. Develop a good choke from the back and one from the front and you will have a weapon that will never let you down. Here, our student Jim applies a very tight cross choke to get the finish in a match. It’s easy to see the mechanical tightness of the hold and how even in the most competitive matches, this will never let you down.