The Martialist: The Magazine For Those Who Fight Unfairly

Praefoco?

By Danny Rowell

Self-defense is not sports competition and it is not fighting. Physical Self-defense is applicable when your awareness skills have failed, your avoidance skills are inadequate, and you must resort to physical technique to escape. You are not going to beat your opponent(s) down and lord it over them with some witty commentary. You are not in a situation to find out who’s the alpha male in the local bar. You have one mission: get home safe.

Should you take a foe to ground intentionally for a choke?

There are certain skills that are useful in a sports arena. Others are useful in the dreaded "street fight." Then there are those skills you use to survive into old age. Sometimes these skills overlap. If you are planning to collect your social security benefits, however, the choke is one of those techniques best left in the ring.

Seven Reasons Not to Choke in Self-Defense

Reason # 1: A choke is an all or nothing situation. You cannot cut off only a small portion of blood to the brain or air to the lungs. You either shut off the flow or you don’t. For a choke to be effective, you shut it off and keep it off until the enemy gives up, passes out, or dies.

Reason # 2: There is very little room for communication during a choke. The villain cannot speak if he cannot breathe. Are you expecting him to tap out? What if he is not current on grappling etiquette and does not know he is supposed to tap out? How are you going to explain that to law enforcement? “Well officer, he was supposed to tap out...”

Reason # 3: Chokes do not offer your opponent a choice. If you apply a joint lock, even unto the point of joint destruction you can still offer your opponent a choice. He can continue to resist, ignoring the need to comply with the pain, or he can fight on. You can crank up the pain, destroying the joint; you can move on to a second lock, or follow up with strikes. You can take the opportunity to escape or you can fight on. Once you lock the choke down, though, it is you or him.

Reason # 4: The rules become fuzzy when life is on the line. People like to claim that there are no rules in self-defense. I disagree. The rules of physics, society, and human nature still apply. Self-defense is simply a case in which one or more parties choose to ignore those rules. How far this situation escalates is simply a question of who is willing to push the farthest the fastest. Don’t expect your adversary to do the right thing like give up and walk away. After all, if he were going to be reasonable, you would not be in a self-defense situation. Once everything is said and done, the rules will come back into focus and you’re going to have to justify your actions – if only to your conscience.

Reason # 5: Choking requires total commitment. As touched on previously, choking is all or nothing. To properly apply a choke requires using arms, hips, legs, and generally something large for leverage. Usually, the point of leverage is the ground. The distance away from your enemy is almost non-existent. In other words, you are completely engaged with your enemy if you chose to choke him. Once totally engaged, how do you extract yourself from the situation safely? You have to choke him out. According to some, it takes between 5 to 30 seconds to render someone unconscious. This can be an eternity in a life or death situation. Then you have to deal with multiple attackers, bystanders, and environmental factors. Generally, the same reasons you don’t want to stay on the ground in self-defense are the same reasons you don’t want to use the choke.

Reason # 6: Escalation of Force is dangerous and illegal. Using a choke is similar to escalating the force by using a firearm. If you are in a situation and you pull a gun, you better be willing to use it. If you use it, you better be willing to kill. If you are in a situation in which you could perform a joint lock, throw, or strike and you opt for a choke instead, you are immediately escalating the situation into the realm of lethal force. You cannot take back the bullet once you pull the trigger. You cannot undo a choke.

Reason # 7: Does he fight for his life? Once you escalate the force, how does your attacker respond? What if he is in fear for his life and is going ballistic, attempting to escape what he perceives as you trying to kill him? Your opponent is going to be unpredictable. His own efforts to survive will become desperate and extreme. Wouldn’t you do whatever it took to escape this lethal situation?

For every reason I've listed, a logical and justifiable counterpoint can be made. Chokes can negate size and strength. They are decisive. Few know how to escape them. As anyone with mat experience knows, a well-executed choke can incapacitate someone completely without doing permanent harm.

Martialists are generally cross-trained in multiple schools of thought. Understanding the foundational principles of Shime Waza and being able to apply them as the situation dictates is a crucial survival skill. I am not advocating that you never train chokes. However, it is essential to understand when to act and the consequences of your actions. Of course, if the bad guy is hell bent on doing you bodily harm, you must do what you have to do to survive. Hopefully, your decision will be an informed decision.

As always, the choice is yours.

Choose wisely.