Copyright © Geoff Thompson 2004
The right of Geoff Thompson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
No part of this book may be reproduced by any means, nor transmitted, nor translated into a machine language, without the written permission of the publisher.
Ah, the stories I could tell about what the Japanese Judoka call shime (shime-waza – strangling technique). In-close the strangles and choke are the most devastating, underestimated and misunderstood of all the finishing techniques.
As a nightclub doorman, my associates and I employed these techniques successfully on literally thousands of occasions. It is a brilliant and hugely effective technique. Its major drawback is that chokes and strangles can only be employed at very close range, and that is exactly where you do not want to be in a real situation. You need to work from and off a fence and never get closer than punching range. However, we all make mistakes – even monkeys fall out of trees – and when we do they have to be addressed. So the shime is an excellent part of the support system.
A good headlock or choke, if employed correctly, is a definite stopping technique, usually rendering your opponent unconscious. Very accessible and not overcomplicated with a low skill factor. Some are employed from the back and side while others are used direct from the front. Some of the strangles use the opponent's jacket or shirt as an aid and for leverage, whilst others (naked strangles/chokes) work independently without the use of the opponent's clothing. Many may be executed while in the vertical position or in the horizontal, ground work position.
When familiarity with chokes and strangles is gained it is probable that one may flow into another giving you a bastardised choke or strangle of your own invention or design. This matters not as long as it stops your opponent.
Due to the potency of shime-waza, the techniques should be treated at all times with the utmost respect, and I do not recommend its practice to minors. Fatality is the possible consequence of misuse or misunderstanding. A good choke/strangle can take a man to unconsciousness in under three seconds; if held on after unconsciousness it can start brain death in around fifteen seconds. In a real situation, with time distortion brought on as a part of the adrenal syndrome, fifteen seconds may go by in the blink of an eye and before you know it you have killed the opponent and you could be facing a murder or manslaughter charge. Understanding this at the offset is imperative so that practice and actual use can be tempered with control so that unfortunate accidents can be avoided.
In the controlled arena we use the tap system to avoid unconsciousness, the recipient tapping himself, his opponent, the floor, etc.
with his hand or his foot to signify submission, at which point the move should always be released. Outside of course there is no such practice and the opponent's response to a choke or strangle will be unconsciousness. After this, remember, every second could prove fatal.
I remember one situation when I worked as a doorman in the Diplomat pub in Coventry, a great little place right in the heart of Coventry city centre. I was actually with Sharon, my wife, on this particular night. We were talking away when I noticed a couple of men arguing. Trying to be pro-active and stop the situation before it started I moved across and politely asked them to discontinue the argument otherwise I would have to ask them to leave. Now I don't quite know whether they just didn't hear me because they were so deeply engrossed in the argument (adrenal deafness is not an uncommon side effect of the fight or flight syndrome) or whether they didn't take my warning seriously, but either way they totally ignored me. Just as I was about to ask them again they kicked off and started fighting with each other. They moved about five feet in the blink of an eye, locked in a ferocious vertical grappling embrace, and ended up on the main dance floor just by where Sharon and her friend were standing.
I tore after them like a very fast thing, grabbed one of the men in a rear choke and pulled him from the other. By this time my partner Kenny the body builder had come to my assistance and grabbed the other guy. The one that I held in the reverse choke was going crazy trying to get me off. I turned him from a rear choke to a side choke/headlock and increased the pressure to control his thrashing. I whispered into his ear that if he didn't calm down I was going to have to knock him out. The hold was now secure so I was in the right position to do so if need be. Again he refused to listen and went crazy trying to throw me off; he was a strong guy.
I tightened the lock once more and his struggling ceased. When I gently released the grip to see if he had gone he fell to the floor in an unconscious heap. He didn't come around for a couple of minutes and when he did I helped him up and showed him to the door, he asked me who had sparked him (knocked him out). I told him that I had. He said 'Oh!' and left without further ado.
I personally have had very many KO's in the street with these techniques and I am in no doubt of their potency. It's a good feeling when you have secured the hold (whichever one you are employing) and you know that the fight is over because once secured the chance of escape is almost non-existent.
In my early days I knocked several people out with chokes and strangles by mistake because I did not appreciate their potency. By holding opponents with what I considered restraining force I knocked them out because the force was too much. Through experience I learned to use enough control to restrain an opponent when ejecting him from the club without knocking him out, though I was always then in a position to take the hold to unconsciousness if the need arose.
They say that a little knowledge can be dangerous. This is true: many people have been killed in street encounters through the misuse, most often an inadvertent misuse, of the choke and strangle. The hold has been secured and then not released after unconsciousness. Not always gratuitous, it is usually a misuse through fear and inexperience, fear that if the opponent gets out of the hold he may batter you senseless so you hold on for dear life. It's what I call the panic grip. The way someone grips you in the dojo or gym will be very different from the way that they grab you in a real encounter. Even breaking the opponent's gripping limb may not release the panic grip and often nothing less than unconsciousness will do it. It is an incredible thing to witness, and I have been witness to it many times.
When one of my friends got stabbed outside a city nightclub he grabbed and gripped his attacker so tightly that when he fell to the floor, as a result of the knife wound, he pulled his attacker down with him. Even though four of the attacker's friends laid into him on the floor, it was not until my friend lost consciousness that the grip was released.
Sadly, my friend died in this unprovoked attack.
What I'd like to do in this chapter, indeed in this book, is offer enough knowledge to enable you to use these techniques, only in times of self-defence, with the control that they demand.
Often in practice, as you will see if you do any degree of live ground fighting, your arms or even legs can get tied into a position that disables you or your opponent from being able to tap out. It is for this reason that I recommend training under supervision – this is very important. A third party will be able to observe and stop the practice should one of the fighters get into trouble and be unable to signal.
Basically speaking, the difference between a choke and a strangle is that the choke cuts off the airways in the windpipe at the front of the neck and the strangle cuts off the flow of blood to the brain in the carotid arteries at either side of the neck. Both the choke and the strangle stop the flow of oxygen or oxygenated blood to the brain and thus cause unconsciousness. Depending upon how long and how tight the technique is held this can vary from very mild unconsciousness to deep unconsciousness or death. The most efficient strangle depresses the superior carotid artery, preventing oxygenated blood reaching the cerebral cortex. The compression usually has to be very strong because the carotid artery is protected by the muscular band of the thick sternocleidomastoid muscle, on the sides of the neck.
Often when you employ the choke/strangle it may be neither one nor the other. Rather you have gripped the opponent partly across the throat and partly across the neck, part choke and part strangle, slightly cutting off the blood and partly cutting off the air – it doesn't really matter too much, as long as it still does the job, which it will.
Personally, I have found the choke to be far more dangerous and prone to accidents than the strangle. With a strong naked choke using the bar of the wrist as the depressing implement it is very easy, even by accident, to collapse the opponent's wind pipe and/or severely damage the larynx or the trachea. Again, care should be taken at all times in the controlled arena and the knowledge should be taken to use as a tempering yardstick into the pavement arena.
People often ask me, 'how do you know when to let go of the opponent in a real fight so that you don't kill him?'
In theory, if you have taken the choke/strangle from a vertical position the opponent will let you know that the move is on by falling over (unconscious); in practice this is not always the case. In my early days on the door when I didn't really understand the mechanics of the techniques I knocked many people out without intending to and then, afterwards, wondered what I had done. On many occasions I held a thrashing, violent attacker so tightly that I never felt the drop of body weight when he went unconscious because, in an over-zealous bid to control him, I actually held the KO'd opponent off the floor. When I slightly released the hold to see if he had gone (as I always do), he plunged to the floor in an unconscious heap.
When you are on the ground it's even worse because when the opponent does finally go there will be no plummet of body weight. Later I learned to look for the signs of imminent unconsciousness so that I could take a person, if I wanted to, very close to unconsciousness without actually completely knocking him out or, if I felt it needed it, into a mild unconscious state. If I thought it was called for (sometimes it really was), I'd take them right out of the game.
Most untrained people go through the same ritual when you apply the choke, though the more sensible people just capitulate, innately knowing that they have no chance of escape. Firstly they go crazy and buck like an unbroken stallion and try to rip your arms from around their throat. For these few seconds the enemy will be very strong as his in-fight adrenalin goes to work (more about that in my Fear book). When their energy dissipates and they realise that they cannot escape, they go through a kind of pleading ritual (they can't usually speak because you are crushing their throat) where they almost pat your arms in an instinctive version of the tap system, their breathing at this point a sickly gurgling sound. These are the precursors to unconsciousness. A couple of seconds after this and they will not move at all. If they are standing you will feel a drop in the opponent's body weight as his legs abandon him.
When he stops trying to escape and his hands are no longer touching your choking arm, he is out of there and this would be a good time to release the hold. If you're unsure maybe hold it for a couple of seconds longer but no more than that or death will be knocking at the door. In your adrenal haze it is very easy to miss all of these signs, even though they will be staring you in the face, but the more you learn to temper and fine-tune the hold in the controlled arena and spot the same signs in your training partners just before they tap out, the better you will be able to judge the right time to release in the real situation.
I have also found the choke/strangle ideal for controlling someone that perhaps did not need knocking out or beating up, but did need calming down. Once I had them firmly in the hold, sometimes standing, other times on the floor, I would talk to them and calm them down. It always worked because, to the people that have never experienced it, choking is a very frightening feeling. Panic usually brought on capitulation without actually hurting the opponent, and if the little chat did not work then I was in a very good position to put their lights out. If I was dealing with a very nasty person I would even whisper in his ear, just before I knocked him out, 'good night'! Psychologically this frightens the pants off the opponent because it intimates to him that you are in complete control (which you are) and that not only are you capable of knocking him out but you can actually tell him when you are going to do it. When he comes around, and probably for the rest of his life, he will remember you and that particular incident.
So to reiterate, give the chokes and strangles the utmost respect in practice and in reality, learn to know them well so that abuse does not become a by-product of ignorance.
Many of the positions that you find yourself in on the floor may leave you in a good position to get back to your feet while your opponent is still in the horizontal position. If this is an option I feel that, as a rule of thumb, it should almost always be taken.
In a self-defence situation it should be your prerogative.
If the situation is a match fight then there may be contributing factors that need to be brought into the computation, just because you're vertical and the opponent is horizontal does not guarantee that the victory is automatically yours. If he is a strong fighter, someone prepared to take a few kicks to get back to his feet, he may do just that: get back up and kick your arse.
You may have spent five minutes trying to get the opponent to the floor because he is out-punching or kicking you, he may be far superior to you in vertical fighting – if that's the case then the last place you want to be is back on your feet. Often brilliant vertical fighters, boxers and kickers especially, are like upturned turtles on the floor. If that's the case then keep them there until you have finished the fight. If you are fighting numbers then the floor is absolutely the worst place on earth to be – get back up as soon as possible. If you can't get back up, and he's not just going to let you, then you have to make the best of a bad job no matter how unfavourable the odds may be.
Reversed naked choke
Standing, kneeling or lying at the rear of your opponent, place your right arm around and across his throat, clasp your right hand with your left and apply pressure to the throat by pulling backward with the combined force of both hands. It is important for maximum effect to make sure that the bony part of the right wrist is against the throat as opposed to the softer forearm. It is also beneficial if you can pull the opponent backward and off his feet, as this lessens his 'fight back' chances.
Sliding reverse collar lock
Standing, kneeling or lying at the rear of your opponent, place your right arm around and across the opponent's throat and grip hold of his jacket or shirt. Place your left arm under your opponent's left armpit and seize his right lapel (or jumper/ shirt). Apply pressure by choking in a wringing action.
Side headlock/strangle
Place your right arm around your opponent's neck and hug his head tightly into the side of your own body. The palm of your right hand should also by facing inward so that the bony part of your right wrist is into the opponent's neck. Place your left palm heel underneath your right fist and apply pressure on the neck (jugular) by pushing up with the left hand and squeezing in with the right hand.
Upper throat lift
Place your opponent's head under your right armpit and slide your right arm under and across his throat. The palm of your right fist should be facing into your own body to ensure that the bony part of your wrist is along his throat. Place your left palm heel under the right fist. Apply pressure on the throat by pushing the right arm up and into the throat with the left hand whilst at the same time pulling the right arm into the throat.
Claw squeeze around the larynx
Simple and highly effective, especially if the opponent and yourself are grappling on the floor. Grip the larynx, which is situated at the top of the windpipe just below the chin, and squeeze tightly.
Scissor choke
While sitting on top of and astride your opponent, cross your hands with palms down and grab the opponent's lapels as deeply to the back of the neck as possible. Apply pressure to his neck by pushing both elbows simultaneously downward, forcing both wrists into either side of the opponent's neck.
Equipment
The only equipment available for the practice of chokes is the live partner. Extreme care should be observed in all practice of chokes. The tap system should be employed at all times and a choke should always be released immediately if the opponent taps. There is no real set situation where you may use a choke or lock: it is just a case, when grappling, of remembering them and looking for appropriate openings.
The tap system in practice
When a choke, lock or hold is on, the opponent taps the floor, himself, his partner or anything close enough to tap, to signal submission.
