Guard Theory

Back Control Foundational · Gi and no-gi

Rear naked strangle: the seat belt finished

The rear naked choke, or RNC, is a strangle: the seat belt closed around the neck, finished by a shut structure rather than by squeezing harder.

Position and problem

You are on their back with the seat belt in and both hooks set. Your top arm slides across their throat, you lock your hands and squeeze, and they wince, breathe hard and keep working. Before long your forearm is burning, their chin is wedged onto your wrist, and two hands are peeling your fingers apart one at a time. The finish the back is usually taken for, called the rear naked choke or RNC in most rooms and the rear naked strangle by coaches who follow judo's split between strangle and choke, has become an arm-wrestling match on the front of somebody's neck. What is usually happening is that the arm never got past the chin, the structure was never closed, or the arm doing the work is the wrong one of the two.

Objective

Turn the over-shoulder arm of the seat belt into a closed structure across both sides of the neck, so that the finish comes from the arrangement and not from the arms.

Core concept

The rear naked strangle is the seat belt, finished. The arm that was over their shoulder is the choking arm. It travels across the front of the neck until the crook of the elbow sits in front of the throat, and the forearm then lies on one side of the neck with the bicep on the other. The hand of that arm goes to your own opposite bicep, the second hand goes behind their head, and the structure is shut. Squeezing then closes the two sides of the neck between forearm and bicep, which is what makes it a blood choke: the pressure lands beside the throat and the throat itself sits in the gap. Each way the choke fails breaks one part of that. A forearm across the front of the throat is an air choke: it lands on the windpipe, it hurts, it tires your arm, and it is the wrong structure to be pressing. An arm that stops on the chin is on bone, and no amount of force converts bone into neck. A structure that is open at the back leaks pressure out of the end that is not connected. The second common grip, palm to palm with the elbows drawn together, is used in many gyms and finishes the same way; the figure-four described above is the one most people learn first. A defender takes it apart in the opposite order to the one it was built in: the chin tucks, two hands pin the choking wrist to the chest, and a turn brings the shoulders to the mat, each step removing something the strangle needs.

Key mechanics

  1. Use the over-shoulder arm of the seat belt as the choking arm. It is already above their shoulder line, so it reaches the neck; the under-arm hand reaches the collarbone and the chest, not the throat in the standard finish.
  2. Slide the arm across until the crook of the elbow sits in front of the throat. The elbow crease leaves the windpipe in a gap, and the forearm and bicep then land on the two sides of the neck where the strangle actually works.
  3. Get under the chin, never through it. When the chin is down, lift their head with your shoulder and chest, change your angle, or attack the hands that are holding your wrist; driving the forearm into a lowered chin puts the pressure on bone and then on the windpipe.
  4. Close the structure before you squeeze. The choking hand goes to your opposite bicep and the second hand behind their head, palm on the skull; until that circuit is shut, force leaves through the open end and the arms tire first.
  5. Finish with the chest and back, not the arms. Draw the shoulder blades together and expand the chest so the two sides of the neck close between forearm and bicep; the arms hold the shape while the torso applies the load.
  6. Keep the other half of the seat belt working. The under-arm hand fights their hands and feeds your choking arm through, and the hooks or body triangle stop the hips escaping while the neck is attacked; a strangle chased with both hands and no control is a common way to lose the back.
  7. Keep your head tight against theirs on the choking-arm side. It stops their head turning away from the arm, and it keeps your own face away from the hand that reaches back for it.

Common errors

  • Squeezing before the second hand has connected, which sends the pressure out of the open end of the structure and spends the forearms on force that never reaches the neck.
  • Driving the forearm across the front of the throat when the chin is down, which lands on the wrong structure and produces discomfort, no finish and the temptation to crank.
  • Attacking the neck with the under-arm hand, which arrives at the collarbone and takes the half of the seat belt that was holding the body out of the fight.
  • Pulling the head down with the second hand when the strangle stalls, which turns a closed structure across the neck into a lever on the spine.
  • Hunting the neck with both hands while the chest drifts off their back, so the hooks are peeled and the back goes while the choke is still being set.
  • Letting the elbow of the choking arm drift wide, so the throat sits under the forearm bone instead of in the crease.

Safety

Pressure across the sides of the neck can take effect before a partner has decided to tap, so the tap is not the only signal. If a partner goes limp, stops defending or stops responding, release fully at once and get a coach. Release on every tap with no last squeeze. A stalled strangle carries a second load. When the second hand starts pulling the head down while the shoulders are trapped, the force moves from the sides of the neck to the spine, and the person receiving it has nothing to relieve it with except a tap. The attacker re-places the arm or lets go and never converts a failing strangle into a pull on the head; the defender taps to a neck that is being levered rather than waiting to learn whether it was a strangle. Hands and fingers on the windpipe belong to neither partner in any round.

Training progression

  1. Static: partner seated, seat belt set. Slide the over-shoulder arm across until the crook of the elbow is at the throat and hold it with no pressure while the partner reports where they feel contact, front or sides.
  2. Cooperative: partner keeps the chin down and does nothing else. Practise the three answers, lifting the head with the shoulder, changing angle, and clearing the hand, until the arm arrives under the chin with no force added.
  3. Constrained: partner fights your hands with both of theirs but does not move their hips. You may only win the wrist, feed the arm through and close the structure; the repetition ends when the second hand is behind the head, and nothing is squeezed.
  4. Light finish: from a closed structure, apply a small fraction of your strength with the agreement that the partner taps at the first hint of pressure. The lesson is how little force a placed strangle needs.
  5. Positional: back control at full resistance, strangles only, restart on escape or tap.
  6. Live rounds: when a rear naked choke fails, note which of the chin, the hands or the wrong arm stopped it.

Written material cannot correct your positioning, feel your pressure or stop a submission in time. Everything here is intended to make training with a qualified coach more useful, never to replace it.

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