Escaping Choke Holds

There are a few different methods of escaping choke holds.

If the attacker is in front of you holding your throat with his hands, quickly swing one bent arm up over their arms and across your body. Use the centrifugal motion of your arm for force and speed. While your arm crosses their arms turn your shoulder into the motion. This should force their arms from your neck downward.

If the attacker is a lot larger than you and they see this move coming you may not be successful, but against someone closer to your own size with whom you have the element of surprise, this technique usually will work. This is a technique you can and should practice on a partner without too much risk of injury.

When someone has both of his hands on your throat in front of you, you are in a good position to launch some counter attacks. These methods must be done with some haste, considering you could lose consciousness quickly if they squeeze hard enough.

With you legs free any variety of kicks could be used. A front snap kick to the groin could be effective, or a stomping kick to the knee, or a pushing kick to the abdomen.

If they are within your arms length, I would get nasty with some eye gouging, or a knife hand strike to their throat. If not you could grind the knuckles of your fist across their hands as they choke you. All these techniques are useful escaping choke holds.

If you were attacked from behind, most likely they will wrap one of their arms around your neck while holding you close. This is called a sleeper hold. If they are holding you with their right arm, swing your left leg around front, turning your body into the attacker as you place your left foot behind the attacker’s right leg. Push your right leg into the back of their right knee and push their upper body back with your hands. This will unbalance them and they should fall backwards and you can run.

Another defensive techniques would be a rear assisted elbow strike. Grasp the fist of the elbow arm with the other hand and pushing with the other arm (assisting) throw the elbow behind you hopefully connecting solidly.

A little foot action would be appropriate here, especially if he has one arm around your neck and the other holding your arm. Bring one knee up in front of you, swing that foot back behind you aiming for the knee. Once contact is made, if he doesn’t totally buckle, keep your heel on his shin and grind your heel down his shin bone, finishing with a stomp on his instep.

If he is close to the same height as you, you could arch your back, throwing your head straight back to his face. Yes, this would hurt the back of your head, but the bone there is a lot stronger than the bone in his face.

The point is that there are many defensive possibilities and fast thinking and quick action will work for you. Think about these things and practice if you can. Freezing in this situation would have the worst possible outcome for you!

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