Rear Naked Choke

Today we are going to talk about this effective way called rear naked choke that mma fighters use to put someone unconscious. First let me explain why people fall unconscious once the choke is applied properly and then we are going to talk about why this choke is not proper for Jeet Kune Do. Lets start, shall we? On each side of your neck, there are two arteries that supply oxygenated blood to the brain. These arteries are called Carotid arteries. Once the blood flow is interrupted, what really happens is you suffer a small stroke. Here is a professional description of the function of these arteries: "The carotid arteries are two large blood vessels that supply oxygenated blood to the large, front part of the brain. This is where thinking, speech, personality, and sensory and motor functions reside. You can feel your pulse in the carotid arteries on each side of your neck, right below the angle of the jaw line". source-webmd.com To read more
go here: carotid arteries

The reason why rear naked choke is very effective in mixed martial arts is because octagon is a place where the whole fight is controlled, dirty moves are banned, and it's a fight one on one. However, ff you know something about JKD-Jeet Kune Do, you know that Bruce Lee was about speed, efficiency, power and getting things done quickly. Let me tell you why this choke is not so great in street self defense situations. Lets say you are in a club, in the street and you get in a fight and you put a person in such choke hold and you have to wait about 5 seconds or more, (depending how effectively you can execute the move) to put a
person to sleep.

While doing this, you are running a great chance of getting stomped to death by his friends who will rush to his aid. Your hands are tied pretty much, since you need to use both of the hands to apply the pressure and to make it worst, your legs are also wrapped around him and you are on the ground. This puts you into a immobilized position. Of course, you can apply this choke without using your legs or ever going down to the ground but the risk is still there.

Lets say you are fighting one on one, no friends to help him and you successfully put a person in a rear naked choke and he passes out. Once you release him, he will come to his conscious and fight is on once again. Brain is still in that fighting mode. Some might give up. In this case the choke worked or you might say, well I'll keep him in the choke until police comes.

Good luck achieving this and not killing a person. There are far better moves that can be executed in self defense situation that run a little to no risk to you and you can still knock someone unconscious but that's for another article. However, the rear naked choke works very well if you are working as a bouncer in the clubs and you use it to restraint someone or you are a police officer.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not putting down bjj-Brazilian jiu jitsu down but people need to understand that every move has its flaws and strength and they have their own time and place when they can be applied.