The Rear Naked Choke For Beginners & How To Escape It

# The Rear Naked Choke For Beginners & How To Escape It

You’re watching a UFC main event and the commentators are screaming. The fighter’s face is going red, his hand is tapping frantically, and it’s over in eight seconds. The rear naked choke just claimed another victim. It’s the most common submission finish in professional MMA, and if you train Brazilian jiu-jitsu for more than a month, you’ll either learn to apply it or you’ll spend a lot of time defending it.

What the rear naked choke actually does to your body

The rear naked choke is a blood choke, not an air choke. That distinction matters. When applied correctly, the choke compresses both carotid arteries on either side of your neck, cutting blood flow to your brain. You have roughly four to six seconds of consciousness left once the choke is locked in tight. Your windpipe isn’t the target and crushing it isn’t the goal.

The mechanics are simple: your attacking arm wraps around your opponent’s neck with the crook of your elbow centred on their throat. Your bicep presses against one carotid artery, your forearm against the other. Your free hand grips the back of their head or your own bicep, and you squeeze everything together. The opponent’s own shoulder often acts as the fourth wall, trapping their neck in a vice with no escape route.

This is why the choke is so brutally effective. You’re not relying on pain compliance or joint damage. You’re shutting down the blood supply to the brain. If your opponent doesn’t tap or escape within seconds, they go unconscious. In training, that means your partner wakes up confused a moment later. In competition, it means the referee stops the fight.

How to apply the rear naked choke from back control

The rear naked choke starts from back control, and back control in Brazilian jiu-jitsu means you’re behind your opponent with both hooks in (your legs controlling their hips) or a body triangle locked. Your chest is glued to their back. From here, you’re hunting for the neck.

Slide your choking arm over their shoulder on one side, aiming to get your elbow in front of their throat. Your palm should be pointing down toward the mat, thumb side against their neck. This is critical: if your palm faces up, you lose leverage. Once your choking arm is across, bring your free hand behind their head. You have two main grip options. The first is the traditional “palm to bicep” grip where your free hand cups your choking-side bicep. The second is the “palm to palm” or “gable grip” where both hands clasp together behind their head. Both work. The gable grip gives you more squeeze, but the bicep grip gives you better control of their posture.

Now you finish. Pull your choking elbow back toward your chest while your free hand drives their head forward. This angle is everything. You’re not squeezing front to back. You’re squeezing in a diagonal line, trapping their neck between your forearm and bicep. Their chin doesn’t matter if your elbow is deep enough. Expand your chest, tighten your core, and hold. If they don’t tap in three seconds, check your elbow position.

People think the rear naked choke is about squeezing hard. It's not. It's about angle and elbow depth. If you have to muscle it, your position isn't right yet. Fix the structure first, then apply pressure.

The four-fingers-in debate and why it matters

There’s an old-school variation where you slide four fingers of your choking hand inside your opponent’s collar or gi lapel before wrapping the neck. This gives you a handle to pull with and makes the choke harder to defend. In no-gi grappling and MMA, you don’t have that option, so the “naked” choke is just skin on skin.

Some coaches teach beginners to keep their fingers extended and use the blade of the forearm for compression. Others teach a closed fist to protect your fingers from being peeled back during the opponent’s defence. Both are valid. The closed-fist version is slightly safer for your fingers and makes it harder for your opponent to strip your grip. The open-hand version sometimes gives you a bit more surface area for compression. Try both in drilling and see which feels more secure for you.

In MMA, the closed-fist or flat-palm approach dominates because gloves make finger grips impossible and opponents are slippery with sweat. In gi jiu-jitsu, the four-fingers-in collar grip is a staple, especially from back mount or turtle position. If you train both, you’ll end up using whichever grip the situation allows.

Why the rear naked choke finishes more fights than anything else

Go through UFC finish statistics for the past decade and the rear naked choke sits at the top of the submission list. It outpaces the guillotine, the armbar, and every leg lock. The reason is positional dominance. Back control is the most dominant position in grappling. Your opponent can’t strike you effectively, they can’t see you, and they’re defending on multiple fronts at once. The rear naked choke is the highest-percentage finish from that position.

Even if your opponent defends your first attempt, you still have back control. You can reset and attack again. Compare that to an armbar from guard where a failed attempt often means you lose position entirely. The risk-reward calculus for the rear naked choke is unmatched. This is why every MMA fighter drills it hundreds of times and why grapplers spend entire sessions working back attacks.

The choke also translates across rule sets. It works in gi and no-gi jiu-jitsu, submission grappling, judo, MMA, and even self-defence scenarios. There are no illegal grips, no restrictions on body position, and no referee interpretations to worry about. You either have the choke or you don’t.

How to defend and escape the rear naked choke

Defence starts before the choke is locked in. Once both your carotid arteries are compressed and your opponent has good back control, your escape window is measured in seconds. The earlier you defend, the better your chances.

The first rule: protect your neck. If your opponent is fighting for back control, keep your chin tucked and your hands up near your throat. This doesn’t stop the choke, but it buys you time. If they start sliding their choking arm across, immediately grip their wrist with both hands. This is called hand fighting, and it’s your primary defence. Don’t let their elbow get in front of your throat.

If the choking arm is already across but not yet locked, you have three options. The first is to pull their wrist down and away from your neck using both hands. You’re trying to create space and prevent them from locking their second hand behind your head. The second option is to peel their choking hand away by grabbing their fingers or thumb and stripping the grip. This works better in training than in competition because a strong opponent will resist hard. The third option is to turn into the choke. This sounds counterintuitive, but if you turn your body toward their choking arm, you can sometimes slip your head out before they secure the lock.

Once the choke is fully locked, your options narrow. Tuck your chin hard and try to create a frame with your hands between their arm and your neck. You’re buying seconds, not solving the problem. Your real escape now is to improve your position by stripping their hooks, turning into them, or exploding forward to break their chest-to-back connection. None of these are high percentage once the choke is tight, which is why early defence is everything.

Application vs defence steps at a glance

Drilling progressions for beginners

Start with positional drilling, not live sparring. Have your partner give you back control while staying relaxed. Practice sliding your choking arm in slowly, finding the correct elbow depth, and locking your second hand. Do ten reps, then switch. Focus on the angle of your squeeze, not the power. If your partner taps fast, your structure is good. If they can last more than five seconds, your elbow isn’t deep enough or your angle is off.

Next, add light resistance. Your partner defends at 30 per cent intensity, hand fighting and turning their head, while you work to secure the choke. This teaches you to adjust when your opponent moves. Then reverse roles and practice your own defensive hand fighting. Drill this for five minutes each side, twice per week, and the muscle memory will lock in within a month.

Once you’re comfortable with the mechanics, add the choke into your positional sparring from back control. Start from back mount, set a timer for three minutes, and work offense and defence in real time. The goal isn’t to finish every attempt. The goal is to recognise when your position is good, when your opponent is defending well, and when you need to reset and try again.

If you’re training at our Chadstone facility, you’ll drill the rear naked choke in every fundamentals class. It’s part of the core curriculum because it’s one of the most reliable tools in your grappling toolkit. Beginners often land their first submission in sparring with this choke because the margin for error is smaller than with joint locks or other strangles.

Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been training for years, the rear naked choke deserves constant attention. It’s one of the few techniques that remains effective at every level, from your first month on the mats to black belt competition. If you’d like to learn it in a structured environment with coaching feedback on your elbow position, grip, and timing, book a free trial session and we’ll walk you through it step by step.