Chokehold
Submission hold that reduces air or blood flow
絞め技 · 絞技 · 목 조르기
- Type
- Chokes and strangles, Grappling positions
- Martial arts
- Judo
- Classified as
- judo technique, combat technique, gesture, submission, strangling
A chokehold, choke, stranglehold or, in Judo, shime-waza (Japanese: 絞技, lit. 'constriction technique') is a general term for a grappling hold that critically reduces or prevents either air (choking) or blood (strangling) from passing through the neck of an opponent. The restriction may be of one or both and depends on the hold used and the reaction of the victim. While the time it takes for the choke to render an opponent unconscious varies depending on the type of choke, the average across all has been recorded as 9 seconds.
The lack of blood or air often leads to unconsciousness or even death if the hold is maintained. Chokeholds are used in martial arts, combat sports, self-defense, law enforcement and in military hand to hand combat applications. They are considered superior to brute-force manual strangling, which generally requires a large disparity in physical strength to be effective. Rather than using the fingers or arms to attempt to crush the neck, chokeholds effectively use leverage such as figure-four holds or collar holds that use the clothes to assist in the constriction.
Other Judo chokes and strangles
- Arm triangle choke
- Gyaku Jūji-jime
- Kata juji jime
- Nami juji jime
- Rear naked choke
- Triangle choke
- Do-jime
- Ude hishigi sankaku gatame
- Guillotine choke
- Koshi-jime
- Sode guruma jime
- Kata ha jime
- Kata te jime
- Jigoku-jime
- Okuri eri jime
- Hasami jime
- Ura juji jime
- Ryo te jime
- Tsukkomi jime
- Tawara-Jime
Japanese terms for chokes and strangles
| Term | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 裸絞め | hadakajime | rear naked choke; sleeper hold |
| 絞め技 | shimewaza | shime-waza (judo stranglehold) |
| フロントチョーク | furontochooku | front choke |
External links
Facts from Wikidata Q172336 (CC0); text quoted from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.
Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.