Rear naked choke

Chokehold in martial arts applied from an opponent's back

裸絞 · 后背裸绞

Type

Chokes and strangles, Grappling positions

Martial arts

Judo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Jujutsu

Japanese

裸絞

Meaning

Naked strangle

Classified as

chokehold

Listed in

Shime-waza (Kodokan judo), Shime-waza (judo techniques), Submissions (Brazilian jiu-jitsu), Chokeholds (Brazilian jiu-jitsu)

Learning path

Brazilian jiu-jitsu: step 20 of 39 (intermediate)

The rear naked choke (RNC), is a chokehold in martial arts applied from an opponent's back. The word naked in this context refers to the fact that this hold does not involve the use of a keikogi ("gi") or training uniform. The technique is also known as hadaka jime (裸絞, "naked choke") in Japanese martial arts and mata leão ("lion killer") in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

The choke has two variations: in one version, the attacker's arm encircles the opponent's neck and then grabs their biceps/shoulder on the other arm (see below for details); in the second version, the attacker clasps their hands together instead after encircling the opponent's neck. Recent studies have shown that the rear-naked choke takes an average of 8.9 seconds to render an opponent unconscious, regardless of the grip that is used.

Kanji in 裸絞

↻ Replay stroke order

Other Judo chokes and strangles

• Arm triangle choke
• Chokehold
• Gyaku Jūji-jime
• Kata juji jime
• Nami juji jime
• Triangle choke
• Do-jime
• Ude hishigi sankaku gatame
• North–south choke
• Guillotine choke
• Koshi-jime
• Sode guruma jime
• Gogoplata
• 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

External links

• Wikipedia
• Wikidata

Facts from Wikidata Q4845233 (CC0); text quoted from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); kanji data KANJIDIC2 and KanjiVG. Data retrieved 2026-10-22.

Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0); KANJIDIC2 (CC BY-SA 4.0); KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0); Subskills sports technique taxonomy (CC BY 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.