For MMA fans, there’s nothing sweeter and pleasant than seeing the technically savvy grappler choking his opponent. These holds are not just the beauty of this game, but can be excruciatingly painful. There are hundreds of variations of locks & chokes in MMA, there’s an abundance of holds and techniques that you can use for forcing opponents to tap out. And chokes are the most effective one of them. They are nastiest from a grappler’s perspective.
Choke holds are the deadliest techniques that MMA players can pull off from the guard. Choke holds are the restraining hold in which a person encircles his opponent’s neck by applying a firm grip by using his arm, choke holds are usually applied from behind. Applying pressure on your opponent’s can result in the loss of consciousness within seconds if it’s applied correctly. Strangulation lies among the most lethal forms of violence. Getting choked is dangerous, it will get into complicated troubles quickly. People pass out quickly because of MMA chokes.
MMA chokes are painful as they block your airway. Most of the MMA chokes are blood chokes, which means the pressure is applied to carotid arteries to block the blood flow. Correctly applied blood choke would be painless & will render you unconscious within 4-8 seconds. For buying premium quality MMA gloves click here.
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How dangerous and painful getting choked in MMA is?
In MMA chokes lead to your competitor being unconscious in most of the cases. That happens because blood supply to the brain gets interrupted. Unconsciousness from mixed martial arts occurs within 10 seconds after one has been choked. After getting released, the subject would regain consciousness spontaneously without any difficulty mostly within 10-20 seconds. Usually in the rear chokes pressure is applied on the larynx & trachea. It produces excruciating pain but there’s no pain before unconsciousness. Unconsciousness rendered from choking is because of oxygen & metabolic disturbances created in your brain.
Flushing appearance on the face of a person getting choked is because of disturbance created in the pressure at carotid arteries & jugular veins. When the convulsions happen, the EEG findings are identical to short epileptic seizures. Tachycardia & hypertension can be attributed to carotid sinus reflex.
Most MMA practitioners do not have a deep understanding of how choke holds work on the human body. MMA is an art & the human body is the canvas. Learning about either of them will improve your game. The term choke is about obstructing the air passage to lungs. While strangulation is a different action it restricts the blood supply to the brain. Chokes in general can take minutes to render a person unconscious. While strangles will do the same job in the matter of seconds. So, it’s always the intention of MMA players to strangle his opponent, rather than choke. That is why it ought to be the standard practice to refer to the attacks to strangles rather than chokers.
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Types of MMA Chokes
Choke is a very powerful hold. In general, there are two types of chokes. Air chokes & blood chokes. Both Of them aren’t created equal. One style is much faster, powerful & paradoxically safer for the opponent.
1) Blood Chokes
It is the blood choke that is referred to as strangles. Usually in the blood choke you get attacked by the sides of your neck! Pressure applied to the side of your neck compresses your arteries & veins which circulates blood to & from your brain, causing black out. Properly applied blood choke is effective for knocking anyone out within seconds.
It’s a less painless procedure, adrenaline rush in your opponent won’t even make your opponent realise that he has been fully checkmated until unconscious. Classical blood chokes include rear naked choke, front naked choke, triangle chokes & collar chokes. It’s a reasonably safe choke compared to a knockout punch. Once you have released this choke the guy will wake back up again.
2) Air Chokes
Air chokes are painful and dangerous, they take longer duration for rendering your opponent unconscious. In air choke you get an attack from the front of your neck, and pressure is applied to your delicate trachea. The pressure at the front of your throat makes breathing impossible, which eventually results in becoming unconscious. Air chokes are more painful compared to blood choke, it causes your training partner to tap out immediately.
However, in the real life fight situation, air chokes take longer compared to blood chokes for knocking someone out. One of the biggest dangers of air choke is that tons of pressure is applied to the larynx & trachea. Crushed trachea is one of the life threatening emergencies.
Both of the choke styles are effective. But as per potential legal implications air choke are worse and more effective when it comes to attacking while blood choke in the self defense situation is a given choice.
