Self-Defense Tips to Survive a Choke

I have a skinny neck, which means learning how to survive a choke is a must!

If I’m not careful, it’s not difficult for my training partners and, God forbid, real-life attackers, to get their grubby little arms under my chin and choke me out.

But before I tap—or possibly die—there are a couple of tricks I practice to give myself more time to work my escapes and counters.

Hope these tips on how to survive a choke help you, too! Summary below.

Tips to Survive a Choke

WARNING: Practicing chokes and choke defense is dangerous if you’re not careful. Make your safety and the safety of your training partners your number one priority at all times.

Let me be honest—there is nothing easy about getting out of a choke. These tips are not magic tricks. They are last ditch efforts to hopefully buy you one or two more seconds while you fight to escape.

One or two seconds might not sound like a lot of time, but remember, when it comes to chokes, you can be asleep in five to eight seconds! Therefore, adding even one second can mean the difference between surviving and dying.

My point? Don’t be cocky after learning these tricks. Go practice!

Trick #1: Smile

No, not a smirk. Smirking is why most people want to choke me in the first place. Instead, I want you to smile like a supervillain. Like the Joker on crack.

You’ll probably drop your chin as a natural reaction to being choked anyway. Adding a smile makes your reaction even more effective.

When you smile in an exaggerated fashion (or frown), your neck tends to “puff up”. Your goal is to puff up and create an extra cushion to protect the carotids (your brain’s blood supply) and trachea (your air supply).

Am I saying neck muscles are stronger than the bad guy’s arm muscles? No. But if smiling can buy me an extra one or two seconds, then I’m going face death with a smile. 🙂

Try it right now. Put your fingers on your neck and feel how different facial expressions either strengthen or weaken your neck. Find a face that puffs up your neck without leaving you too tense to move.

Once you find your “choke face”, practice it. Try 20 reps. Go for a burn just like you would with push-ups, squats, or any other exercise.

The only difference is that this exercise will make you look completely insane.

Trick #2: Bullfrog

Ever see a frog inflate the skin underneath its chin? Well, you can do the same thing. Sort of.

Place your fingers under your chin. Press your tongue into the roof of your mouth. Did you feel that? This is a subtle, but important movement.

Survive a Choke like a Bullfrog! — Press your tongue!

Just like the “choke face”, experiment with your tongue. Press all over the roof of your mouth until you find the sweet spot that gives you the biggest bullfrog effect.

Add the bullfrog to your choke face and you’ll be on your way to claiming some of the crucial space that the bad guy needs to choke you out.

Trick #3: Relax

It’s not easy to relax when some maniac is squeezing your throat. But consider this…

If the bad guy thinks the choke is working, he’s going to keep squeezing. He’ll never let you go!

On the other hand, if the bad guy doubts the choke is working, he may let go and change his attack.

So, when you get choked, don’t kick and thrash in a blind panic. That just tells your attacker that his technique is working!

Instead, play it cool. Protect your neck and work your escapes and counters as efficiently as possible. As you do, here’s a bit of good news to keep in mind…

If a choke is not set correctly, you’re not going to pass out.

So, if you can’t get escape, but can at least relieve a small amount of pressure on your throat or sides of the neck, you might be able to stonewall. Instead of thrashing, save your energy and be ready to explode the second he decides to give up the choke.

Did you see my video with Stephan Kesting on how to escape the Rear Naked Choke?

One more thing about choke defense…

Be careful about the noises you make!

When you’re getting choked, you might hear you lips start to motorboat. You might even hear yourself making snoring noises! If the bad guy hears either sound, his confidence will get a big boost.

Maybe that’s what you want. Maybe you’re faking distress on purpose! We can talk strategy another day. Today, just be aware of the signals that you’re sending, voluntarily or not.

Okay, maybe one note about strategy. You might have heard that playing dead or going completely limp is a clever way to get out of a choke. Hmm…

I’d say if you’re in a classroom setting with a friendly training partner, that’s worth a shot. But in a real-life attack with a real-life attacker? I’d say that playing dead is likely to get you really dead.

To survive a choke, my advice is to keep fighting until you can’t fight anymore.

Okay, so, let’s review—