Short Choke Escape
Short choke escape — the rear strangle finished palm-to-palm at whatever depth it has. Two-on-one down on the choking wrist, deny the anchoring elbow, escape toward the underhook side.
Adapted from InGrappling, Short Choke Escape. System Games did not invent this curriculum.
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The short choke is the rear strangle an attacker takes when the rear naked choke cannot be closed. The strangle arm is the same arm — over the shoulder, forearm across the front of the neck. Instead of travelling on to grip the biceps and lock the figure-four, the two hands meet palm to palm at whatever depth already exists, the free arm’s elbow drives down behind the near shoulder onto the back, and the finish pulls across in the direction the choking elbow points while the chest drives into the spine. For the attack, see Short Choke.
Two facts govern the defence. The choke crushes: with the forearm across the front of the throat, a substantial airway component arrives alongside the vascular compression, so the pressure is uncomfortable long before it is finishing. And the connection is shallow: the hands hold each other rather than gripping an arm, and no hand sits behind the head. The head, the neck angle and the posture stay freer than under a completed rear naked choke.
The chin is still doing work. This strangle arrives across the front of the neck, which is the path the chin blocks, so chin discipline is the same requirement it always was. What the attacker has bypassed is the second-hand grip fight, not the chin.
The short choke appearing is information. It says the hand fight on the second hand is being won, or the strangle arm never got deep enough to reach the biceps. The attacker has traded finishing force for immediacy, and the defence spends that trade.
Chin down into the chest, near shoulder shrugged up to close the gap under the jaw, both hands on the strangle arm. This is the rear naked choke’s entry defence and it answers both strangles, because both use the same arm on the same path. Keep the hands on the arm that is trying to cross rather than on the arm holding the body. The exit is back control bottom with the entry denied.
Middle — the forearm is across and the hands have met palm to palm
Two-on-one on the choking wrist, pulled down below the collarbone with both elbows clamped to the ribs, while the near shoulder stays shrugged so the free elbow has nowhere to land. The palm-to-palm connection is one hand holding another; a hard downward pull with the whole trunk behind it peels the hands apart in a way a figure-four seated on the biceps does not allow. With the pressure off, escape toward the underhook side.