LOOP CHOKE

The loop choke is the gi strangulation that uses the opponent's own collar as a noose, looped around the back of the neck and pulled across the carotid arteries while the attacker's chest or shoulder traps the opponent's head forward. The technique is one of the few BJJ chokes that finishes quickly even against a defending opponent because the gi collar provides an anchor far more reliable than skin-on-skin grips.

From closed guard the loop is set up by establishing a deep cross-collar grip — the same starting position as the cross-collar choke — but instead of locking a second collar grip, the attacker uses the free hand to push the opponent's head forward and down, looping the wrist of the gripping hand around the back of the neck. As the wrist crosses the spine, the gripping hand pulls the collar back across the carotid, sealing the choke. The finish takes five to eight seconds when the grip is deep and the head push is committed.

The loop choke also works from the turtle position when the opponent is curled defensively, with the attacker draping over the back and looping the collar across the throat from above. The technique was a competitive specialty of Caio Terra in the late 2000s and remains a fixture of every serious gi competitor's closed-guard offensive system. Defensively the loop is escaped by pulling the head back before the loop closes, by stripping the collar grip at the wrist, or by posting forward to prevent the head from being pushed down.