Nothing beats a strangle: I have always given a special priority to strangles in my approach to jiu jitsu. At the higher levels of the sport there is tremendous resistance to any form of submission hold. Occasionally you will run into an opponent who simply chooses not to submit to a well applied joint lock and is prepared to keep fighting even after taking extensive damage. The truth is that the decision to stop fighting after being put in a tight joint lock is exactly that – a decision. In the case of a strangle, once it is well applied, THE DECISION TO KEEP FIGHTING IS NO LONGER YOURS. Whether you choose to keep fighting or not is no longer up to you, since if you choose not to tap you will simply pass out – the outcome of the match will not be altered by your decision. Thus in any highly competitive situation, if you are presented with a choice between a stranglehold and a joint lock, all other things being equal – I ALMOST ALWAYS FAVOR THE STRANGLEHOLD (of course there will be some exceptions to this general rule). Here, Garry Tonon does a good job of first attaining the positional control that makes strangulation possible, now comes the battle to apply the strangle itself, never easy on a skilled opponent.
