strangles: There are two major categories of submission holds in Jiu jitsu – strangles and joint locks. It's very important that you be strong in both but it's equally important that you understand that strangles have an innate superiority over joint locks. Joint locks attack your opponents body. As such your opponent can always simply choose to sacrifice the joint and continue fighting. Strangles attack your opponents CONSCIOUSNESS by restricting blood flow to the brain. As such it is irrelevant whether they choose to endure the attack – they will simply pass out regardless. For this reason they will always have a substantial advantage over joint locks. In a high stakes match they will never let you down. You could have a great career if your only submission holds were all strangles – but you would struggle if all your submission holds were joint locks since there would always be critical times when opponents simply toughed out the lock and let their arm or leg get injured in order to preserve a lead and win. Be very sure that among your best three submission holds at least one is a strangle – there may be a day you need it!
