5 Ways to Get Out of a Frontal Strangle Hold

This can seem fairly difficult to get out of - largely because people start to panic when somebody has their hands clasped around their neck and start doing incredibly ineffective things like trying to pull their hand off by grabbing onto the attacker's forearm. There are a lot of fairly simply ways to get out of a frontal strangehold that don't require a massive amount of training or strength.

1) Arm over
Lift a straight arm up and over your attacker's arm (so that their arm ends up in your arm pit). To do that, you'll have to turn a little, and force their arm downwards in the process. Continue forcing their arm down until they have to let go - you'll have your bodyweight behind this manoeuvre so it doesn't require you to be stronger than your attacker. Your natural position at the end of this technique will lend itself to a backfist or knifehand strike.

2) Strike to temple
Just because you're not in a dominant position doesn't mean you should stop attacking - in fact, that's one of the worst things you could do. Make a fist, but instead of curling the thumb over your index and middle finger, bend it so that the knuckle of the thumb sticks out of the side of your fist, and the end of the thumb touches the first knuckle of your index finger. Use that thumb knuckle to strike your attacker in the temple - hard. It's generally best to do this with a straight arm (and you'll probably have to to reach).


3) Strike to inside of elbow
Joints are always a good weakpoint to aim for in a self-defense situaton - whether you want to bend them the wrong way to break, or minimise your attacker's reach advantage in a frontal strangle. It's is particularly effective if you can't reach to do a temple strike or eye gouge. If their arm is outstretched, simple use a ridgehand to strike to the elbow, forcing it to bend. A natural follow-on from this technique is to twist to the side slightly and then use a knife-hand strike to the throat.


4) Drop and strike to knees
Another technique that goes for joints. Hold onto your attacker's wrists with both hands, and drop down. Use a low front kick to strike at your attacker's knee - go for the inside of the knee, right on the joint, and hit hard.


5) Eye gouge
Attacking eyes is one of those techniques that will work on pretty much anybody - protecting the eyes is a natural reaction, and an attack evokes the same sort of panic as a choke. Use a spear-hand to strike at the eyes - it doesn't need to be particularly hard to be effective, but it helps. 


There are a myriad of other techniques you can use - jamming your keys into your attacker's wrist if they're handy, pinching them hard in the armpit or striking to the armpit, kicking to the groin etc. Which is these techniques works best will really depend on your situation - if your attacker has a longer reach than you, then 2 and 5 are not options. If there are a number of attackers, you may not want to use 4 as you will end up on the floor.

Kickboxing and Street Fights

A lot of people take up martial arts for the self defence aspect - to know that if a situation presents itself, they will be able to hold their own and get out of a fight with minimal injury. Many just take up kickboxing so that they don't feel afraid of potential fights and feel safer walking home at night. Opinions are divided regarding whether or not kickboxing can be applied to fights outside the dojo, but being a kickboxer is bound to be an advantage if you know how to apply your training properly.

To apply kickboxing to a street fight, you need to forget the 'sport' aspects of it, and apply the basic techniques. The primary difference between a sport/competition fight and a street fight are the rules - basically, on the street there are no rules. You may get press ups for swearing, spitting, hitting below the belt or not showing respect to your opponent in the dojo, but in a street fight these things may well help. Once you realise that you're not sparring, you'll also realise that a lot of techniques are simply dangerous in a street fight - spinning hook kicks are likely to land you on the floor if your opponent grabs your leg, kicking above the belt is just foolish unless you're extremely fast and it's unlikely you'll start with your guard up in a proper stance. For a lot of people, these differences alone mean that they can't transfer their knowledge of a fight sport into a real fight.

But once you get past those differences you can really see the advantages of kickboxing. The warm ups and exercise mean that you will be stronger, faster and have more stamina than the average guy down the pub. While stamina may not be much of an advantage as most street fights don't last as long as a competition fight, your speed and your strength will put you at a huge advantage if you apply them properly. A good punch is a good punch, whether it's landing on a pad or someone's nose - the basic techniques of snap punch, reverse punch, rising punch etc, coupled with experience putting them together in quick succession mean you won't waste energy swinging lifeless punches and once you get a hit in, you know how to continue. Sparring will get you used to ducking, weaving and being in a fight situation, so you should be able to evade any attacks more easily.

Finally, one of the major advantages of a martial art is increased confidence. After a while of training, doing thousands of press ups over several months, achieving your next belt and knowing that you have a killer roundhouse punch will boost your confidence, and it shows. The way that you carry yourself, look at people and communicate change with it, so the likelihood of getting in a fight decreases as people go and try to find an easier target.


The ECKA syllabus is largely based on self-defence, as are our competition rules. If you would like to find out more about how kickboxing can help you defend yourself and improve your confidence, go to our website to book into one of our classes in North London.