Hadaka Jime - Pain Compliance vs. Blood Strangle

Hadaka Jime is one of the interesting chokes where modern practice doesn’t necessarily follow tradition. In virtually all of the older Judo texts, Hadaka Jime is taught as a ‘pain compliance’ type of choke - the pressure being directly on the trachea, and trust me, it’s painful.

If you’d like to find out, have someone clasp their hands together, as if they were shaking their own other hand. (right hand fingers pointing to the left, right thumb down). Now, if they are right handed, have them rotate their right wrist in a circular movement. You should have the point of your wrist able to rotate first -down-, then inward and up. This ‘point of the wrist’ - once you have the rotation understood and practiced, will be placed just under your trachea… Go ahead and have them place the point of their right wrist immediately under your trachea, then rotate their wrist in and upward.  See how long it is before you tap out…

The problem with this traditional form is that it’s difficult to teach to white belts. They don’t know enough to forgo the possibility of injuries. So most Judo instructors start off by teaching Hadaka Jime as a blood strangle against the side of the neck. And while this is still a perfectly legitimate Hadaka Jime, some Judoka have formed the opinion that this is the only correct version. For a more complete article detailing the citations, see this article.

I think that the idea of teaching the historical Hadaka Jime as a pain compliance choke should be limited to adults and brown belts and above - as I agree that this is rather more dangerous than what we need in a class of kids and beginners. The only problem is that many instructors never go on to teach any other way of doing Hadaka Jime than other as a blood strangle. Yet they should… That’s just my 2 cents worth…