ABSTRACT
Sportive chokes are neck compression techniques applied with the goal of ending a fight by causing loss of consciousness (LOC) or voluntary submission prior to LOC. Time to LOC has been established in compliant volunteers but not in trained resisting opponents. The objective of this study was to determine the time to LOC following full establishment of chokes in trained resisting opponents. A secondary objective was to describe timing to LOC in separate choke categories. An internally validated panel of 17 sportive choking experts evaluated 89 choke sequences; 81 were included as chokes to LOC. Overall, chokes in our sample had a mean time from the establishment of a choke to LOC of 9.0 s [95% CI = 8.3, 9.9]. The choking categories of neck-only chokes and arm-in chokes were virtually identical to one another: neck-only M = 8.9 s [95% CI = 8.0–10.2]; arm-in M = 9.0 s [8.1–10.3]. These times to LOC correlate with previous studies using compliant volunteers.
Acknowledgments
We like to recognize the members of our expert panel. Scott, Jon, Josh, Angelo, Travis, Ben, Erik, Tom, Ryan, Brian, Ish, Chris, Blair, and others, your contribution was essential for this project. Thank you for your time and effort.
Financial disclosures
The authors have no pertinent financial disclosures to reveal.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.