The ‘Infamous’ Hair Choke- Mike Bidwell

Mike Bidwell: “I submit to you the ‘Infamous Hair Choke’! This choke has a great story I want to share with everyone. My wife is a purple belt in BJJ and has very long hair (which I love). At our school we have a great balance of sport BJJ with a strong emphasis on self-defense. (Our lineage is Helio Gracie – Relson Gracie – Phil Migliarese – Ken Kronenberg – me.) When we grapple we often talk about how one handles a ‘real world’ grappling encounter when someone is overly aggressive, unpredictable, maybe striking or in this case…pulling hair! One of our upper belts was training with my wife Sheena and to illustrate this point he grabbed her long hair while grappling. At home she expressed her frustration to me that, what would she do if someone grabbed her hair? Could it be used against her? So we talked quite a bit and decided that we could come up with a way to use her long hair not as an obstacle in her training, but as a weapon! So Sheena began messing around with the idea of choking people with her hair. She came up with some very interesting ways to use her hair braid as a lever for choking. The next time she grappled with this instructor she wore her hair in a bun. When they were rolling she was able to get to his back and pulled the bun down with one hand and secured the braid and was able to choke him with her hair…and thus the ‘infamous hair choke’ was born! I love this choke because it speaks to the heart of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu which is to use your entire body (just as it is) as a weapon. Whether you have long arms, short arms or short hair or long hair – Jiu-Jitsu takes you just as you are, the perfect weapon! Enjoy our video below where Sheena shows a few different hair chokes and retells this story. “