I’ve been doing Judo and Jiu Jitsu for about three years now, and have been choked more times than I can count.  But up until this week I had never been actually choked all the way out.  I’m sure many or most of you have been through this before me.  But for those of you who have not, I wanted to share my trip down the rabbit hole

Well, for starters, the last week had been rough.  I have been on call for work, and had several issues arise at night to interrupt my sleep.  By Thursday night I was exhausted, and feeling pretty run down.  I don’t use this as an excuse for getting choked.  The choke was a great one.  I just found it interested how this element played into the night, and wanted to share.

That night at Hidden Valley we were working on chokes.  We also had a lot of newer students who have not worked their chokes much.  As I am normally pretty tough to choke, I worked with a lot of people that night to help them perfect their choke skills.

Now, as I said, I am normally pretty tough to choke out.  But when I do almost go out I find that after I tap out and am released my lips will go numb and tingly for a few seconds, my vision will tunnel, and I will be disoriented.  Not unlike a head rush from standing up too quickly, but with the addition of the numb lips.

Normally I might feel this once, or maybe twice in a night when we work chokes.  But it was getting that close literally every time.  I have never run into this before.  I am curious if others have seen this when they are run down and tired?

Things got really interesting when I was working with Little Hermosillo on his cross collar choke.  I asked him if he wanted it easy, or a little resistance.  He said to make it tough.  I resisted, and recall thinking he had it tight and I needed to tap.

- break for a trip down the rabbit hole -

Have you ever had one of those dreams where you go to work or school with no pants?  When you try to fix the problem it seems like you can’t no matter what.

Well, I started to wake up from a deep, deep sleep.  I was convinced I was having a dream about being in Judo class.  I was dreaming that I had fallen asleep in the Dojo, and was asleep for several hours, and that everyone was just standing around me.  Furthermore, I seemed unable to get my limbs to work right.  As I tried to move them they just flipped like fish flippers.

As I became more aware, I was sleep convinced that I had been asleep for quite some time (at least an hour.)  I looked up and asked those looking at me, “What’s going on?”

The response was, “You were unconscious.”

I was baffled… Still convinced that I had been sleeping for some time.  “For that long??” I asked.  Only to find out that I had only been out a few seconds.

Again, this may not be news to anyone else, but just in case you have ever wanted to ask “What’s it like to be choked out?”  I thought I’d share what the trip was like for me.

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