Self-Defense and Personal Protection - When Disaster Strikes - page 284

3. Choking. If your attacker is trying to slip his arm around your neck to apply a choke hold, one
defensive technique is to grab the arm with both hands and yank downward before he has had a
chance to interlock both of his arms and apply the choke ( fig. 10-24 ). Speed is essential, always
remembering your feet are free to distract and attack from below.
Figure 10-24. Thwarting a choke hold by yanking attacker's arm downward.
Another technique for thwarting choke holds is to drive an arm or hand up alongside your neck
to get a limb inside the choking hold, wire, rope, etc., before it is too late ( fig. 10-25 ) . For good
reason, the classic piano wire or rope chokes have been favored by Mafia hit men and made fam-
ous in movies like The Godfather . They are noiseless, fast, and very deadly.