Baseball Bat Choke

Last updated: June 14, 2026

What is a baseball bat choke?

The baseball bat choke is a collar choke that gets its name from the grip. The hands sit one above the other on the lapel, fingers and thumbs wrapped around the cloth, looking almost exactly like a two-handed grip on a bat. From there the forearms do the work.

It attacks the neck two ways at once. Pressure on the carotid arteries on the sides of the neck cuts blood flow to the brain, and pressure on the trachea closes the airway. That makes it a blood choke and an air choke at the same time, which is part of why it can end a match so fast.

In judo the same strangle is called ura-juji-jime, a reverse version of the cross choke. Grapplers see it most often from knee on belly or side control, and one of its signatures is that a skilled player can hit it from underneath, while seemingly losing position. An opponent passing the guard often does not feel the trap until the collar is already tight.

How the baseball bat choke works

Picture the two forearms as the jaws of a clamp. The stacked grip turns the bony edge of each wrist into a blade that lines up against the sides of the neck. Nothing finishes yet, though. The choke comes alive when the attacker rotates the body toward a north-south position, winding the collar and driving the elbows together.

That rotation is the tell to watch for during a match. As the top player spins past the head and the elbows pinch, the collar tightens against both arteries together. Hitting both sides at the same moment is why opponents sometimes go limp before they manage to tap, and why coaches treat it as one of the quicker finishes in gi grappling.

Baseball bat choke vs cross-collar choke

These two get mixed up constantly, and for good reason. Both come from the juji-jime family of cross chokes in judo, and both squeeze the neck through the collar. The difference is in the grip and the angle.

Feature	Baseball bat choke	Cross-collar choke
Grip	Hands stacked parallel, like holding a bat	Arms crossed, each hand in the opposite collar
Common position	Knee on belly, side control, even from bottom	Mount or closed guard, facing the opponent
Finishing motion	Rotation toward north-south	Pulling the collars apart while drawing elbows down
Judo name	Ura-juji-jime	Nami-juji-jime or kata-juji-jime
What stands out	Surprise and speed	Direct, control-heavy pressure

If a viewer sees a top player suddenly spin toward the legs while gripping the collar, that is usually the baseball bat choke rather than a standard cross choke.

Where the choke comes from

The roots run back to judo, where cross chokes have been catalogued for over a century. The reverse grip variation picked up the nickname bat jime long before it became a staple of sport jiu-jitsu.

In modern BJJ, Magid “Gorilla Hands” Hage did the most to popularise it. His win over Clark Gracie at the 2013 Abu Dhabi World Pro trials put the technique in front of a huge audience and sent people back to the drawing board to learn it. According to competition data compiled by Digitsu, high-level finishers since then include Guilherme Mendes and Lucas Lepri, and the choke is still landing at the highest level: Vinicius Liberati used it at the 2026 IBJJF World Championship.

Is the baseball bat choke legal in competition?

Yes, in most gi rulesets. It is a collar choke, a blood choke, rather than a neck crank, so the IBJJF allows it at every belt level, including white belt, where chokes and straight arm locks make up the core of what beginners can legally finish with.

The submissions the IBJJF bans across all levels are the ones that torque or compress the cervical spine, such as the can opener and standalone neck cranks. The baseball bat choke does not fall in that group. Kids and juvenile divisions restrict chokes more tightly, and other organisations like ADCC run their own rules, so it is worth checking the specific event before relying on it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the baseball bat choke a blood choke or an air choke?

It is both. The forearms compress the carotid arteries and press on the trachea at the same time.

Can you do the baseball bat choke without a gi?

Yes. The no-gi version drops the collar grip and instead connects the hands behind the opponent’s neck, then uses the same forearm pressure and rotation.

What is the baseball bat choke called in judo?

Ura-juji-jime, a reverse variation within the juji-jime family of cross chokes.

Why is it called a baseball bat choke?

The two-handed grip on the lapel looks like the way a batter grips a bat, with one hand stacked above the other.

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Sources

1. Evolve Daily. “BJJ 101: Baseball Choke.” Accessed June 2026.
   https://evolve-mma.com/blog/bjj-101-baseball-choke/
2. Digitsu. “Baseball Bat Choke Breakdown (BJJ).” Accessed June 2026.
   https://digitsu.com/t/baseball-bat-choke
3. Wikipedia. “Kata juji jime.” Accessed June 2026.
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kata_juji_jime
4. White Belt Club. “Complete List of BJJ Submissions.” Accessed June 2026.
   https://www.whitebeltclub.com/articles/complete-list-of-bjj-submissions
5. Gracie Barra Irvine. “A Guide to IBJJF Prohibited Positions.” Accessed June 2026.
   https://gbirvine.com/ibjjf-prohibited-positions/

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