34. Choong-Moo strangle

I've always been baffled by the two side kicks followed by the turn into the x-knifehand checking block near the end of Choong-Moo. The movement doesn't work as a throw, but it can work as a stranglehold. [1]

Suppose we begin from outside the opponent's left arm and perform the first side kick to their left knee, aiming to push it to the ground.

As the opponent stands back up, turn clockwise and underhook their left arm with your left arm. Perform the second kick also to their knee (whichever knee is closest) to both break their balance and prevent them from turning towards you. Wrap your left arm all the way around their neck and grab your right bicep. Place your right hand on the opponent's head and squeeze your elbows in. This creates a head-and-arm strangle (also called an "arm triangle choke" or kata gatame [2])

Head and arm strangle, two views

The way strangles work is they block both of the opponent's carotid arteries, preventing blood flow to the brain. In this strangle, your left arm blocks the opponent's right carotid while their own shoulder blocks the left carotid. The reason I interpret this as a head-and-arm strangle as opposed to the rear naked choke (hadake jime) or single wing choke (kata ha jime) is because of the clockwise turn into the back stance, which places you on your opponent's side. However, if you opponent turns clockwise to elbow you, you may do a rear naked choke instead.


[1] Despite the image for Choong-Moo, there is no strict rule in ITF taekwon-do for which knifehand is in front for an x-knifehand block, but it is usually the front-leg knifehand, which looks more like the strangehold.

[2] This is technically a strangle, not a choke, since it blocks blood flow and not the trachea. But colloquially strangles and chokes are often called "blood chokes" and "air chokes" respectively.