Getting choked out in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a nasty feeling. You know the drill – either you tap out or you go to sleep… And that’s just from another person, another human being, applying the choke. But can you imagine how it would be like to get choked out by a snake – an actual boa constrictor?
Rener Gracie had an opportunity to experience that feeling first-hand back in the day. He had a pet boa constrictor, which wrapped itself around his neck:
When I was much younger, I had one of these [boa constrictors] as a pet. Maybe 4ft long, quite thick. And I was putting it around my neck – thinking that it was my friend and that it was all good to go.
[Then] it started squeezing, very lightly. Very light pressure, on both sides of my arteries.I was in my living room and I was like: “I’m good.” After about a minute of this light pressure, the next thing you know… I fall face-first onto the wood floor!
The snake slithers off and I wake up. That’s when I’ve learned to respect the choke. Even the lightest amount of pressure on the arteries can choke you out.Every choke is a dangerous choke. Learn it, know it. Jiu-Jitsu is the way to go.
Rener explained the ordeal on an Instagram post below:
I nearly ran over this baby boa constrictor on a dirt road, so I scooped it up and brought it home to show the kids. It reminded me of the time when I got choked out by a larger boa (my pet at the time) that was draped over my shoulders and was applying the slightest bit of pressure to my arteries for about 60 seconds.
The pressure was so subtle that I wrote it off. And then, without any warning, I passed out and crashed into the wood floor face first. More than any Jiu-Jitsu match of my life, that moment was when I learned to respect even the slightest pressure in a choke.
Like my grandfather always said: “Some people can have their arm broken and keep fighting, but when it comes to chokes, there are no tough guys, everyone goes to sleep.
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