What is the difference between a choke and a strangle?

Question

In martial arts which permit submissions, a distinction is sometimes made between "chokes" and "strangles", however in my experience these terms are not used consistently.

What is the difference between these?

Answer 1

The three main mechanisms of choking technique are:

Choke	Mechanism	Synonyms
"blood" choke	compresses the sides of the neck, restricting blood flow to head	sleeper hold, carotid restraint, vascular neck restraint
"air" choke	compresses the throat (trachea), restricting breathing	tracheal choke, throttle
body constriction	compresses the chest and/or abdomen, restricting breathing	body crush, body compression, body scissors, positional asphyxiation

However the terminology for the first two mechanisms is inconsistent and often ambiguous, differing between dialects (e.g. British vs American English) and contexts (different martial arts, forensics, law enforcement etc). As such, various terms refer to techniques using either or both mechanism:

• e.g. choke, choke hold, strangle, strangle hold, strangulation, neck hold

This ambiguity is perhaps due to the nature of strangulation techniques - given resistance from the defender, different angles of application, and the variant sizes of people's forearms and necks, any particular technique may constrict either or both the carotids and trachea.