YR Sports Lab
When an opponent pulls into turtle and buries both arms under their body, most people simply stare at the position with no obvious entry to a submission. The D'Arce choke is the answer built for exactly that scenario: it needs no gi collar at all, only a sliver of space beside one of the opponent's arms, so you can thread through the armpit and wrap the front of the neck to finish. What makes it more interesting still is the naming: the story behind this technique is a genuine dispute that has never been settled, and the person who named it was not the person who invented it. This guide covers the D'Arce's origin story, step-by-step mechanics, three entry windows, strengths and limits, common escapes, and how it shows up in modern competition.
1. Origins: The D'Arce Naming Dispute
The version most academies hear goes like this. John Danaher, roughly two weeks after receiving his blue belt, was working on a new submission with training partner Shawn Williams at the Renzo Gracie academy in New York in the mid-1990s. Danaher later recalled the night he invented the reverse kata-gatame choke, which was subsequently named after his student Joe D'Arce. He took the idea to his coach Renzo Gracie, who tried it on the spot, choked someone unconscious with it during sparring that same night, and had it on the formal curriculum the following evening.
The technique came from Danaher, but the name attached itself to someone else: Joe D'Arce, a black belt under the Renzo Gracie banner. D'Arce used the choke repeatedly to win jiu-jitsu and submission grappling matches, and his record with it was strong enough that the move became bound to his name. On one occasion he submitted Jason Miller with it in training, and Miller, who had never heard a formal name for the move, simply called it the "Darce," using the colloquial pronunciation rather than the correct "D'Arcy." Later, the well-known West Coast wrestling and jiu-jitsu coach Marc Laimon noticed how consistently D'Arce was winning with it and began formally calling it "the D'Arce choke." That name spread through his influence in the West Coast teaching scene and became the standard term used today.
The namer was not the inventor, and there may be more than one inventor
There is more than one account of where the D'Arce came from. Norwegian competitor Björn Dag Lagerström is said to have discovered a similar finish by accident while drilling the anaconda choke, reversing the wrap of his arm, and then used it to win a string of matches at a 1996 event in Germany, bringing the variation into the European grappling scene. At almost the same time, Brazilian anaconda specialist Milton Vieira joined Brazilian Top Team in 2000 and taught a closely related system to the whole academy. His most famous student was future MMA heavyweight great Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira, who won with it repeatedly in competition and helped the technique spread quickly in Brazil. That is also why the move is usually called the "Brabo choke" there rather than the D'Arce. Three independent lines of development eventually collapsed into a single technique name, which is unusual in the naming history of jiu-jitsu techniques.
If you want the biomechanical detail of how the carotid arteries are loaded once the choke is locked on, plus the full three-layer escape framework, there is a separate medical deep dive on this site: carotid compression mechanics of the D'Arce choke and how to escape it.
2. Mechanics: The Path From Armpit to Neck
Technically the D'Arce is a reverse arm-triangle choke from the front headlock family, a close relative of the guillotine and the anaconda, differing in the path the arm threads (see the FAQ). The setup breaks down into four steps:
| Step | Key points |
|---|---|
| ① Position | From a half guard tie-up, against the turtle, or in a front headlock scramble, wait for a gap beside one of the opponent's arms (posting on the mat, reaching for an underhook, or standing up) |
| ② Thread the arm | Palm up, drive one hand through the opponent's near-side armpit and around to the front of their neck |
| ③ Lock the grip | Bring the other arm out over the far-side arm and grab the wrist or biceps of the arm you just threaded, forming a grip structure much like a rear naked choke |
| ④ Chest contact and squeeze | Lie down on your side (not flat on your back), wedge the bony edge of your forearm against the carotid artery, and rotate your hips to add pressure, finishing with leverage rather than brute strength |
Step ④ is the detail most often missed. Beginners tend to flatten out completely when finishing, which throws the compression angle off. Rolling onto your side and driving with the hips is what lets the bony edge of the forearm land precisely on the carotid instead of wasting force on the chin or the shoulder.
3. Entry Timing and Setups
Opponents rarely hand you the D'Arce. It usually comes from one of three typical scenarios:
First, when the opponent turtles up or covers after a takedown scramble. This is the classic entry: the opponent drops their level and puts one or both knees on the mat to defend a takedown or a guard pass, and the attacker takes a front headlock from the side, from which the arm threads straight through the armpit into the grip. The finish in the 2025 UFC 311 title fight, Islam Makhachev over Renato Moicano, is a textbook example: Moicano dropped to both knees, Makhachev immediately locked the D'Arce, and the fight ended at 4:05 of round one.
Second, when the opponent reaches for an underhook in half guard. With top control in half guard, deliberately leaving a little space usually draws the instinctive reach for the far-side underhook, and that extended arm lands squarely inside the D'Arce entry window.
Third, in transitions during a front headlock scramble. In standing or half-standing tie-up exchanges, common among competitors with a wrestling background such as Makhachev, both athletes constantly swap hand positions while fighting for front headlock control, and that transitional moment is the key window for switching between the D'Arce, the guillotine and the anaconda.
In live rolling the D'Arce also chains readily with its relatives: a mistimed anaconda grip often converts straight into a D'Arce, and if the choke will not close you can release the neck and take the back or move directly to an armbar, treating the D'Arce as leverage on the arm rather than as the only goal.
4. Strengths and Limits
| Strengths | Limits |
|---|---|
| No gi collar needed, works in gi and no-gi alike, and shows up regularly in MMA | Requires precise placement of the bony forearm on the carotid; a slightly off position sharply reduces its effect |
| Many entry positions available (half guard, turtle, front headlock tie-ups) | If the opponent answers the phone early, their arm gets stuck in a safe position before you can finish |
| Finishes through leverage and weight transfer rather than raw strength | Once the opponent turns to face you, weak hip control lets them bleed off the pressure |
| Even a failed attempt ties up the arm and opens a switch to the back | Against a thick, short neck or an unusually flexible opponent, the angle required may be considerably deeper |
5. Common Escapes and Counters
The escape window for the D'Arce sits almost entirely in the phase before the arm fully threads the armpit and the grip closes. Once the bony forearm is wedged on the carotid, escaping becomes far harder. Three mainstream defenses:
First, preventive elbow position and chin tuck. Never letting the arm extend far out to post or reach is the most fundamental prevention, because the D'Arce first needs space for the attacker's arm to pass under the armpit.
Second, the "answering the phone" defense. If the opponent's arm has already begun to thread, immediately bring the trapped hand up to your own neck or thigh to create space, while shrugging slightly to reduce how exposed the carotid is. This is the standard front headlock defense across both jiu-jitsu and wrestling.
Third, turning to face the side of the trapped arm. Rotating your body toward the trapped side changes the angle at which the attacker's forearm sits on the carotid and disperses the pressure, but it only works if you start the movement before the angle reaches its limit.
What the attacker still has after the escape
When the opponent successfully answers the phone, the attacker usually still controls one of their arms, and can drop the neck attack, keep the arm tied up while taking the back, or reset into the anaconda from the same family.
When the opponent turns to bleed off pressure, their back is being exposed in the process, so the attacker can treat the escape itself as the opening and add back control or a body triangle.
6. How Often It Appears in Competition
Neither the IBJJF nor ADCC publishes technique-level statistics, and there is no reliable public compilation of occurrence or success rates for the D'Arce specifically (third-party statistics sites typically list only broad categories such as takedowns, leg locks and chokes, without breaking out the D'Arce). Rather than manufacture a precise-looking percentage with no traceable source, this section uses verifiable competition examples to show how present the technique is at the highest level.
On the rules side, the IBJJF publishes no article written specifically for a technique named "D'Arce," and third-party rule summaries online contradict one another (the same summary can even yield different belt-level classifications on different readings), so none of them is a reliable basis. What is clear is that the D'Arce is a blood choke compressing the carotid arteries, which places it in a different category from air chokes, joint locks and leg locks, the techniques explicitly restricted by belt level, and it is generally understood to face fewer restrictions. The exact belt-level rules, however, could not be cross-checked against any consistent, reliable public source, so treat the rule version posted by your academy and your event as authoritative.
At the elite level, UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev finished both of his last two title defenses with the D'Arce: UFC 302 in June 2024, submitting Dustin Poirier at 2:42 of round five, and UFC 311 in January 2025, submitting Renato Moicano at 4:05 of round one, back-to-back title defenses ended with the same choke. In no-gi grappling, at ONE 157 in May 2022, a 19-year-old Tye Ruotolo needed only 97 seconds in his promotional debut to D'Arce Garry Tonon, an ADCC medalist known for his defense. It won ONE's Submission of the Year for that season and was the fastest submission win in ONE Championship grappling history at the time. These are individual highlight results rather than statistical frequency, but they are enough to show that the choke remains a live weapon at the highest competitive intensity, not just something that lives in instructional videos.
7. Safety Notes
The D'Arce is a blood choke that compresses the carotid arteries. Unlike a joint lock, its main risk is not ligament or joint damage but a brief loss of consciousness from tapping too late. A study analyzing 7,426 matches from the Judo World Championships (2015 to 2021) found that shime-waza, judo strangles that restrict blood flow in the neck in the same way, produced unconsciousness in 18.9% of cadet-level cases, 14.6% at junior level, and 4.3% among seniors. The same study found that when more than four seconds elapsed between loss of consciousness and release of the choke, the rate of convulsions and disorientation on waking rose markedly. That data comes from judo rather than from direct study of the jiu-jitsu D'Arce, but the mechanical principle of carotid compression is the same, so it serves as a reasonable analogue.
A 2024 cross-sectional survey of 521 jiu-jitsu practitioners looked directly at the jiu-jitsu choking context and found that 55.7% of respondents reported symptoms consistent with carotid artery dissection (this was a self-report questionnaire rather than imaging-confirmed diagnosis, so it should be read conservatively), with higher rates among younger practitioners and those training at higher intensity. The authors concluded that jiu-jitsu practitioners are repeatedly exposed to choking pressure over long periods, but that research on the long-term vascular effects of that repeated exposure remains insufficient.
・The moment you feel clear neck compression or restricted breathing, tap immediately, rather than waiting for your vision to go dark or your ears to ring
・Apply pressure gradually, and stay alert for your partner's tap or verbal stop signal
・If your partner has a history of blacking out or any vascular condition, be more conservative with both angle and pressure
・For more on the biomechanics of carotid compression and escape defense, see the site's deep dives on carotid compression mechanics of the D'Arce and the safety guide to choke-induced blackouts
FAQ
Can white belts use the D'Arce choke?
There is no official rule written specifically for a technique named "D'Arce," and the third-party rule summaries found online contradict each other, so no definitive answer can be cited. What is clear is that the D'Arce is a blood choke rather than an air choke, joint lock or leg lock, the categories explicitly restricted by belt level in official rule sets, so it is generally understood to face fewer restrictions. Whether you may actually use it as a white belt is best confirmed with your coach, based on the rule version your academy and your competition use, rather than on an article you read online.
What is the difference between a D'Arce and an anaconda choke?
Both are reverse arm-triangle chokes from the front headlock family, and the difference is the path the attacking arm takes. In the D'Arce the attacking arm threads through the opponent's near-side armpit first and then wraps around the front of the neck to lock up. In the anaconda the attacking arm goes around the neck first and then comes out under the armpit, and the finishing mechanic differs too: the anaconda is usually finished with a "gator roll" that puts the opponent on their shoulder before tightening.
How do you escape a D'Arce choke?
The most effective defense is prevention: keep your elbow tight to your body and your chin tucked before the opponent's arm fully threads through your armpit and the grip is completed. If it is already locked on, use the "answering the phone" defense, bringing the trapped hand up to your own neck or thigh to create space and shrugging slightly to reduce the pressure, then turn to face the side of the trapped arm to bleed off the angle. If the angle already feels maxed out, tap early rather than trying to survive it.
Does the D'Arce go by another name in Brazil?
Yes. In Brazil the technique is commonly called the "Brabo choke," a Portuguese-language name for the same move, and you will hear it especially in no-gi and MMA circles. Both names refer to exactly the same technique.
Is training the D'Arce choke risky?
The D'Arce is a blood choke that compresses the carotid arteries, so the main risk is not joint damage but a brief loss of consciousness from tapping too late. Judo research on shime-waza, which restricts blood flow to the neck in the same way, found that a delay of more than a few seconds before releasing raises the rate of convulsions and disorientation on waking. In training, tap the moment you feel clear compression or restricted breathing rather than waiting until your vision starts to go dark.
References
1. BJJ Eastern Europe. John Danaher Tells The Story Of Inventing D'Arce Choke. bjjee.com (accessed 2026/08; supports the first-hand account of Danaher inventing the technique at the Renzo Gracie academy and teaching it to Joe D'Arce)
2. BJJ World. Darce Choke Encyclopedia, Origins, Mechanics and Variations. bjj-world.com (accessed 2026/08; supports the alternative origin accounts involving Björn Dag Lagerström and Milton Vieira / Brazilian Top Team, and the Brazilian name "Brabo choke")
3. Evolve Daily. BJJ 101: D'Arce Choke. evolve-mma.com (accessed 2026/08; supports Joe D'Arce being a black belt under Renzo Gracie who learned the technique from John Danaher, and Marc Laimon's role in naming it)
4. UFC.com. Main Card Results, Highlights & Winner Interviews: UFC 302 Makhachev vs Poirier. ufc.com (accessed 2026/08; official event report supporting the result and time of Islam Makhachev's D'Arce submission of Dustin Poirier at 2:42 of round five at UFC 302)
5. UFC.com. Main Card Results, Highlights & Winner Interviews: UFC 311 Makhachev vs Moicano. ufc.com (accessed 2026/08; official event report supporting the result and time of Islam Makhachev's D'Arce submission of Renato Moicano at 4:05 of round one at UFC 311)
6. ONE Championship. Tye Ruotolo's D'Arce Choke On Garry Tonon Is ONE's 2022 Grappling Submission Of The Year. onefc.com (accessed 2026/08; official event report supporting Tye Ruotolo's 97-second D'Arce submission of Garry Tonon at ONE 157)
7. Sasaki E, Ikumi A, Sakuyama N, Malliaropoulos N, Mikami Y, Nagahiro S. (2022). High-rate settlement and unconsciousness with shime-waza in young judo athletes from a video analytic study in Judo World Championships. J Sci Med Sport;25(11):942-947. PubMed PMID 36167661 (supports the age-group unconsciousness rates for judo strangles cited above, used as a mechanical analogue for carotid-compression chokes)
8. Harrington WB, Fugler PR, Midkiff T, Christensen SJ, Miller E. (2024). Exploring Choke Holds in Brazilian Jiujitsu Athletes. Cureus;16(5):e60618. PubMed PMID 38894780 (supports the survey figure of 55.7% of jiu-jitsu practitioners self-reporting symptoms consistent with carotid artery dissection)