The Buggy Choke Is The Move Everyone Loves To Hate, And They Are All Wrong About It

There is no submission in jiu-jitsu right now that starts an argument faster than the buggy choke. Mention it in a gym of more than ten people and you will get two reactions within about four seconds. The first half of the room rolls their eyes and mutters something about white belts, TikTok and disrespect. The second half goes quiet, because they have actually been caught by it from the bottom of side control and they did not enjoy the experience. I have lived in both camps at different points, and I have landed somewhere that annoys everyone, so let me just say it plainly. The buggy choke is a real submission, it is here to stay, and almost everything people say about it is wrong.

If you have somehow missed it, the buggy choke is a strangle you hit from the worst seat in the house. You are flat on the bottom of side control, the place every beginner spends half their first year stuck and miserable, and instead of trying to bridge and shrimp your way out, you trap your opponent's head and arm, build a figure four with your legs, grab your own shin, and crank a blood choke that closes off the neck. It looks ridiculous the first time you see it. A person who is supposedly losing the position suddenly taps the person on top. That is the whole reason it goes viral, and that is the whole reason traditionalists hate it.

It is not a gimmick, it is a bottom-position answer

The lazy take is that the buggy choke is a meme. A fluke. A thing that only works on people who do not know it exists. I understand why people say that, because the first wave of buggy choke footage really was white belts in local comps catching other white belts who had never seen it. But that argument fell apart the moment serious competitors started hunting it on purpose.

Kade Ruotolo is the name that ended the debate. When one of the best no-gi grapplers on the planet is finishing high-level opponents with a choke from underneath side control, you cannot keep calling it a gimmick with a straight face. I wrote about who actually sits at the top of the no-gi world right now in my piece on the best no-gi grappler today, and the Ruotolo style is exactly the kind of relentless, attack-from-anywhere jiu-jitsu that made the buggy choke a legitimate tool rather than a party trick. The move earned its place. It did not get there on hype.

Here is the part the haters refuse to admit. The reason the buggy choke matters is that it gives the bottom player a real reason to threaten from a position that taught a generation of grapplers to just survive. For years the lesson under side control was simple. Frame, breathe, wait, escape. Now there is an actual offensive option down there. That is not a corruption of jiu-jitsu. That is jiu-jitsu doing exactly what it has always done, which is find a way to fight back from the worst spot on the mat.

The disrespect argument is nonsense

The other complaint I hear is that the buggy choke is somehow disrespectful, that hitting it is showboating, that a real grappler would never. I have never understood this one. A submission is a submission. Nobody calls a triangle disrespectful, and that is also a choke you finish off your back with your legs. The buggy choke just looks weird because the person on the bottom is supposed to be losing, and our egos do not like being tapped by someone we thought we were beating.

That discomfort is the point. Jiu-jitsu is full of positions that feel safe and are not. Mount feels like a win until you eat an armbar. Side control feels like a win until your neck disappears into someone's legs. If getting buggy choked offends you, the honest response is not to call the move cheap. It is to go learn the defense, keep your trapped arm out, and stop stacking your weight so lazily on top. The move punishes sloppy top pressure. I would rather a training partner expose that hole now than have a referee do it in a final. If you want a broader sense of where these unconventional finishes fit into the modern game, I went deep on that in my breakdown of the current state of BJJ in 2026, and the short version is that the weird stuff is winning.

The warning nobody gives you

Now the part I actually care about, because this is where I break from the buggy choke fan club. Everyone wants to teach you how to finish it. Almost nobody warns you about what it can do to you. This choke asks for a lot of hip and knee flexibility, and when you crank that figure four and grab your shin, the load goes straight through your own knee. I have seen more than one person tweak a knee trying to force a buggy choke they did not have the mobility for, fighting to finish a strangle that was never quite there. That is a bad trade. You do not want to blow out a knee chasing a highlight.

There is a neck risk too, and it cuts both ways. It is a blood choke, so for the person getting caught it can come on fast, faster than they expect from a position they thought was safe, which is exactly why you should tap early and not be a hero. And for the person attacking, all that head and arm trapping puts you in a tangle that is genuinely hard to bail out of cleanly if something goes wrong. This is the same conversation we keep having about the modern submission game. I made the case in my piece on whether heel hooks are ruining jiu-jitsu that the danger is never really the technique itself. It is people drilling dangerous finishes without the control or the maturity to use them safely. The buggy choke belongs in that exact bucket. Brilliant tool, real teeth, deserves respect rather than reckless spamming.

So should you actually drill it?

Yes, with conditions. If you are past your first few months and you have functioning hips, the buggy choke is absolutely worth adding to your bottom game, because it forces the person on top to respect a threat they used to ignore. Learn it slowly, learn the entry from the trapped arm, and treat your own knee like it matters. Do not be the person trying to crank a buggy choke through zero flexibility because TikTok told you it was easy. If you want it in context with the rest of the toolbox, it sits comfortably alongside the high-percentage stuff in my list of essential BJJ moves and the practical advice in my rolling tips for gi and no-gi.

The buggy choke is not a fad and it is not the death of jiu-jitsu. It is a clever answer to an old problem, dressed up in a way that makes purists uncomfortable, which is honestly the most jiu-jitsu thing imaginable. The people who hate it should go drill the defense, and the people who love it should respect their own knees. Both of those things can be true at once, and right now neither side wants to hear it.

Quick answers

Is the buggy choke a real submission? Yes. It is a legitimate blood choke that high-level competitors like Kade Ruotolo have finished on elite opponents. It is not a gimmick and it is not a fluke, even though it went viral as a highlight reel move.

Is the buggy choke legal in IBJJF competition? As of now it is legal across belt levels, because mechanically it is a strangle rather than a banned joint attack. Rules get updated, so always confirm the current rulebook with your coach before you compete.

Is the buggy choke dangerous? For the person getting caught it is a fast blood choke, so tap early. For the person attacking, the bigger risk is to your own knee, since forcing the figure four without enough flexibility can stress the joint badly.

Why do people say the buggy choke is disrespectful? Mostly ego. It taps the person who is supposed to be winning from the top, which feels embarrassing. A submission is a submission, and the right response is to learn the defense rather than complain about the move.

Should a beginner learn the buggy choke? Once you are past the first few months and your hips are functional, yes. It gives you a real offensive threat from the bottom of side control. Learn it slowly and protect your knee rather than cranking it for the camera.