How the Yarden Gerbi choke came about

Yarden Gerbi (ISR) won the -63kg gold medal at the 2013 Rio World Championships in dramatic fashion. In both the semifinal and final, she used a never-before-seen strangle that resulted in a submission in the former and unconsciousness in the latter.

The technique, later to be dubbed “The Gerbi Choke” created an immediate sensation. Lots of questions were asked, namely: “Was it legal?” and if it was, “Would the IJF be banning it?” But also asked were questions like: “Where did this choke come from?”, “Did her coach teach it to her or did she pick it up herself?”, “Did she learn it from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu?”

On the question of legality, yes, at the time she did it there were no IJF rules against such a choke, so it was legal. But also, yes, the IJF would soon after make a new ruling making it illegal (tori is not allowed to use their own jacket skirt to strangle uke).

As for how she came to develop this choke, it’s a very interesting story of how a simple twist of fate can change one’s life. According to her then-personal coach, Shany Hershko, in Oct 2009, they went to the Minsk World Cup where he had expected her to do well. A few months earlier, she had just won the gold medal at the Brazil World Cup, so he was confident she would get a medal in Minsk. As it turned out, she lost in the first round.

The competition was held over a weekend but instead of flying back on Monday, Hershko had bought a return ticket for Tuesday because it was cheaper. “At that time, we didn’t have much money so I bought a cheap flight.”

After Gerbi’s disappointing performance in the competition, Hershko thought to himself: “I need to punish her for that… she’s going to have to train in Minsk on Monday.” He knew the training in Minsk was going to be harsh. It would be Russian-styled training in a dojo full of male players.

Gerbi protested and said she didn’t want to train in Minsk. But Hershko wouldn’t have any of that. “You were supposed to win but you lost; since our flight is on Tuesday, you will train on Monday.”

As expected, the dojo was full of guys, about 30 of them. Gerbi joined the training with dread. The club coach suddenly announced that they would be having a special training because one of their guys had just come back from training in Brazil and he had brought back with him a very unusual technique. It was a variation of what is called the “Peruvian Necktie” in BJJ.

After the training, Gerbi went up to Hershko and said, “Coach, wow… this is very nice!” And over the next two years, they worked together on fine-tuning the technique for her to use in judo.

Although Gerbi’s use of the technique first came into wide public consciousness at the 2013 Rio World Championships, it’s not technically true that nobody had ever seen it before. She had actually used the technique twice before that, the first time as early as 2011.

At the 2011 Paris World Championship in the preliminart rounds she used the Gerbi Chokeagainst Janie Nakao (USA)The next time she successfully used the Gerbi Choke was in the 2013 Dusselfdorf Grand Prix, where she used it against Hilde Drexler (AUT) to win the bronze medalThis was just six months before the 2013 Rio World’s.

At the 2013 World’s Gerbi faced a tough foe in the semifinal. Gerbi had fought Kana Abe (JPN) three times before and lost each time. But this time, she had a secret weapon: the Gerbi Choke. Midway through their match, Gerbi attempted a hip throw that Abe was able to avoid but this action took them to the ground. Gerbi immediately snapped on the choke and Abe had to submit.

Her opponent in the final was Clarisse Agbegnenou (FRA), who had beaten Gerbi in the semifinal of the 2013 Dusseldorf Grand Prix. Agbegnenou must not have paid much attention to Gerbi’s subsequent bronze medal match with Drexler of Austria because in their final she caught Agbegnenou with the exact same technique.

After throwing Agbegnenou with a hip throw in the opening seconds of their match, Gerbi wasted no time in snapping on the Gerbi Choke. Agbegnenou refused to submit and was rendered unconscious.

The Dalai Lama famously said that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck. This couldn’t be more true in the case of how the Gerbi Choke came about. Hershko says he loves to tell this story because it shows the power of serendipity.

“We didn’t plan to be at that training in Minsk,” says Hershko, who is now the head coach of the Israeli team. “We really shouldn’t even be there. And we wouldn’t have been there had Gerbi not crashed out in the first round of the competition. But it goes to show, you never know when you will learn the most important things in your life.”

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