Kata gatame

Kata gatame is the judo-derived name for the arm-triangle blood choke — the strangulation in which the attacker’s shoulder and the opponent’s own near arm close on the two sides of the neck to produce bilateral carotid compression.

Etymology. Kata (肩) means “shoulder”; gatame (固め) means “hold” or “lock.” The term originates in Kodokan judo’s shime-waza (strangulation techniques) catalogue, where it covered both the pinning configuration and the blood choke that emerges from the same structural setup. Japanese judo treats kata gatame as a single technique with two applications; no-gi grappling vocabulary splits them, with “kata gatame” most often used for the pin and “arm triangle” or “head-and-arm choke” used for the strangle. The Japanese term remains current as the bilingual reference and predominates wherever the judo lineage was the primary cross-discipline conduit.

Mechanics. The strangle interpretation is mechanically distinct from the pin: the pin holds bilateral chest pressure through the trapped arm; the strangle requires a walk to approximately a 45-degree diagonal toward the opponent’s head, at which the attacker’s arm drives into the far carotid simultaneously with the trapped arm compressing the near carotid. The structural setup is identical; the finishing angle is what converts the pin into the strangle.

Cross-reference. The pin application of the same configuration is at Kata Gatame. The strangle mechanics — finishing angle, bilateral compression, the scissors squeeze — are at Arm Triangle.