The origins of the Gerbi Choke

Yarden Gerbi (ISR) won the -63kg gold medal at the 2013 Rio World Championships using a never-before-seen strangle in both the semifinal and final. The technique, later to be dubbed "The Gerbi Choke" created an immediate sensation and lots of questions, like “Was it legal?” and if it was, “Would it be banned?”

The answer to those questions was yes and yes. At the time when Gerbi did that technique in competition, there was no rule against it. So, it was legal. But shortly after the 2013 World’s, the IJF banned the technique.



People were also curious about how she developed this choke, which was not a judo technique. 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."

While they were at training, the club coach announced that they would be having a special session 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 Paris World Championships that year, she defeated Janie Nakao (USA) in the preliminary rounds with the Gerbi Choke.

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 medal. This 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, Gerbi caught Agbegnenou with exactly the 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.

Hershko, who is now the head coach of the Israeli team, 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," he says. "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."