I’ve been watching The Ultimate Fighter on Spike and Cody McKenzine’s guillotine choke has been on my brain.  Cody hits the choke with a different grip and elbow position; it’s made me curious to know more.  Since Cody’s explanation of how he does the choke was two-seconds long, I’ve had to look elsewhere. Below, a video from Precision Martial Arts down in Texas, showing the basics of this variation.

The cool thing about this choke is that it just *hits* differently than a normal guillotine.  The top pressure a guy uses to try to escape interacts differently with your grip, you can finish the choke from unusual angles, etc.  One thing I like about it is that you don’t have to have the same hip control to tighten it.

As you can see on the left, Marc Stevens has passed Cody’s guard – and Cody has only partially kept Steven’s hips from swinging around by getting a hook on the outer leg (I think this is what’s called empty half guard). I’ve even seen guys tapped from clean side control, no hooks attached – although that’s uncommon.  On the right, you can see how a lot of guillotine’s from the guard get finished; by compressing the choke-arm’s elbow towards your own hip.

Another detail – the position of the supporting arm in the choke is varied.  On the right, you see how the elbow flares up and comes off the body while on the left (it’s sort of hidden) the supporting elbow can stay down and still provide leverage for the choke, as well as keeping the head caged up. From my experience, if the guy on the right sucked in his elbow towards his hips, it’d be easier to wriggle the head free.

I’ve heard some guys call this the prayer choke, palm to palm guillotine, or now – in Cody’s honor – some suggest we call it “the fisherman”.   McKenzine has a nice body for the choke – long, thin arms ; slender core and slightly concaved chest. The Diaz brothers have such frames too.

As I’ve been playing around with it, the grip has intrigued me.  Like Josh Koscheck points out, you’ve got to attack the grip to stop the choke, because hip position won’t necessarily do it.

Anywho, I’d like to know your thoughts and experiences – have you choked or been choked with this? How does it stack up to the regular guillotine? What name would you give this variation?

It works in MMA, it works in Judo, it works in Jujitsu. The guillotine can be used in dozens of situations. Whenever an opponent goes in for a leg take down, they become vulnerable to the choke. If you’re clinching, you can push their head down and slap on the guillotine. In the guard? Yes indeed, it’s time to end someone’s consciousness by guillotine.

Done deal. Let’s learn how to do it.

Technique Level 1:

This video comes to us via Gracie Insider, and goes over the basic points of the guillotine choke from standing and from the ground.

When you pull your elbow into your armpit (keeping your chicken wings in), it pulls his head down, making it harder to get your forearm across his neck. Don’t.Essentially, get your opponents head underneath your armpit facing down. Really though, get his neck under the pit. Meanwhile, the arm closest to his head needs to snake underneath his jaw so that your forearm bone is pushing up into his throat. Using your armpit to keep his head down, slice up with your arm.

There’s a million little things that will help this submission. Play around with it at level one, gain some experience, and progress to level two.

Technique Level 2:

Shinya Aoki, master grappler shows how it’s really done. The video is in Japanese, but don’t freak out. I’ll break down a play-by-play. In fact, I’d suggest you read the overview first so that you can see them as he’s doing them – many of the elements aren’t obvious unless someone points them out.

Note: I don’t speak Japanese, so I’m interjecting my knowledge and the things I think he’s trying to say.

• Traditional setup, go for the kimura and open your guard. Arm is being protected, so immedieatly go for the guillotine choke.

• When going for the choke, sliding your arm across the back, make sure not to press the back of his head down. When your arm is nearing the outside of his body, keep the elbow pointing away from you. Curl your arm toward you bicep. It’s like the superman pose (elbows pointing out ) vs making a fart noise in your armpit (flapping your elbow like a chicken wing).

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• When you pull your elbow into your armpit (keeping your chicken wings in), it pulls his head down, making it harder to get your forearm across his neck. Don’t.
• When you snake your arm under, use proper hand position. The forearm that’s under his chin, that hand makes a fist, cocked down towards your elbow. The other hand gable grips over it (thumbs on same side as fingers).
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• As you roll onto your back, make sure to control his hips (pull guard of some kind).
• Use your arms to start choking him. Using the arm position (shown below) will help you choke him hardcore. Imagine trying to get your thumb to the shoulder.
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• Remember how I said not to squeeze in your elbow before getting your forearm underneath his chin? Now I want you to do that. Strangle the life out of him by pinching in your elbow to your rib cage.
• Also, make sure that radial bone (the top forearm bone) is jamming into the throat. If you have gripped properly, it should already be doing that. If not, roll your arm to get it in right.
• Sure, you can crank directly back like you’re doing a back bridge – that might tap him. However, if you use the leg opposite to the arm that’s under his neck, you can push off his hip (controlling it) and angle your body off to the side.
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• Like the Gracie family said in the first video, don’t control his hips too low or he’ll pop out of your guard, into side control and nullify the choke. You need the right amount of squeeze between your legs, possibly your knees if you’ve got full guard. Don’t overdo it – you want to save energy and focus on the choking, but at the same time, keep him from escaping – something we’ll cover in part 2.

So watch out for Mastering the Guillotine Choke Part 2 – until then, happy head hunting!