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!