Brazilian Jujitsu and UFC fighter Demian Maia applying the Mata Leo, or rear naked choke.
It seems like 10-15% of MMA fights end via rear naked choke. At first blush, 15% doesn’t seem like a lot. When looking at the whole picture, however, you realize that there are hundreds of other workable submission techniques, in addition to ending fights with strikes. By comparison, you notice how pervasive the rear naked choke really is.
It’s frequency in MMA is due to it’s utility – it works against strong opponents, when fighters are sweaty and slippery, it works for guys with short arms or long arms, first round and last round. Because it is a difficult submission to escape, once a guy locks in the choke, most fights end.
There are several good video tutorials, but this is by far my favorite one on the internet right now. It runs about 10 minutes and covers a lot of details that will make you sharper in this choke.
Steven Kesting’s Step by Step Rear Naked Choke
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One point in particular – how to tighten the choke and keep it with the palm to palm grip, has really been useful to me while attempting the submission. It’s rare that your opponents neck is stretched out, ready for you to easily put the choke in place. As soon as you threaten the choke, expect that your opponent will divert attention to defend it. Expect that if you can’t make step by step progress, you’ll probably lose the choke.
Also, learning to get your leg hooks in is a whole lesson in itself. It’s an area that I’m excited to learn more about. In a class down at Fusion BJJ, Dayne Aristizabal showed how improper hooking critically destabilized your position, opening yourself up for unhappy endings.
One last thing. The squeeze. Some guys have killer arm chokes – they latch onto your neck and get tighter and tighter until you tap. I’ve heard that Marcello Garcia is one of those kind of guys, once he gets one arm under you chin its like an anaconda mercilessly sqeezing a guinea pig. No escape.
Anyway, the power squeeze isn’t something your born with. You have to develop a power squeeze in the same way you sharpen you technique – practice and effort.
Some times called the straight ankle lock, or the Achilles hold, this ankle submission is a bugger. A guy can stack you in the guard, pop up and grab a leg as soon as your ankles become uncrossed. When he does, he basically puts a guillotine choke on your ankle and finishes the submission. It can happen really fast.
The real video gem is watching Carlos Machado go into the details of escaping and blocking the submission. The vid below is 8 minutes and goes into a lot of specifics.
In one of these videos, Rener Gracie says that the triangle is the definitive move of Gracie Jiu-Jiutsu. And who am I to argue? The triangle is a fantastic submission. Anyway, I’ll leave the details up to these pro’s.
In the video below, Rener talks you through an important part of the triangle – right after you get into what he calls “triangle setup”, you’ve got an arm and head of your opponent locked up, but the triangle isn’t on yet. Of course, their is freaking out. His suggestion? Shoulder walking.
To show us the way out, here is Renzo Gracie teaching about triangle choke defense.
The guillotine choke is beautiful, simple, effective.
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).
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).
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.
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.
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!
Some times it just has to be done. Take a wicked submission, add heavy metal, and blend into a video montage (credit: commrade101). In particular, I like how the vid shows a wide variety of armbar submissions and positions.
“Ten Best MMA Armbars”
The ten best MMA armbars are as follows:
(0) – First up to bat – Rickson Gracie shows off the step over armbar from side control, showing the scientific view of how the armbar works. He’s just showing the move, not executing it in a fight so it doesn’t count toward the top 10.
(10) – Sakuraba vs Randleman. Notice how Sakuraba utilizes the kimura control – Randleman uses a wrestling suplex and attempts to take the back, but boom – Sakuraba weaves his arm into the kimura control and reverses the position with a roll/sweep, eventually getting the belly down armbar.
(9) – Carlos newton vs Pele – Quick transition into a perpendicular armbar from guard.
(8) – Frank Mir vs Tim Sylvia – Sylvia unsuccessfully stacks the guard and pops his elbow.
(7) – Dong sik yoon vs Zelg Galesic – Dong starts in the mount, goes for the armbar and Zelg tries to immediately reverse it. Notice how Dong controls the leg as they roll and before he extends down to finish. Smooth.
(6) – Enson Inoue vs Randy Couture. Sorry Randy.
(5) – Fedor vs Coleman. Coleman gets pwned, part 1.
(4) – Nogueira vs Coleman. Coleman gets pwned, part 2. Nog shows the triangle bar combo.
(3) – Masakazu Imanari vs Robbie Olivier. Before the underpass, there is an armbar waiting for you.
